Monument record TQ 77 SE 1346 - First World War redoubt, part of it reused to site a Second World War Type 24 pillbox (recorded as separate HER reocrd). East of Lodge Hill Depot.

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 First World War redoubt is located east of the Lodge Hill Ordnance Depot on the Hoo Peninsula and was partly reused as a site for a Second World War Type 24 pillbox, which is recorded separately on the HER at TQ 77 SE 1244. The report states: "Second World War reinforced concrete pillbox constructed at the edge of a First World War redoubt (NHRE 1546157)…Visible on 2013 Google Earth photpographs within the southern half of First World War redoubt. The pillbox was seen during a site visit in May 2015 within the substantial redoubt earthwork. The door and embrasures are blocked". (1)

A First World War redoubt or fieldwork centred at TQ 7729 7427 is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and has been mapped as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. The site is a roughly oval earthwork enclosure 37.7m by 25.8m, situated on Deangate Ridge roughly 130m east of the perimeter of Lodge Hill Ordnance Depot (Monument 1077634). This feature is one of several earthwork enclosures or redoubts noted on a War Department map of Lodge Hill field defences, 1914. An annotation dated September 1915 describes it as a redoubt. Other similar redoubts noted on the War Department map are Monuments 1546098, 1546125, 1546165, 1546168.

During the Second World War, a pillbox (Monument 1426121) was constructed at the southern end of the oval redoubt. The presence of this later feature suggests that the First World War redoubt may have played a part in the defences of the Hoo Stop Line (Monuments 1542577 and 1542646), located just to the east of the redoubt. The earthwork enclosure survives as a standing feature covered by trees on photographs taken in 2007. (2-4)

<1> 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.

<2> RAF, 1944, NMR US/7GR/LOC348 2065 27-MAY-1944 (Photograph). SKE55973.

<3> RAF, 1947, NMR RAF/CPE/UK/1923 4081 16-JAN-1947 (Photograph). SKE55977.

<4> Public Record Office, 1914, PRO: WO 78/4400 Chatham Field Defences 8.11.1914 (Archive). SKE58402.