Stoke School Wartime Shelter

From Subterranea Britannica

stoke-school-wartime-shelter


Description, Images, Maps

Contributed by Chris Rayner on 01/09/2014
A chance discovery by a pupil in a newly-cleared part of the school grounds at Stoke Community Primary School on the Hoo Peninsula led to the rediscovery of an unusual Second World War shelter. From that initial find of part of a concrete roof, the school caretaker and his assistant dug down and finally opened up the long buried shelter. They attached an extension lead to what they believed to be the original light bulb and were amazed when it lit up after what may have been many decades.

The structure they uncovered though is unusually small for a school shelter. It has a structure of steel colliery hoops or ribs, and a vaulted roof covering of corrugated steel, materials sometimes found in military and industrial shelters, but the arch radius here is much smaller and the ungalvanised steel is in poor condition. It has a brick wall at one end and concrete steps at the other, and as it is quite near the surface the steel roof has been given a covering of concrete. A small hole in the roof is likely to have been from a stove flue.

The materials and construction method have similarities with those used in some of the shelters at Chattenden six miles southwest on the road off the Isle of Grain, where the Royal School of Military Engineering had an important training base and magazines. The shelter may have either been built by the same workmen or it may just have been that the materials were easier to obtain in the area.

When the school first discovered the shelter in early 2014, online news reports identified it as an Anderson shelter which however is completely different, being formed of a kit of parts and having its corrugated steel bent in a different direction. The school has been told by elderly village residents that there was a shelter at the school used by pupils during the war, but this one appears too small and furthermore its entrance steps face away from the school. There were no gas curtains either which is unusual for a school shelter.

During the Second World War the GHQ (General Headquarters) Line crossed the Hoo peninsula between Hoo St Werburgh on the Medway and the Higham Marshes on the Thames, and was defended against potential invaders coming from the north by pillboxes, anti-tank gun emplacements, and road blocks. Stoke was to the north of this stop line and would have been a defended village, tasked with slowing the enemy's advance. The school's location beside the main road running south from Allhallows, on the Thames shore and a potential enemy landing site, would have been important. The conclusion is that the structure found forms part of the village defences, possibly associated with a roadblock and providing protection for troops or civil defence personnel against attack or just inclement weather.

The Kent Underground Research Group were asked to look for the much larger school shelter remembered by local people in September 2014, digging down at the location remembered by a former pupil, but nothing was found and its existence and location remains a mystery.


Shelter entrance (Chris Rayner)Shelter entrance (Chris Rayner)
Opposite end, showing flue hole in roof (Chris Rayner)Opposite end, showing flue hole in roof (Chris Rayner)
Shelter exterior seen from the road (Chris Rayner)Shelter exterior seen from the road (Chris Rayner)

Location: 51.4556, 0.63474, OS TQ831762 (Maps: Google, Bing, Aerial View, OldMapsOnline, NLSOSLidar, )

Loading map...

 

DescriptionCategories
Northfleet KilnsFactories and Storage, Civil Defence, Transport
Hollingbourne Zero Station (Auxiliary Units)Military - Land
Sheppey Harty Ferry Air Raid ShelterCivil Defence
Grain FortMilitary - Land
Blean ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Coldblow Ace High Relay StationRadar
Chatham Southern Water Emergency Control CentreNuclear Bunkers, Sewers, Sanitation and Water
Hoo FortMilitary - Land
Darnley MausoleumPlaces To Visit, Religious and Burial
Tenterden ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Rodmersham Green ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Rainham (Kent) ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Pluckley ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Linton ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Eastchurch ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Cranbrook ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Cliffe ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Borough Green ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Bethersden ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Allhallows ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Fort PittCivil Defence, Military - Land
Civil Defence Control Centre GravesendMilitary - Intelligence and Communication, Places To Visit
Stoke School Wartime ShelterCivil Defence
Eastchurch Airfield Battle HQMilitary - Air
West Malling Airfield Battle HQMilitary - Air
Detling Airfield Battle HQMilitary - Air
Sheerness RNXS Emergency Port ControlMilitary - Sea, Nuclear Bunkers
Queenborough Sub ControlGovernment - Local, Nuclear Bunkers
Maidstone Springfields Kent County Emergency CentreGovernment - Local, Nuclear Bunkers
Gillingham Borough ControlGovernment - Local, Nuclear Bunkers
Dartford Emergency CentreGovernment - Local, Nuclear Bunkers
Dunkirk Chain Home Radar StationMilitary - Air, Radar
Grain TowerMilitary - Land
Darenth Wood Dene HoleMines
Wye ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Wateringbury ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Snodland ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Sheldwich Lees ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Sheerness ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Sevington ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Oare ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Lenham ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Horsmonden ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Headcorn ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Greenhithe ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Bearsted ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Fort Bridgewoods AAORMilitary - Land, Nuclear Bunkers
Chatham Dockyard Commissioner's House Ice HouseIce Wells
HMS WildfireMilitary - Sea, Military - Air
Hoo ROC PostNuclear Monitoring Posts
Fort AmherstMilitary - Land, Places To Visit
Maidstone ROC Group HQMilitary - Air, Nuclear Bunkers
George Vaults RochesterFactories and Storage, Places To Visit
Rochester Shorts Brothers Factory and Public Air Raid ShelterCivil Defence, Factories and Storage