The line of the Martin Mill military railway utilised in part the railway originally constructed by Pearson Dorman Long Ltd as a means of bringing in material for the construction of the Eastern Arm of Dover Harbour. The building of the Cliff Road (TR 34 SW 538) destroyed part of the railway levels to the south of the Langdon Battery and the Prison Site. The military railway was extended south and eastwards to serve the heavy guns along the coast at South Foreland and towards St Margaret at Cliff. (1)

Martin Mill military railway visible on aerial photography taken in 1941, 1945 and 1946 [2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7], located in Dover. The railway was present on OS third edition mapping dated to 1908, on fourth edition mapping from 1938 the railway was labelled as disused. The section of railway mapped by the South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey totalled 1600m; the full track was not mapped due to the extent of the feature. The railway led from the WWII Wanstone Battery (MKe17934 and Mke41971), past a transmitter site (MWX43573) and then further north. Aerial photographs taken in 1949 [8] showed the railway to be clear and possibly still in use. The line of the railway can be seen as an area of scrub in 1976 [9]. Next Perspectives photography taken in 2007 [10, 11] shows some of the line of the railway to be preserved as a hedge. The line can also be seen as a germination mark within an arable field and cropmarks within other fields.

A transcription of the features recorded from aerial photographs exists within a GIS layer held by this HER.

<1> Nicola Bannister, 1999, Langdon Cliffs Survey (Unpublished document). SKE6595.

<10> Next Perspectives consortium via English Heritage, 2003, 2007, Next Perspective PGA georeferenced aerial photograph data, Next Perspectives PGA Tile Ref: TR3343 28-APR-2007_Updates (Graphic material). SWX15711.

<11> Next Perspectives consortium via English Heritage, 2003, 2007, Next Perspective PGA georeferenced aerial photograph data, Next Perspectives PGA Tile Ref: TR3543 28-APR-2007_Updates (Graphic material). SWX15711.