Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The remains of a World War 2 complex that incorporates three extant bunkers as well as a series of concrete platforms. These features were recorded during a walkover survey in 2004. Two of the air raid shelters within the Country park boundary were fully recorded in 2010.

Summary from record TQ 66 NE 196:

Second World War dispersed accommodation camp of mainly single storey huts established in late 1940/1941 at Laughing Water at Shorne to remove personnel from the RAF airfield at Thong Lane where they were at greater risk of bombing. There was brief use of the site by the RAF in 1945 and afterwards use for accommodating the homeless. This ceased in 1954, the huts being removed and the site returned to nature. There are possible traces of the locations of huts and three surviving air raid shelters.

Monument Types

• DISPERSED SITE (Destroyed 1954, Modern - 1940 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• AIR RAID SHELTER (Earlier than, Modern - 1945 AD to 2050 AD (pre))
• DRAIN (Earlier than, Modern - 1945 AD to 1945 AD (pre))
• PLATFORM? (Earlier than, Modern - 1945 AD to 1945 AD (pre))
• STRUCTURE? (Earlier than, Modern - 1945 AD to 1945 AD (pre))

Full description

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A complex of structural features dating to World War 2. This complex has been assigned one monument record in this instance. There may be scope for splitting the record into its component parts - however no spatial extents are available in the source documents to define these boundaries. A 50m radius polygon has been assigned to these features.
The complex comprises the following features (OA numbers indicate codes given in source document) [1]

1. Platform with concrete and brick foundations c. 5 x 10m adjacent to an irregular depression c. 5 x 10m and approximately 0.65m deep. It is possibly a former anti aircraft gun or spotlight base, or a munitions loading area (OA 201)

2. Bunker c 10 x 4m consisting of a mounded earth over partially subterranean vaulted precast concrete structure. Entrance to SW. (OA 202)

3. Two drains, one in concrete, the other in brick possibly associated with structure that remains as a rubble spread (See X. below) (OA 203)

4. Large apparently rectangular platform c 30 (E-W) by 6m (N-S) (OA 204)

5. Bunker c 10 x 4m consisting of a mounded earth over partially subterranean vaulted precast concrete structure. Entrance to NE. (OA 205))

6. Level concrete platform of uncertain dimensions, opposite entrance to OA 205. Possible location of anti aircraft battery or spotlight

7. Bunker c. 12.5 x 4.5 m consisting of a mounded earth over partially subterranean vaulted precast concrete structure. Entrance to NW. (OA 207)

8. Terraced structure platform (opposite bunker (OA 207) on two levels and up to 20m in length, with reamins of brick and concrete foundations and possible manhole. (OA 208)

9. Concentration of brick rubble suggesting a former structure (OA 223)

Description from record TQ 66 NE 196:
Second World War dispersed accommodation camp established in late 1940/1941 at Laughing Water on the north side of the A2 for personnel at the RAF airfield to the north at Thong Lane. This was one of 5 such camps in the area. This woodland location was chosen to safeguard personnel by removing them for 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. These are semi-buried pre-cast concrete structures with right-angled brick entrance 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 possible traces of hut locations and the three air raid shelters survive.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : Within the space of the Shorne Country Park
Tourism Potential : Its forms a natural part of the historical interpretation of the area occupied by the Shorne Country Park
Condition : poor
Date of visit : 18/04/07
(2)

The two air raid shelters within Shorne Woods Country Park were surveyed in 2010. (3)

<1> Oxford Archaeology, 2005, Shorne Wood Country Park (Unpublished document). SWX12846.

<2> Victor Smith, 01/01/99, 'The Camps at Ashenbank Wood' in Historic Gravesham, 1999 (Bibliographic reference). Ske14070.

<3> Victor Smith, 2010, The RAF air raid shelters at The Square, Shorne Woods Country Park, Shorne, Near Gravesend, Kent: A survey and report (Unpublished document). SKE18115.

Sources and further reading

Related records