Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A barbed wire entanglement is visible on 1940s aerial photographs. It follows a sinuous, roughly north-eastwards, course from the site of the Canterbury Gate (Sandwich Town Wall) through fields to the River Stour for c.500m. This is one of several defensive features added to the circuit of Sandwich’s existing medieval town defences during WWII. It appears to have been removed after the war and is no longer visible on aerial photographs from 1949.

Monument Types

• BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENT (Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Full description

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A barbed wire entanglement is visible on 1940s RAF vertical aerial photographs [1-2]. It follows a sinuous, roughly north-eastwards, course from the site of the Canterbury Gate (Sandwich Town Wall) through fields to the River Stour for c.500m. The eastern c.350m of the defence is formed of double parallel lines of barbed-wire. This is one of several defensive features added to the circuit of Sandwich’s existing medieval town defences during WWII.

It appears to have been removed after the war and is no longer visible on aerial photographs from 1949 [3].

A transcription of the features recorded from aerial photography exists within a GIS layer held by this HER [4].

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 2009-10, South-East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - Aerial Photographic Transcriptions (Digital archive). SWX15705.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report (Unpublished document). SKE25955.

<4> Cornwall Council Historic Environment Projects and Gloucestershire County Council, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Components 1&2: Results of NMP Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE25954.

Sources and further reading