Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Anti-tank obstacles of pimple form, circa 1940.

Summary from record TQ 76 NE 1261:

Line of anti tank blocks, forming part of continuous line from old fortifications to dockyard perimeter.

Monument Types

• ANTI TANK PIMPLE (Modern - 1940 AD to 1940 AD)
• TANK TRAP (Modern - 1940 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Listing Text:

686-1/0/10009 MEDWAY ROAD
28-FEB-08 GROUP OF ANTI-TANK PIMPLES

GV II
Anti-tank obstacles of pimple form, circa 1940

DESCRIPTION: Concrete anti-tank pimples (truncated pyramids also colloquially known as 'Dragon's Teeth'). Forming a south-west to north-east line approximately 85m in length along the northern side of Medway Road, to the east of Cumberland Road and to the south-east of the Chatham Lines. The pimples are five deep in places and are of the standard symmetrical form. Some, in the central part of the line, are part buried and it is assumed, given the topography, that further examples survive but are fully buried to the east. In the west of the line the anti-tank pimples are visible, although overgrown, and are a good surviving group.

HISTORY: These anti-tank obstacles were erected circa 1940 as part of the anti-invasion defences for Chatham, Gillingham and Brompton in defence of the dockyard and barracks. This line fills a gap in the existing Napoleonic defences which were adapted to form an anti-tank stop-line during the Second World War. Specifically these obstacles bridge the gap between a row of former dockyard police houses and the defended entrance to the Nore Command Bunker. (The bunker was for the Commander-in-Chief who had responsibility for protecting the entrance to the Port of London as well as traffic up and down the east coast.) The anti-tank obstacles are documented in `The Garrison Plan to Defeat Invasion' of 1941. Tactically their purpose was to prevent enemy progress but in the event that an enemy vehicle did attempt to drive across an obstacle, its vulnerable underside would be exposed to defensive fire.

CONTEXT: Anti-invasion defences have been the subject of an English Heritage Monument Protection Programme (MPP) study which looked at the known resource, drawing on the Council for British Archaeology's Defence of Britain project, and made recommendations for designation. The MPP study considerably enhanced the understanding of the resource and identified 112 examples of sites with anti-tank pimples nationally, of which 46 were considered to be good examples.

SOURCES:
National Monuments Record No. TQ76NE347
Defence of Britain Project Database site reference S0012576 at http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/collections/blurbs/324.cfm

REASON FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: The line of World War II anti-tank pimples at Medway Road, Gillingham is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* A good surviving group of anti-tank pimples;
* One of only two known groups of anti-tank obstacles, and the better of the two, associated with the re-use of the Chatham Lines during World War II. They have group value with The Lines and the adjacent Nore Command Bunker.(1)

An archaeological evaluation and walkover survey carried out by Canterbury Archaeological Trust in 2011 found a number of previously unknown pimples. The evaluation also examined two depressions in the field behind the pimples and found them to be pits left behind by the removal of 20th century storage buildings.(2)

Description from record TQ 76 NE 1261:
Dragons tooth type concrete blocks, 4 to 5 deep in line mostly buried, some visible.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : Public open space
Tourism Potential : Yes, part of Lower Lines Heritage park?
Condition : good
Date of visit : 02/11/07

Victor Smith and Ron Crowdy, Thames Gateway Assesment: Gazetteer of Defence Sites (Index). SKE6445.

MMRG, 02/11/07, Anti tank block (Photograph). SKE14625.

MMRG, 02/11/07, Anti tank block (Photograph). Ske14625.

ARMY, 10/01/41, Garrison Plan to Defeat Invasion. (Collection). SKE14376.

ARMY, 10/01/41, Garrison Plan to Defeat Invasion. (Collection). Ske14376.

Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2008, A desk-based archaeological assessment of land at Medway Road, Gillingham (Unpublished document). SKE15922.

<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2011, Land at Medway Road, Gillingham, Kent, Heritage Asset Statement (Bibliographic reference). SKE52147.

Sources and further reading