Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Second World War dispersed accommodation camp site 5 in Ashenbank Wood, Cobham. One of 5 camps, it was established in late 1940/41 for the RAF air field to the north at Thong Lane. Its situation removed personnel from the graeter risk of air bombardment if quartered at the air field itself. After brief use by the Royal Navy in 1945, the site was used as accommodation for the homeless. After 1954, the huts were removed and the site returned to nature. Traces of the spaces occupied by huts may be seen, as well as tarmac roads and three surviving air raid shelters.

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 5 in Ashenbank Wood, Cobham. This was one of 5 camps established in late 1940/1941, for personnel at the RAF air field to the north at Thong Lane, Gravesend. The location of this woodland site was intended to safeguard personnel by removing them from the vicinity of the airfield itself, which was a bombing target. It consisted of mainly single-storey barrack huts, ablutions and other structures, including three air raid shelters. There was a short-lived Royal Navy presence 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. Traces of the areas occupied by huts may be seen, as well as tarmac roads and three surviving air raid shelters. The latter are small semi-buried structures of pre-cast concrete manaufacture, with right angled brick entrances.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : The site is within public woodland
Tourism Potential : There is potential as part of the wider historical interpretation and the nature interest of the woodland, already a visitor destination. There is wayside interpretation.
Condition : poor
Date of visit : 18/04/07

Victor Smith, 01/01/99, 'The Camps at Ashenbank Wood' in Historic Gravesham, 1999. (Bibliographic reference). SKE14071.

Victor Smith, 01/01/99, 'The Camps at Ashenbank Wood' in Historic Gravesham, 1999. (Bibliographic reference). Ske14071.

Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, 2002, Cobham Park I: Level-2 Survey - Gazetteer of Sites (Unpublished document). SKE17816.

Sources and further reading