Discovering Swale’s 20th century defences
The strategic importance of Kent in the defence of the nation is well known to many. Less well known is the important role that the borough of Swale, sitting on the north coast of Kent, played in this story. Over the last eighteen months, on the Defence of Swale Project, defence specialists, volunteers and the public have been helping Kent County Council (KCC) to research and discover an incredibly exciting story of military and civil defence in the area and record hundreds of hitherto unknown features and sites.
The Defence of Swale Project is the latest in a series of projects managed by KCC designed to record Kent’s defence sites. The project, which is generously funded by a grant from London Array, who have developed and run the off-shore wind farm in the Thames Estuary, is different from those that have gone before. This time the emphasis has been on involving the community in the discovery of defence heritage and telling the many exciting stories as they come to light. The project is managed by KCC’s Heritage Conservation team and the research led and co-ordinated by leading defence historians Victor Smith and Alan Anstee. In the eighteen months that it has run, support has been received from many local people and groups including historical societies, museums, archives and schools and is a superb illustration of what can be achieved when working together in partnership.
Strategic importance of Swale
Swale lies in the north of Kent, extending from the hills of the North Downs to the coast and including the Isle of Sheppey separated from the mainland by The Swale. Its principal towns are Faversham and Sittingbourne, which sit astride the main road and rail route between Dover and London, and the port of Sheerness which lies at the entrance to the Thames and Medway rivers. It is this location, dominating principal access to London both by sea and land, that provides much of its strategic significance. Swale also includes the important former naval dockyard at Sheerness and dominates the approaches through the Medway to that at Chatham. On Sheppey can also be found the former airfield at Eastchurch which played an important role in the pioneering of naval aviation.
Aims and Method
Although Swale is known to be rich in defence sites that span much of the 20th century, very few of these have been systematically recorded. Indeed at the outset of the project only 119 defence sites were recorded on the Kent Historic Environment Record (HER). Experience in other Kent districts has shown that this is likely to be only a small percentage of the true number and already this is proving the case in Swale, with more than 500 potential sites identified on a preliminary listing and many more to add. Knowing the whereabouts of the Borough’s key defence heritage sites and understanding their significance is invaluable to their future conservation. Through research of reams of documents in national and local archives, from discovery in the field and information supplied by the public, we are making great strides in this. Just as important is explaining to those who live, work and visit Swale the story of the defences and it is a vital part of the project to run workshops, tours, exhibitions, school visits and give presentations on our findings and provide hands-on opportunity for participation in the work.
Defence of Swale Project - Simon Mason, Victor Smith, Alan Anstee and Richard Taylor
The strategic importance of Kent in the defence of the nation is well known to many. Less well known is the important role that the borough of Swale, sitting on the north coast of Kent, played in this story. Over the last eighteen months, on the Defence of Swale Project, defence specialists, volunteers and the public have been helping Kent County Council (KCC) to research and discover an incredibly exciting story of military and civil defence in the area and record hundreds of hitherto unknown features and sites.
The Defence of Swale Project is the latest in a series of projects managed by KCC designed to record Kent’s defence sites. The project, which is generously funded by a grant from London Array, who have developed and run the off-shore wind farm in the Thames Estuary, is different from those that have gone before. This time the emphasis has been on involving the community in the discovery of defence heritage and telling the many exciting stories as they come to light. The project is managed by KCC’s Heritage Conservation team and the research led and co-ordinated by leading defence historians Victor Smith and Alan Anstee. In the eighteen months that it has run, support has been received from many local people and groups including historical societies, museums, archives and schools and is a superb illustration of what can be achieved when working together in partnership.
Strategic importance of Swale
Swale lies in the north of Kent, extending from the hills of the North Downs to the coast and including the Isle of Sheppey separated from the mainland by The Swale. Its principal towns are Faversham and Sittingbourne, which sit astride the main road and rail route between Dover and London, and the port of Sheerness which lies at the entrance to the Thames and Medway rivers. It is this location, dominating principal access to London both by sea and land, that provides much of its strategic significance. Swale also includes the important former naval dockyard at Sheerness and dominates the approaches through the Medway to that at Chatham. On Sheppey can also be found the former airfield at Eastchurch which played an important role in the pioneering of naval aviation.
