Little Cliffsend, W of Ramsgate.Defence site; type uncertain [shown on German map of British defences].

A small complex of military defence features are visible on aerial photographs taken in 1941 and have been mapped as part of the SE Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey. They are located approximately 250m to the NE of Little Cliffsend Farm, west of Pegwell.

The features comprise six circular gun pits most likely constructed using sandbags, and that together form a pyramid-like shape. The average internal diameter of these gun pits is 1.6m. Approximately 40m to the NE lies a square military building, probably a pillbox, that measures 4m by 3.6m.

Around 60m directly north of the gun pits and lying just to the south of the road, Chalk Hill, is a slit trench and associated bank that links up four circular gun pits, and would have functioned as a defensive measure for the adjacent road. Each circular gun pit cut measures around 1m across. Less than 10m to the east lies another gun pit that appears to have been constructed from sandbags, with an internal diameter of 1.5m.

These features are all initially visible on aerial photographs taken in February 1941 [1] and, apart from the pillbox, have been backfilled or removed by January 1946 [2]. The pillbox is still present on the 1946 photo but is not visible on the 1:2500 OS mapping dated to 1956-1963 [3].

, Sheet (Blatt) 1/37 (Cartographic materials). SKE13157.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1955-79, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 Edition 1955-79 (Map). SWX11834.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1955-79, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 Edition 1955-79 (Map). SWX11834.

<4> RAF, 1941, RAF/26J/BR267 8 22-FEVB-1941 (Photograph). SKE58474.