Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grain Coastal Artillery Battery, built in 1900-1901. The battery was disarmed in 1935-6 and the military pulled out in 1956. Parts of the site were infilled or sealed between 1961 and 1966.

Summary from record TQ 87 NE 1085:

Coastal artillery battery for4 x 6" breach loading guns, built as a training battery.

Monument Types

• COASTAL BATTERY (Post Medieval to Modern - 1900 AD? to 1937 AD?)
• FORTIFICATION (Post Medieval to Modern - 1900 AD to 1956 AD)

Full description

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Defensive earthwork. Nothing marked on any OS mapping. Recorded evidence from survey (1).

Site photographs (2-4).

Constructed between 1900-1901 as a practice battery, Grain Battery was sited south-west of Grain Fort (TQ 87 NE 8] . Despite the existing fortifications on Grain and at Sheerness, the defence of the Medway estuary was of such importance that Grain Battery was added to the existing Grain fortifications. Armed with four guns it was also provided with a magazines, shelters, a command post and direction finding equipment. One gun was removed in 1918. It was disarmed in 1935-6. The military abandoned the site in 1956. As with the Wing Battery (TQ 87 NE 9), the emplacements were filled in and the magazines sealed between 1961 and 1966. The field survey reports that the battery was constructed as a long earthen mound, with four gun emplacements on the terreplein. A ditch surrounded the front and ends of the mound with an unclimable fence. The mound had a vertical rear face with access to the emplacements, magazines, stores and shelters (underneath the mound and service road). The remains of the mound and ditch are still visible, along with signs of the emplacements [5].

Mentioned in Isle of Grain Historic Area Assessment conducted by English Heritage in 2014. Built in 1900-1901, the third of three batteries built around Grain Fort, and "designed for faster-firing less conspicuous guns" (6).

Description from record TQ 87 NE 1085:
Earthworks a and concrete aprons remaining, rear works destroyed.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : Public open space.
Tourism Potential : Yes, as part of Grain heritage trail.
Condition : moderate
Date of visit : 14/01/07

War Department., 01/01/1909, Medway defence scheme. (Collection). SKE14372.

War Department., 01/01/1909, Medway defence scheme. (Collection). Ske14372.

MMRG, 07/01/14, Grain Battery (Photograph). SKE14630.

MMRG, 07/01/14, Grain Battery (Photograph). Ske14630.

<1> Kent County Council, 1999, Survey of Kent post-1500 defence sites, KD92 (Index). SWX11828.

<2> 1942, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10000.

<3> 1942, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9998.

<4> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9555.

<5> RCHME, 1998, Coastal Artillery Fortifications on the Isle of Grain, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE12515.

<6> English Heritage, 2014, Isle of Grain, Hoo Peninsula, Kent: Historic area assessment (Monograph). SKE29397.

<7> Kent Defence Research Group, c. 1993, Kent Defence Research Group 'Fort Logs' (Unpublished document). SKE52251.

Sources and further reading

Related records