Monument record TQ 77 NE 1032 - Sea Defences, Cooling Marshes, Cliffe and Cooling

Sea Defences. Photographs (1-8).

The earthworks of the medieval and post medieval sea defences of Cooling parish can be seen on aerial photographs taken in 1947. These defences consist of an earthwork bank that approximately follows, in a series of gentle curves, the pre-1897 parish boundary for almost its entire length on land below the 5m contour. There are some exceptions to this. The south western corner of marshland in Cooling, known as Whalebone Marsh is outside the sea defences, which run between 200m-350m to the west of the parish boundary. However at the northern end of Whalebone Marsh the sea bank abruptly changes direction and heads circa 170m to the parish boundary and then returns to continue the line it was originally following. At the north eastern end (TQ 7654 7841) there is a thin strip of parish land outside the defences while on the north western end (TQ 7584 7832) part of Cliffe Marsh is behind Cooling's defences. On the western side (TQ 7537 7785) is a further area of parish land outside the defences. Most of these defences survive as earthworks, a notable exception being at the south eastern end. The bank ends 174m short of the higher ground but aerial photographs taken in 1947 show a continuation of the wall here (centred on TQ 7646 7674). At the south west the bank appears to continue into Cliffe parish although the bank there is of a very different character being straighter and broader. These earthworks were mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project.(9-11)

<1> 2000, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10262.

<2> 1944, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10019.

<3> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9863.

<4> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9856.

<5> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9855.

<6> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9825.

<7> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9632.

<8> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9442.

<9> RAF, 1947, RAF CPE/UK/1923 4028 16-JAN-1947 (Photograph). SKE57230.

<10> RAF, 1947, RAF CPE/UK/1923 4053 16-JAN-1947 (Photograph). SKE58409.

<11> EARTH.GOOGLE.COM, 2011, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM 31-DEC-2003 ACCESSED 20-SEP-2011 (Photograph). SKE58831.