Monument record TQ 87 NE 112 - Site of a Defence electric light, near Smithfield Marshes, Isle of Grain

Base of early C20 Defence Electric Light installation on foreshore E of Southern Water facility (1), site photographs (2-5).

TQ 8926 7611: Electric searchlight emplacement for coast artillery.

This building was in existence by 1911 (1a) and may have served guns mounted on Grain Tower, Wing Battery and Grain Battery. It may have continued in use until around 1940, with the installation of a Twin 6-pounder gun on Grain Tower, which had its own dedicated searchlight.

It is of the standard pattern, built in concrete and comprising a rectangular room with flat roof and apsidal end for the light cells. A small room is added to the west side.

The building was surveyed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England between March and April of 1998, 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)

The structural remains of this former seachlight battery could be seen at TQ 8926 7611 just above the beach opposite the Grain Tower. This site and surrounding features were mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1942 as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. When photographed in 1942 the seachlight formed part of a complex of buildings and structures which were contained within a trapezoidal barbed wire enclosure. (2)

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

<1> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Thames Gateway Survey Gazeteer MS by V Smith and R Crowdy (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

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

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

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

<5> 2000, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10237.