Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The remains of a pair of open iron-framed beacons, designed to assist with navigation along this part of the Thames Estuary, and in place from 1886 or earlier. They previously flanked either side of a small coastal battery at Lower Hope Point. The north-west (seaward) beacon survives as a collapsed and degraded frame on the foreshore, whereas the basal concrete plinth is the only extant element of the south-east (landward) beacon.

Monument Types

• SEA BEACON (Post Medieval - 1852 AD? to 1900 AD?)

Full description

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The remains of a pair of open iron-framed beacons, designed to assist with navigation along this part of the Thames Estuary, and in place from 1886 or earlier. The 18th-century battery at Lower Hope Point was flanked by two navigation beacons: one on the foreshore (‘The Point Beacon’) and the other to the rear of the battery. Although it is unclear when the beacons were first erected or whether the beacons or the battery came first, they pre-date the area’s association with explosives manufacture and are likely to have remained in use during, and perhaps even following, the factory’s period of operation.

The superstructure for the seaward beacon is seen standing tall in a published but undated photograph (1a), but now lies prone in a degraded state on the foreshore close to its original position. In contrast, all that remains of the inner (south-eastern) beacon is a low, flat-topped circular earthwork at TQ 71549 78782, measuring 5m in diameter at its base, and rising 0.3m to a flat circular top with a diameter of 3.5m. It comprises a circular concrete plinth, now almost entirely covered by earth, with six 25mm-wide (1-inch) threaded iron studs protruding 0.15m from the surface in a hexagonal layout with a diameter of 1.8m (1b).

The earliest identified depiction is on a War Office chart from 1886, which shows the two beacons at Lower Hope Point partnered with a second pair located precisely one sea mile to the south-west, on the north bank of the mouth to Cliffe Creek (1c). After this, the beacons are both clearly marked on OS map until, and including, the revised of 1915 (published 1923). By 1960, only the seaward beacon is depicted. (1)

Bullock, 1852, Gravesend Reach (Chart). SWX8140.

Wessex Archaeology, 2005, North Kent Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey: Phase ll: Field Assessment Year Two Report (Unpublished document). SWX12323.

<1c> The National Archive, The National Archive: item ref WO 78/4963. (Archive). SKE55699.

<1a> Cherry, A., 1998, A Pictorial History of Cooling and Cliffe: Looking back from the Millennium’. Cliffe: Martins News. (Bibliographic reference). SKE55697.

<1> Rebecca Pullen, 2011, 01-JAN-2011/EH: Hoo Peninsula Historic Landscape Project [5733], 1 (Miscellaneous Material). SKE55696.

<1b> English Heritage, 2013, Curtis's and Harvey Ltd Explosives Factory, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods, Medway. Archaeological Survey and Analysis of the Factory Remains Volume 2 of 2. (Bibliographic reference). SKE31442.

Sources and further reading