The earth banks still exist although the hanger was never finished. (1)

A semi-sunken hangar of First World War date was visible as an earthwork in RAF/HLA/564 V 6015 01-JUN-1942. By the time of that photography, the remains of the hangar comprised two flanking banks of excavated spoil and a central trackway leading from Manston Road into the hangar. The site of a building was visible as a cropmark inside the hangar, this may have been a contemporary or later Second World War feature already removed by 1942. The site had been adapted for Second World War use with earthwork gun emplacements to the south-east side and a defence work of trenches and gun emplacements to the north-west. A barbed wire entanglement surrounded the site. These Second World War features are recorded in MKE124488, MKE125397, MKE125403 and MKE125404.

A number of semi-sunken hangars were constructed in 1918 to serve RAF Manston. The sites of four can be confirmed by aerial evidence. This hangar is reputed never to have been completed (see authority (1)) and another appears to have been begun, but was never finished, opposite this hangar on the other side of Manston Road. One hangar was immediately south of Cheeseman's Farm with another close by opposite Alland Grange. Photographs of the hangars under construction, including at least one that had been completed, are on display in the RAF Manston History Museum.

This site was recorded as levelled earthworks in Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 07-APR-2021 was mapped as part of the Historic England Isle of Thanet project in 2024. (2-4)

<1> Ron Stilwell, 2015, Defence of Thanet Project: verbal communication from Ron Stilwell (Verbal communication). SKE30958.

<2> Historic England Archive, 1941-1960, Historic England Archive RAF vertical aerial photographs, RAF/HLA/564 V 6015 01-JUN-1942 (Archive). SKE57101.

<3> Next Perspectives, 2003-2021, Next Perspectives APGB orthophotography, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 07-APR-2021 (Archive). SKE57110.

<4> Joe Bamford, John Williams, 2013, A Detailed History of RAF Manston, 1916-1930. The Men Who Made Manston (Bibliographic reference). SKE58346.