Building record TR 34 SE 351 - Jane, Wanstone Battery

The gun position for Jane, one of two heavy guns at Wanstone Battery. This Coast Battery was built in 1942 for two 15 inch long range guns to close the Channel to enemy shipping, it was an offensive rather than defensive installation.

This battery had two 15 inch guns, four magazines, two for each gun. There is an underground plotting room, a deep shelter and engine rooms. There was a Battery Observation Post on the cliff top, a radar near South Foreland Lighthouse. The farm houses were used for accommodation with additional huts.

Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey : This site is on private property and needs the owners permission to be visited.
Tourism Potential : Yes
Condition : poor
Date of visit : 16/06/07
Owner :
Publicly accessible :
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : poor
Date of visit : 16/06/07

Trenches excavated for the TV show 'Two Men in a Trench' revealed the remains of a machine-gun nest at Wanstone Farm and structures relating to 'Jane' coastal gun emplacement. (no source available)

Aerial photography from 1995 shows the extant remains of 15-inch battery with two large, earth-protected magazine buildings visible for each earlier emplacement. These magazines are in good condition and the houses to the rear of these were originally connected to the workings of the battery. The western emplacement has been filled in but survives complete, with attached magazine house. Eastern emplacement has been removed, but the magazine house remains at the field edge (3)

<1> Verbal Communication (Verbal communication). SKE14127.

<2> Twentieth century fortifications in England. Volume 6.2. Coast Artillery, 1900-1956 (Unspecified Type). SWX20703.

<3> Council for British Archaeology, 2002, Defence of Britain Project (Digital archive). SKE32029.