Monument record TQ 67 SE 1209 - Denton Heavy anti aircraft battery, Mark Lane, Denton, Gravesend, Kent

Second World War heavy anti-aircraft battery for 4.5-in. guns in a field south of the North Kent railway and east of Mark Lane at Denton, Gravesend. It formed part of the Thames South grouping of anti-aircraft gun defences and was designated S16, and was part of the 6th AA Division. Built by 1938, it consisted of four standard octagonal concrete emplacements arranged on the points of an imaginary trapezium, to which was centred a rectangular concrete command post, with a flat concrete roof having open elements for the spotting telescope, height-finder and other instruments, and within the command and telephone room. The domestic site appears to have been about 100 m NE of the core of the battery and consisted of a number of huts. From local recollection, the battery saw much action in firing at enemy aircraft. It was decommissioned at the end of the Second World War in Europe in 1945 and was soon disarmed. The battery was then absorbed within the perimeter of commercial industrial premises and gradually fell into decay. Parts of the battery were gradually removed to make way for truck parking and the last remnant was cleared in c. 1985.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey : Site destroyed
Tourism Potential : None
Condition : Destroyed
Date of visit : 26/01/07

Description from record TQ 67 SE 224:
Mostly destroyed by commercial development. One emplacement remains with some possible traces of ancillary buildings as foundations in adjacent marshy area (1), site photographs (2-9).

Site of a Second World War heavy anti aircraft battery at Denton. It was armed with four 4.5-inch guns in 1942 and was manned by 236 Battery of the 76th Royal Artillery Regiment in 1942, and by 392 Battery of the 117th Royal Artillery Regiment in 1943. (12)

Historic RAF aerial photographs taken in October 1946 show this Second World War Heavy Anti Aircraft battery centred at TQ 6644 7391with its internal support roads linking the gun emplacements to the accommodation huts at the south-western end of the complex. The command post was located at the centre of the arc of HAA guns. Along with two additional gun emplacements. The entire site was surrounded by a double line of barbed wire obstructions. The site hs been levelled and built on. (13)

<1> Victor Smith and Ron Crowdy, Thames Gateway Assesment: Gazetteer of Defence Sites (Index). SKE6445.

<2> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9418.

<3> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9431.

<4> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9469.

<5> 1940, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9992.

<6> 1944, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10016.

<7> 1944, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10064.

<8> 1941, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10116.

<9> 1940, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10127.

<10> Council for British Archaeology, 01/01/96, Twntieth century Fortifications in England Vol. I.1 Anti-Aircraft Artillery, 1914-46 (Bibliographic reference). SKE14025.

<11> Council for British Archaeology, 01/01/96, Twntieth century Fortifications in England Vol. I.1 Anti-Aircraft Artillery, 1914-46 (Bibliographic reference). Ske14025.

<12> Dobinson, C, 1996, Twentieth century fortifications in England, volume 1. Anti-aircraft artillery : England's air defence gunsites, 1914-46 (Monograph). SWX23706.

<13> RAF, 1946, RAF CPE/UK/1789 4123 11-OCT-1946 (Photograph). SKE58735.