During 1916, a port was built to supply the Western Front on low-lying land around the River Stour between Sandwich and Pegwell [1-2]. The facility became known as Richborough Port and its construction was under the control of the Inland Waterways and Docks Section of the Royal Engineers. Its construction involved reclamation of a large tract of swampy foreshore, widening and deepening of the adjacent water channel and approaches, in addition to building an extensive wharf, shipyards, the laying of several large railway sidings and the erection of hutted personnel camps and store-sheds. Transport of materials to the front was initially by barges but from late 1917 a roll-on-roll-off train ferry service was used.

The port had several distinct components; chiefly hutted camps, stores, ports, sidings and workshops. It was a very extensive facility, covering an area approximately 4.8km (N-S) by 2km (E-W), which was laid out mostly on the western side of the Stour between the river and the railway line between Sandwich and Minster. The majority of port components also have an HER record, See Related Monuments.

For a year after the end of WWI, the port dealt with surplus and salvage returning from the Western Front. After the surplus operation had finished the facility was sold to a company who proposed to run a train ferry serving local industry and coalfields. It is not clear which buildings remained at the end of WWI or were utilised by this operation. This enterprise failed in the early 1920s and the facility then appears to have become disused until the late 1930s. In 1938 the port’s camps were used to house refugees from Nazi Germany. During WWII itself several elements of the facility appear to have come back into military use, including Weatherlees Siding (MWX43282) and Robertson Camp (Mke42003), and additional defences were added to the periphery of the site. The facility appears to have had a particular role in D-Day preparations.

Post-WWII the facility was decommissioned and elements were turned over to light industrial use and areas remain in such use. Few of the WWI or WWII elements of the facility appear to survive within the present landscape.

<1> Robert Butler, 01/01/99, Richborough Port (Bibliographic reference). Ske14148.