Monument record TQ 67 SE 221 - Gravesend airport (site)

Gravesend Airfield/ Airport. The site was initially a civil airport, established in 1932, run by Gravesend Aviation. In 1937 it was taken over by Essex Aero and the Royal Air Force, who used it as a Flying training School until 1939 when the whole airfield was requisitioned and allotted to 11 Group Fighter Command. This group was in the forefront of the Battle of Britain in 1940. At the start of the war accomodation and facilities were split between three sites: Cobham Hall (officers mess), the control tower (for pilots), and the "Laughing waters restaurant" (for groundcrews). Later in the war the base was expanded for use by three American fighter squadrons, and as an emergencey runway for bombers returning from action over Europe. After the war the flying field returned to civillian use. The RAF officially left in 1957. After this date the site was used for a housing estate. (1)

Gravesend Airfield, TQ 675 720. A statistical profile of the airfield as it stood in 1944 shows that the landing surfaces were only grass, but by 1944 it had 30 hard standings, eight blister aircraft hangars, and one type T1 aircraft hangar. Site use in 1985 given as a housing. (2)

RAF Gravesend was used by 11 Group during the Battle of Britain. The following units were stationed there during the battle:No 610 Squadron from 26 May 1940, No 604 Squadron from 3 July 1940, No 501 Squadron from 25 July 1940, No 66 Squadron from 11 September 1940. (3)

RAF Gravesend is visible on aerial photographs taken during the Second World War. The earliest photographs, taken in March and April 1942 show the airfield occupying approximately the same area as it did before the war and defined by a perimeter road. Although these photographs do not provide complete coverage they also show some of the ground defences put in place. These are best seen to the south and south west and consist of a line of barbed wire, which presumably encircled the entire site. Gun pits and pillboxes on this line are each set within a semi-circle of barbed wire. What may have been another area of defences set within barbed wire can just be made out through the cloud cover (but not mapped) to the north-east at TQ 6708 7185. Air photos taken in 1944 show the airfield after it had been enlarged and show extensions to the perimeter road (and associated hard-standing) to the north, south and north-east. The site still appears to be enclosed, possibly by barbed wire, though the semi-circular barbed wire arrangements had been removed, the western boundary of the site redefined and new gun emplacements constructed. The 1944 photos show numerous aircraft and what may be groups of stores laid out around the site. A Victorian isolation hospital on the south-western edge of the airfield appears to have been requisitioned and is linked to the airfield by a road. By 2007 the majority of this area is now occupied by houses, while the north-eastern extension is beneath a sports ground and golf course. The area of the southern extension is farmland and part of the perimeter road still survives. Two buildings from the isolation hospital have also survived and are either side of Stacey Close at TQ 6611 7107 and TQ 6610 7104. RAF Gravesend was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project.(4-7)

Historic England archive material: MD003088 Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project: TQ 67 SE Material still held by Aerial Survey.

<1> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, P Conolly, R Monday & R Neudegg 1995? Gravesend Airport in Photographs (pub Frank Turner, Gravesend) (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<2> The Military Airfields of Britain. Southern England: Kent, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex (Unspecified Type). SWX22295.

<4-7> English Heritage, 2013, Hoo Peninsula, Kent. Hoo Peninsula Historic Landscape Project (Bibliographic reference). SKE31432.