Kent Defences Research Group
Researches the county’s defences of all types and periods through the study of records, maps, aerial photographs, ground investigation and by other means.
Kent Defences Archive Reports available on the Society website
Victor Smith has very kindly supplied scans of a number of reports, now made available on thee Society website.
Capel Battery Project
Chris Harman of the Capel Battery Preservation Group provides an update on a project to restore the remnants of the structures at Capel on the north of the Weald.
Surviving Doomsday?: The Cold War Bunker at Gravesend
Victor Smith, 2021, KAS Magazine, Issue 116 (Summer 2021). Maidstone: Kent Archaeological Society.
Kent’s twentieth-century Military and Civil defences. Part 5 – Swale
Victor T. C. Smith and Alan Anstee, 2021, Archaeologia Cantiana, Volume 142. Maidstone: Kent Archaeological Society.
A Roman military discovery in Gravesend?
Recently published findings from the excavations of the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit in Gravesend in 1989 draw attention to the discovery of a riverside Romano-British settlement over an area of at least 5 acres, a road extending inland, and a possible Roman military site.
‘Fortress Maidstone’ by Clive Holden now available on Society website
Clive Holden’s report is the culmination of his two years research into the military history of Maidstone in the Second World War and the plans for its defence.
A gun for Slough Fort
Keith Gulvin provides an update on the restoration of Slough Fort, Allhallows.
General Gordon's Key?
Victor Smith highlights an iron key thought to have been used by Lt. Col. Charles G. Gordon (later General of Khartoum fame) during his stay at New Tavern Fort in Gravesend from 1865-71 when acting as Commanding Royal Engineer for the Thames District.
New Defence Project at Gravesend
With a study of Kent’s defences during the Great War submitted to the editor of Archaeologia Cantiana for publication and an historical overview of the 20th century defences of Thanet near completion, two research and publication projects by Victor Smith are scheduled to begin in 2016.
The artillery of the Great War anti-invasion defences of Swale
Volume 23 of the Journal of the Ordnance Society has been published including a pap“r The artillery of the Great War anti-invasion defences of the Swale area of Kent” by Alan Anstee.
Guns at Gravesend
New Tavern Fort (armed from the 1780s-1908) on Gravesend’s riverside displays a regionally important collection of 12 pieces of historic artillery.
Thanet Defences Project
Following a meeting with historians of Thanet’s military past, an assessment has begun of the available documentary sources to support a possible new project for an enhanced study of the defences of this council district.
Archcliffe exploding gun
Kyn of the Kent History Forum recounts the tale of the explosion of a 32-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading gun mounted along the front of the battery of Archcliffe Fort on a Thursday evening of August 1860.
Preparing for Doomsday
The history and archaeology of a Cold War bunker at Gravesend: a research and reporting project.
Hope for a decaying Tudor Blockhouse at Gravesend?
Displayed in a fenced area in Royal Pier Road on Gravesend’s riverside are the brick and stone remains of one of a network of five cross-firing artillery blockhouses built by Henry VIII in 1539/40 to guard the river approaches to London.
A Fatal Fire at Milton Regis 1915
In February 1915 with large numbers of troops billeted in and around Sittingbourne the potential benefits of having troops in the area was demonstrated by the effects of a fire in King Street.
The Sad End of the Sergeant Major's Career
Alan R. Anstee reports on the trial, first seen in the 23rd January 1915 edition of the Kent Messenger, of John Murphy, alias Hugh Charles Caston a Royal Engineer Company Sergeant Major.
- Archaeology Research Group
- Boxley
- Broadstairs
- Chart Sutton
- Cold War
- Conservation
- Defences
- Detling
- Gravesend
- Heritage
- Historic Buildings Research Group
- Iron Age
- Kent Defences Research Group
- Maritime Kent Research Group
- Medieval
- Military History
- Modern
- Place Names Research Group
- Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)
- Swale