By 10 September 1939 there was a public timber trench shelter within the grounds of the original, late eighteenth-century Kent and Canterbury Hospital (part of the former precincts of St Augustine’s Abbey). Such ‘timber trench shelters’ were among the earliest shelters provided for public use in Canterbury during the Second World War. The Kent and Canterbury Hospital had recently (1937) moved to a new site, and the old Hospital building had been taken over by a technical school. During the Second World War the various old hospital buildings provided accommodation for a first-aid-post, a kind of rest centre, and for an emergency mortuary. The air-raid shelter here was variously known as the ‘Old Hospital’ or ‘Longport (Street)’ shelter. According to one source, it seems to have been toward the eastern edge of the Abbey precincts ‘next to the Court House underneath the bank there.’ There are indeed trench-like features visible on immediate post-war aerial photographs in this vicinity. The shelter at ‘Longport Street’ was approved for use in January 1940. Traces of dry rot were discovered the shoring mid way through March 1943.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : unknown
Date of visit :

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). SKE14894.

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). Ske14894.

Eric Wilkinson, 01/01/95, "And We All Got Under the Table": Under Fire 1939-45 A VE Day Commemmoration (Bibliographic reference). SKE14895.

Eric Wilkinson, 01/01/95, "And We All Got Under the Table": Under Fire 1939-45 A VE Day Commemmoration (Bibliographic reference). Ske14895.