Monument record TR 36 SE 848 - WWII coastal defences NNE of Cliffsend Farm, west of Pegwell

A small complex of WWII coastal defences located 0.5km NNE of Cliffsend Farm, west of Pegwell, comprising a pillbox and three lengths of slit trenching surrounding a circular gun pit, visible on military aerial photographs from 1941 [1]. The features are situated on either side of an unmade path leading to Canterbury Road East and the gun pit is constructed on a small banked area, a good vantage site for viewing the area.

The pillbox is an irregular hexagonal shape in plan, measures 5.5m by 5m and is located at the end of the western slit trench. The separate monument record for this building is Mke39657.

The three slit trenches are irregular linears measuring 25m, 49m and 44m and they converge towards a circular gun pit, which has an internal diameter of 2.5m.

All the features are first visible in February 1941 and were all mapped from this series apart from the gun pit and pillbox that were mapped from clearer photographs taken in January 1946 [1]. None of the features are evident on the 1:2500 OS mapping dated to 1956-1963 (2)

Historic Enland archive material:DEB01 Defence of Britain This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate.Box files containing the record sheets gathered from participants in the Defence of Britain Project. The project recorded, with the help of volunteers, the remains of military structures in Britain. The collection is arranged by county and split between anti-invasion and non anti-invasion defences. The record sheets record the visible structures and include location details, structure type and purpose and include photographs.

<1> RAF, 1946, RAF 106G/UK/1131 4003 17-JAN-1946 (Photograph). SKE58472.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1955-79, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 Edition 1955-79 (Map). SWX11834.