Aims and Method
Although Swale is known to be rich in defence sites that span much of the 20th century, very few of these have been systematically recorded. Indeed at the outset of the project only 119 defence sites were recorded on the Kent Historic Environment Record (HER). Experience in other Kent districts has shown that this is likely to be only a small percentage of the true number and already this is proving the case in Swale, with more than 500 potential sites identified on a preliminary listing and many more to add. Knowing the whereabouts of the Borough’s key defence heritage sites and understanding their significance is invaluable to their future conservation. Through research of reams of documents in national and local archives, from discovery in the field and information supplied by the public, we are making great strides in this. Just as important is explaining to those who live, work and visit Swale the story of the defences and it is a vital part of the project to run workshops, tours, exhibitions, school visits and give presentations on our findings and provide hands-on opportunity for participation in the work.
Discovery highlights
The present article is too limited to be able to provide a detailed account of the discoveries made on the project but will concentrate on some highlights, providing a flavour of what we have found. At the outset we had expected the remains of the Second World War to dominate our discoveries, as it has the present HER evidence. It was therefore with general astonishment that we found the story of the First World War in Swale has taken a prominent and significant role in the project to date. At a time that the country commemorates the centenary of the War, the project is able to highlight a story of home defence that has been long overlooked in comparison with that of the later war.
Following the Entente with France in 1903, the ambitions of Imperial Germany became the main concern of those planning the defence of the nation. Although the dominant perception was that of the Admiralty, which gave assurance that the Royal Navy could prevent any invasion of our shores, such confidence was quickly eroded through the rapid rise of the Imperial fleet and alongside it the German mercantile fleet with its troop-carrying capacity. By 1908 an amphibious landing of up to 70,000 German troops from the North Sea was considered possible. As well as the genuine strategic threat, public opinion was being moulded through popular fiction of the time that portrayed German plots to invade Britain. Works such as Erskine Childers’ espionage novel Riddle of the Sands (1903) and William Le Queux’s The Invasion of 1910 (1906) fed the climate of the time for the need to defend against invasion. It is against this rising threat, whether real or perceived, that we see the development of plans to defend our coastline and principle ports and routes of access to what would likely be the prime target of an invasion, London.
With the onset of the war in 1914, the loss of the Belgian ports that brought the forces of Germany even closer and the ever present menace of the U Boat keeping the capital ships of the Grand Fleet in the north, there was a fear that the south east coast from The Wash to South Foreland was particularly vulnerable to a raid of up to 160,000 of the enemy. The response was to strengthen and supplement existing coastal defence batteries, establish minefields and booms in the coastal waters and to create emergency entrenchments around the key coastal ports, landing places and possible routes of advance by invading forces. It is in this context that the discoveries we have made in Swale play a significant part and are perhaps a unique illustration of the wider anti-invasion defences against invasion. It is against this rising threat, whether real or perceived, that we see the development of plans to defend our coastline and principle ports and routes of access to what would likely be the prime target of an invasion, London.
The strategic importance of Kent in the defence of the nation is well known to many. Less well known is the important role that the borough of Swale, sitting on the north coast of Kent, played in this story. Over the last eighteen months, on the Defence of Swale Project, defence specialists, volunteers and the public have been helping Kent County Council (KCC) to research and discover an incredibly exciting story of military and civil defence in the area and record hundreds of hitherto unknown features and sites.
The Defence of Swale Project is the latest in a series of projects managed by KCC designed to record Kent’s defence sites. The project, which is generously funded by a grant from London Array, who have developed and run the off-shore wind farm in the Thames Estuary, is different from those that have gone before. This time the emphasis has been on involving the community in the discovery of defence heritage and telling the many exciting stories as they come to light. The project is managed by KCC’s Heritage Conservation team and the research led and co-ordinated by leading defence historians Victor Smith and Alan Anstee. In the eighteen months that it has run, support has been received from many local people and groups including historical societies, museums, archives and schools and is a superb illustration of what can be achieved when working together in partnership.
Strategic importance of Swale
Swale lies in the north of Kent, extending from the hills of the North Downs to the coast and including the Isle of Sheppey separated from the mainland by The Swale. Its principal towns are Faversham and Sittingbourne, which sit astride the main road and rail route between Dover and London, and the port of Sheerness which lies at the entrance to the Thames and Medway rivers. It is this location, dominating principal access to London both by sea and land, that provides much of its strategic significance. Swale also includes the important former naval dockyard at Sheerness and dominates the approaches through the Medway to that at Chatham. On Sheppey can also be found the former airfield at Eastchurch which played an important role in the pioneering of naval aviation.
