Building record TQ 87 NE 1096 - White Hall Farm battery, Isle of Grain

Coastal defence battery, no structures above ground level. Only concrete aprons visible.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : Public right of way immediately adjacent.
Tourism Potential : Yes, as part of Grain heritage trail.
Condition : moderate
Date of visit : 07/01/14

Whitehall Farm WW1-WW2 coastal battery (1918-1941). The structural remains of two gun emplacements, the command post and accommodation buildings were seen centred at TQ 8884 7700 to the north-west of Grain Fort, just inland of the Esplande. The guns were set in a circular emplacement with a semi-circular concrete apron enclosing it to the rear. Accommodation buildings were located to the south of the eastern gun emplacement. The emplacement is believed to have been in use until 1941, the guns (6 inch guns) being removed and remounted in Grain Fort.
Photographs taken in 1946 show the site cut off from the beach by the coastal anti-invasion defences (dragon's teeth and barbed wire NMR Monument Number: 911435), with a further line of barbed wire extending WNW-ESE across the site behind the gun emplacements. The remains were mapped from 1942 and 1946 RAF aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (3-4)

<1> MMRG, 07/01/14, Whitewall Farm Battery (Photograph). SKE14636.

<2> War Department, 01/01/41, Plan (Collection). SKE14365.

<3> RAF, 1942, NMR RAF/26/UK 920 32 23-MAR-1942 (Photograph). SKE55967.

<4> RAF, 1946, RAF 106G/UK/1444 4017 01-MAY-1946 (Photograph). SKE58737.