Standard concrete construction infantry pillbox, brick faced..
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential : Possible heritage trail
Condition : good
Date of visit : 07/01/21


This feature is reported in the English Heritage study on the Second World War Stop Line, part of the wider study of the Hoo Peninsula. The report states that this is a "Second World War hexagonal pillbox located on a field boundary south of Ratcliffe Highway. Kent HER records that it was examined between 2001 and 2006. It is not visible on the most recent aerial photographs available to the project (PGA 2007 and Google Earth 2013) as the site is hidden beneath a hedgerow" (2).

Good condition type 24 pillbox. Forming part of Hoo stop line (GHQ line) anti invasion defences 1940. Facing east. 1946 aerial photographs also show slit trenches a few metres ot the east that may have been intended to defence the pillbox or may have been practice trenches. (3,4)

MMRG, 07/01/06, Type 24 pillbox (Photograph). Ske14656.

11th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, 18/01/41, War Diary (Collection). SKE14312.

11th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, 18/01/41, War Diary (Collection). Ske14312.

English Heritage, 2004, Defence areas: a national study of Second World War anti-invasion landscapes in England (Unpublished document). SKE17661.

Historic England, 2012, National Mapping Programme survey: Hoo Peninsula (Digital archive). SKE32442.

<1> MMRG, 07/01/06, Type 24 pillbox (Photograph). SKE14656.

<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> English Heritage, 2013, Hoo Peninsula, Kent. Hoo Peninsula Historic Landscape Project (Bibliographic reference). SKE31432.