Aims and Method
Although Swale is known to be rich in defence sites that span much of the 20th century, very few of these have been systematically recorded. Indeed at the outset of the project only 119 defence sites were recorded on the Kent Historic Environment Record (HER). Experience in other Kent districts has shown that this is likely to be only a small percentage of the true number and already this is proving the case in Swale, with more than 500 potential sites identified on a preliminary listing and many more to add. Knowing the whereabouts of the Borough’s key defence heritage sites and understanding their significance is invaluable to their future conservation. Through research of reams of documents in national and local archives, from discovery in the field and information supplied by the public, we are making great strides in this. Just as important is explaining to those who live, work and visit Swale the story of the defences and it is a vital part of the project to run workshops, tours, exhibitions, school visits and give presentations on our findings and provide hands-on opportunity for participation in the work.
Discovery highlights
The present article is too limited to be able to provide a detailed account of the discoveries made on the project but will concentrate on some highlights, providing a flavour of what we have found. At the outset we had expected the remains of the Second World War to dominate our discoveries, as it has the present HER evidence. It was therefore with general astonishment that we found the story of the First World War in Swale has taken a prominent and significant role in the project to date. At a time that the country commemorates the centenary of the War, the project is able to highlight a story of home defence that has been long overlooked in comparison with that of the later war.
Following the Entente with France in 1903, the ambitions of Imperial Germany became the main concern of those planning the defence of the nation. Although the dominant perception was that of the Admiralty, which gave assurance that the Royal Navy could prevent any invasion of our shores, such confidence was quickly eroded through the rapid rise of the Imperial fleet and alongside it the German mercantile fleet with its troop-carrying capacity. By 1908 an amphibious landing of up to 70,000 German troops from the North Sea was considered possible. As well as the genuine strategic threat, public opinion was being moulded through popular fiction of the time that portrayed German plots to invade Britain. Works such as Erskine Childers’ espionage novel Riddle of the Sands (1903) and William Le Queux’s The Invasion of 1910 (1906) fed the climate of the time for the need to defend against invasion. It is against this rising threat, whether real or perceived, that we see the development of plans to defend our coastline and principle ports and routes of access to what would likely be the prime target of an invasion, London.
With the onset of the war in 1914, the loss of the Belgian ports that brought the forces of Germany even closer and the ever present menace of the U Boat keeping the capital ships of the Grand Fleet in the north, there was a fear that the south east coast from The Wash to South Foreland was particularly vulnerable to a raid of up to 160,000 of the enemy. The response was to strengthen and supplement existing coastal defence batteries, establish minefields and booms in the coastal waters and to create emergency entrenchments around the key coastal ports, landing places and possible routes of advance by invading forces. It is in this context that the discoveries we have made in Swale play a significant part and are perhaps a unique illustration of the wider anti-invasion measures of the time.
Many driving along the A249 through the Stockbury Valley towards the junction with the M2 would have noticed the small square pillbox standing alone in a field. Few would have thought that it belonged to the First World War rather than the Second and fewer still would realise that alongside it were once rows of fire trenches, barbed wire entanglements and machine gun positions designed to prevent enemy forces crossing the valley. This is part of the Chatham Land Front, a system of trenches and fortifications that extended from the Southern scarp slope of the Downs at Detling, along the western side of the Stockbury Valley and as far as the high ground around Iwade and Lower Halstow. The Land Front would have extended westwards along the scarp slope and worked alongside the Thames and Medway Defences which stretched from Grain and Sheerness along the north coast and high ground of Sheppey as far as Shellness at the eastern end of the island. The trenches would not have looked out of place on the Western Front and indeed, though mostly in place in early 1915, we can see modifications taking account of developments arising from the battlefields of the Continent. While anti-invasion defences are known to have been created elsewhere in the country, what makes the defences in Swale (and part of Maidstone) particularly special is the record that we have of them. In the National Archives a collection of around forty maps, assembled by the Royal Engineers at the end of the war, illustrates the
Discovery highlights
The present article is too limited to be able to provide a detailed account of the discoveries made on the project but will concentrate on some highlights, providing a flavour of what we have found. At the outset we had expected the remains of the Second World War to dominate our discoveries, as it has the present HER evidence. It was therefore with general astonishment that we found the story of the First World War in Swale has taken a prominent and significant role in the project to date. At a time that the country commemorates the centenary of the War, the project is able to highlight a story of home defence that has been long overlooked in comparison with that of the later war.
