Monument record TQ 87 NE 1171 - Two small buildings built onto the end of a military road, just north of Dummy Battery., Isle of Grain

TQ 8922 7575: Two small buildings built onto the end of a military road, just north of Dummy Battery. They appear to have been connected with power supply and communications to the battery.

The smaller structure is little more than a concrete cupboard, in plan only 0.88m by 0.61m internally; it has a heavy steel door. Inside there is evidence for a wooden floor and a timber structure on the rear wall - probably a circuit board or similar.

The larger building is 2.11m square internally, with walls of rendered stock brick and a slightly-sloping concrete roof. The single entrance, in the west wall, also has a heavy steel door. Inside, there is a rectangular pit in the north-west corner, 1.05m by 0.70m and at least 0.6om deep, where a large bundle of power cables enter the building. On the walls are scars of various timber shelves, boards etc.

These buildings were surveyed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, following a request from Kent County Council as part of a European project looking at defence sites in Kent, Nord-Pas de Calais and West Flanders. See archive report and plans. (1)

Both buildings were seen on 1942 RAF photographs at TQ 89226 75752 and were mapped as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. Both were still extant 2009. (2)

Historic England archive material: MD003096 Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project: TQ 87 NE Material still held by Aerial Survey.

<1> Victor Smith and Ron Crowdy, Thames Gateway Assesment: Gazetteer of Defence Sites (Index). SKE6445.

<2> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9555.

<3> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9557.

<4> 1942, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10000.

<5> 2000, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10236.

<6> 2000, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10238.

<7> Kent County Council, 1999, Survey of Kent post-1500 defence sites, KD95 (Index). SWX11828.

<8> RCHME, 1998, Coastal Artillery Fortifications on the Isle of Grain, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE12515.

<9> Wessex Archaeology, 2001, North Kent Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Phase II: Preliminary Field Investigation (Unpublished document). SWX11839.