Monument record TQ 77 SE 1496 - Second World War embarkation hard to the east of Lower Upnor

The site of a Second World War embarkation hard at Lower Upnor (centred on TQ 7618 7118) is visible on aerial photographs taken in 1950. It was built by the Admiralty at a date after May 1942 under the control of Nore Command in preparation for D-Day. It consisted of a concrete loading ramp equipped with steel framed mooring points, access to Upnor Road and a number of buildings. Lower Upnor had been the location for the boys¿ training ship HMS Arethusa from 1933 and after the war this ship was moored off the embarkation hard until 1975; the mooring points were adapted as a jetty. This site was one of fifteen embarkation hard sites under Nore Command and one of three at Upnor. All but the concrete hard appears to have been demolished. It was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project.(1-4)

<1> RAF, 1950, RAF 58/550 5015-5016 14-AUG-1950 (Photograph). SKE58937.

<2> RAF, 1942, RAF HLA/617 6101-6102 20-JUN-1942 (Photograph). SKE58938.

<3> Peter Higginbotham, 2000, The Workhouse (Website). SKE56079.

<4> 2007, Next Perspectives PGA Tile Ref: TQ7671 21-APR-2007 (Photograph). SKE58939.