It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.
Monument details
| HER Number: | TQ 66 NE 195 |
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| Type of record: | Building |
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| Name: | RAF Second World War camp site 1 in Ashenbank Wood, Cobham |
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Summary
Second World war dispersed accommodation camp site 1 in Ashenbank Wood, Cobham, one of 5 established in 1940/41 for the RAF airfield to the north at Thong Lane. This location was to safeguard personnel from the greater risk of air bombardment if quartered at the airfield itself. After brief use by the Royal navy in1945, the site was used as accommodatioon for the homeless. After 1954, the huts were removed and the site returned to nature. There are ghosts of building bases and traces of tarmac roads but in other respects the site has been destroyed.
| Grid Reference: | TQ 6779 6953 |
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| Map Sheet: | TQ66NE |
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| Parish: | COBHAM, GRAVESHAM, KENT |
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Monument Types
- DISPERSED SITE (Destroyed 1954, Modern - 1940 AD? to 1945 AD?)
Full description
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Second World War dispersed accommodation camp site 1 in Ashenbank Wood, Cobham, one of 5 sites established in 1940/41 for personnel at the RAF airfield to the north at Thong Lane, Gravesend. The location of this woodland site was intended to safeguard personnel by removing them from the airfield itself, which was a bombing target. It consisted of mainly single-storey barrack huts, ablutions and other structures. There was a short-lived Royal Navy presence at the site in 1945 and afterwards the huts were used for accommodating homeless civilians and demobilised servicemen and their families. This ceased around 1954, the huts being removed and the site returned to nature. There are some ghosts of building bases and traces of tarmac roads but in other respects the site has been destroyed.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : Although mainly destroyed the slight traces remaining are visible from the paths of a woodland park
Tourism Potential : None
Condition : Destroyed
Date of visit : 18/04/07
Victor Smith, 01/01/99, 'The Camps at Ashenbank Wood' in Historic Gravesham, 1999 (Bibliographic reference). SKE14069.
Victor Smith, 01/01/99, 'The Camps at Ashenbank Wood' in Historic Gravesham, 1999 (Bibliographic reference). Ske14069.
Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, 2002, Cobham Park I: Level-2 Survey - Gazetteer of Sites (Unpublished document). SKE17816.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | --- | Bibliographic reference: Victor Smith. 01/01/99. 'The Camps at Ashenbank Wood' in Historic Gravesham, 1999. |
| --- | Unpublished document: Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit. 2002. Cobham Park I: Level-2 Survey - Gazetteer of Sites. |
