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 report states: "This section extended north from the lower slopes of Deangate Ridge towards Higham Marshes, near Cliffe for 1466m. Its east end was 680m to the west of Berry Court Wood, just south of Merryboys Road near the junction with Town Road (TQ 7404 7371). It ran north west for 634m to Mortimers Farm (TQ 7363 7411), then followed Town Road north for 823m as far as Rectory Road, just north of the railway line (TQ 7351 7473). It continued (NRHE 154118) to the north-west from Rectory Road for 545m and then cut down into the edge of a large quarry. The quarry formed a section of the anti-invasion obstruction.
Condition: Aerial photographs taken on 20th June 1942 record the stop line near Cliffe Woods with the anti-tank ditch in place. The whole section was photographed in 1944, when the ditch was backfilled with mounds of earth lying alongside the former ditch. The buried remains of the anti-tank ditch were visible as a crop mark on aerial photographs of 1946. Aerial photographs taken in 2011 and 2013 suggest that the anti-tank ditch survives as a sub-surface feature, revealed as a cropmark between Mortimer's farm and the disused quarry. It has probably been destroyed by housing on the edge of Cliffe Woods village to the east of the B2000 road. " (1)

Centred at TQ 7364 7432. Part of a Second World War anti tank ditch, constructed in 1940 across the Hoo peninsula from the north bank of the Medway near Hoo St Werburgh to the south bank of the Thames at Higham Creek (Monument 1542577). The ditch across Hoo was part of the system of GHQ Stop Lines designed to halt or delay the advance of a German invasion force landing in southern and south eastern England. (1)

The section described in this record ran north from the lower slopes of Deangate Ridge towards Higham Marshes near Cliffe for a distance of 1466.35 metres. Its east end was located 680 metres to the west of Berry Court Wood, just south of Merryboys Road near the junction with Town Road (TQ 7404 7371). It ran north west for 634 metres to Mortimers Farm (TQ 7363 7411), then followed Town Road north for 823 metres as far as Rectory Road, just north of the railway line (TQ 7351 7473) at Cliffe Station, for a total distance of 1466.3 metres. The southern part, south of Town Road was photographed in 20 June 1942, when it appeared as an open ditch. The rest was photographed in 1944, by which time the ditch was out of use and being backfilled, with mounds of earth lying alongside the former ditch. A small gun emplacement or weapons pit immediately adjacent to the ditch at TQ 7389 7373 has not been recorded separately. (2-3)

The other parts of the Stop Line ditch, as well as the many pillboxes, gun emplacements and roadblocks that accompanied it, have been recorded separately. Adjacent Stop Line sections are Monuments 1542687, to the east, and ??, to the north). Supporting defensive features associated with this section of the Stop Line include: a pillbox 680 metres to the east at the edge of Berry Court Wood at TQ 7473 7373 (Monument 1418676); a pillbox at the east end of this section of ditch at TQ 7403 7368 (Monument 1544032); and pillboxes alongside Town Road (Monuments 1418675 and 1418674).

The whole anti tank ditch system on Hoo has been mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (1)

<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, 1942, NMR RAF/HLA/617 6099 20-JUN-1942 (Photograph). SKE55980.

<3> USAAF?, 1944, NMR US/7GR/LOC348 3063 27-MAY-1944 (Photograph). SKE55981.

<4> Foot W., 2006, Beaches, fields, streets and hills: the anti-invasion landscape of England, 1940 (Bibliographic reference). SKE55976.