Following the Entente with France in 1903, the ambitions of Imperial Germany became the main concern of those planning the defence of the nation. Although the dominant perception was that of the Admiralty, which gave assurance that the Royal Navy could prevent any invasion of our shores, such confidence was quickly eroded through the rapid rise of the Imperial fleet and alongside it the German mercantile fleet with its troop-carrying capacity. By 1908 an amphibious landing of up to 70,000 German troops from the North Sea was considered possible. As well as the genuine strategic threat, public opinion was being moulded through popular fiction of the time that portrayed German plots to invade Britain. Works such as Erskine Childers’ espionage novel Riddle of the Sands (1903) and William Le Queux’s The Invasion of 1910 (1906) fed the climate of the time for the need to defend against invasion. It is against this rising threat, whether real or perceived, that we see the development of plans to defend our coastline and principle ports and routes of access to what would likely be the prime target of an invasion, London.
With the onset of the war in 1914, the loss of the Belgian ports that brought the forces of Germany even closer and the ever present menace of the U Boat keeping the capital ships of the Grand Fleet in the north, there was a fear that the south east coast from The Wash to South Foreland was particularly vulnerable to a raid of up to 160,000 of the enemy. The response was to strengthen and supplement existing coastal defence batteries, establish minefields and booms in the coastal waters and to create emergency entrenchments around the key coastal ports, landing places and possible routes of advance by invading forces. It is in this context that the discoveries we have made in Swale play a significant part and are perhaps a unique illustration of the wider anti-invasion measures of the time.
Many driving along the A249 through the Stockbury Valley towards the junction with the M2 would have noticed the small square pillbox standing alone in a field. Few would have thought that it belonged to the First World War rather than the Second and fewer still would realise that alongside it were once rows of fire trenches, barbed wire entanglements and machine gun positions designed to prevent enemy forces crossing the valley. This is part of the Chatham Land Front, a system of trenches and fortifications that extended from the Southern scarp slope of the Downs at Detling, along the western side of the Stockbury Valley and as far as the high ground around Iwade and Lower Halstow. The Land Front would have extended westwards along the scarp slope and worked alongside the Thames and Medway Defences which stretched from Grain and Sheerness along the north coast and high ground of Sheppey as far as Shellness at the eastern end of the island. The trenches would not have looked out of place on the Western Front and indeed, though mostly in place in early 1915, we can see modifications taking account of developments arising from the battlefields of the Continent. While anti-invasion defences are known to have been created elsewhere in the country, what makes the defences in Swale (and part of Maidstone) particularly special is the record that we have of them. In the National Archives a collection of around forty maps, assembled by the Royal Engineers at the end of the war, illustrates the defences in incredible detail. Lines of fire and communication trenches, barbed wire entanglements, batteries and artillery positions, anti-aircraft defences, pillboxes and machine gun emplacements and even telephone cables and poles are all depicted and in many cases construction details shown. As part of the project many of these maps have been copied and digitised onto modern maps by volunteers at the HER. Now held separately from the maps, but originally together, a collection of over three hundred photographs in tow albums can be found in the Royal Engineer’s Museum, Library and Archive collections. These photographs provide a superb and probably unparalled record of the defences and show many fascinating details. On top of these we have also uncovered many documents relating to the emergency plans that were put in place for the civilian population in the event of invasion or a large raid. This documentation has provided a wealth of material for volunteers on the project, particularly those from the Newington and Sittingbourne area, led by Alan Anstee, to venture into the fields and discover the remains of the defences on many of the sites.
The defences, which were garrisoned by mix of regular and territorial troops, were designed with naval measures to first seek to prevent a landing on the vulnerable parts of the coast and then to counter the advance of any landed enemy troops towards the naval dockyards at Sheerness and Chatham and on to London until reinforcement from Central Forces deployed to the west of London. To this end the lines of trenches that stretched along the north coast of Sheppey and the Stockbury Valley were supported by the fire of the large coastal guns at Grain, Sheerness and the newly built Fletcher Battery near Minster. The guns from these could be turned inland to fire on advancing troops as far as Faversham and Sittingbourne. Smaller batteries of