Listed Building record TQ 77 SE 1243 - Type 28A anti-tank pillbox, Abbots Lodge House, Hoo St Werburgh

Standard concrete construction anti-tank pillbox. No interior access.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential : Possible heritage trail
Condition : good
Date of visit : 11/05/06

Description from record TQ 77 SE 149:
rectangular adapted type 28. Probable 3 pr or 6 pr. (1)

This feature is recorded in the English Heritage report on the Second World War Stop Line in the Hoo Peninsula, part of the wider Hoo Peninsula study. The report states: "Second World War rectangular brick-shuttered, adapted, type 28, anti-tank gun emplacement with double embrasures immediately behind Abbots Lodge House. Recorded on 1942 and 2007 aerial photographs. Seen on a field visit in 2014 reused as a shed. Blast wall by the entrance removed. (2)

Designated as a Listed Building in 2020 (3)

Brick-shuttered anti-tank gun emplacement (6pdr.). Double embrasures. Rectangular adapted type 28 anti-tank gun emplacement. Probable 2 pr or 6 pr. On E of footpath between main road and Abbott's Court Farm, approx. 85 metres from main road. (1)

The rectangular anti tank pillbox described in authority 1 has been identified on aerial photographs and mapped as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. Its correct location is TQ 7902 7276, immediately behind the house known as Abbots Lodge, and it appears to have been converted into a shed. The verbal description of location given by authority 1 corresponds more closely to a hexagonal pillbox recorded as Monument 1418686. (2)

The rectangular anti tank pillbox formed part of the defences associated with the Hoo Stop Line (Monument 1542577), a system of anti tank ditches, gun emplacements and pillboxes constructed in 1940 across the south western third of the Hoo Peninsula, from the Medway to the Thames. Defensive features associated with this pillbox include a section of anti tank ditch (Monument 1542610) about 44m to the east, a hexagonal pillbox 65.6m to the south (Monument 1418686), and two pillboxes to the west (Monuments 1418685 and 1426022).

The anti tank pillbox is visible on aerial photographs from 1942 to at least 2007. (3-5)

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

<2> historic england, 2014, Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project: Second World War Stop Line: Hoo St Werburgh to Higham Marshes. Research Report 9-2014. (Bibliographic reference). SKE31599.

<3> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

<4> MMRG, 11/05/06, Type 28 A Pill Box off Stoke Road Hoo (Photograph). SKE14522.

<5> 11th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, 18/01/41, War diary. (Collection). SKE14306.

<6> 11th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, 18/01/41, War diary. (Collection). Ske14306.

<7> MMRG, 11/05/06, Type 28 A Pill Box off Stoke Road Hoo (Photograph). Ske14522.

<8> Council for British Archaeology, 2002, Defence of Britain Project (Digital archive). SKE32029.