Monument record TQ 77 SE 1348 - First World War redoubt, adjacent to Hoo Peninsula Stop Line, may have been reused in Second World War, located between Lodge Hill Wood, Wyborne Wood.

This feature is recorded in the English Heritage report on the Second World War Stop Line in the Hoo Peninsula, part of the wider Hoo Peninsula study. The report states: First World War redoubt adjacent to the Stop Line, appears abandoned by the Second World War but may have been reused. Recorded on 1944 aerial photographs but not visible on Google Earth 2013. Not seen on a May 2015 visit as field in arable." (1)

TQ 7648 7447. A roughly oval or elongated hexagonal enclosure, probably the remains of an abandoned First World War redoubt, is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs and has been mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. The enclosure, comprising at least two concentric banks 69.7m by 31.3m overall, is located on the north facing slope of Deangate Ridge near the north east corner of Lodge Hill Ordnance Depot (Monument 1077634), and is associated with another First World War redoubt (Monument 1546125) which lies 237.5m to the south. The oval or hexagonal enclosure described in this record coincides fairly closely in both location and shape with a feature depicted on a War Department map of the Lodge Hill field defences, 1914 as a "waterlogged and sunken redoubt". (2-4)

An alternative interpretation is that the marks described in this record could have resulted from the construction and subsequent levelling of the Hoo Stop Line (Monument 1542577, Monument 1542665), which lies immediately to the south. However, the evidence of the War Department map supports a First World War date. Other redoubts noted on the War Department map are Monuments 1546098, 1546157, 1546165, 1546168. (5)

<1> historic england, 2014, Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project: Second World War Stop Line: Hoo St Werburgh to Higham Marshes. Research Report 9-2014. (Bibliographic reference). SKE31599.

<2> RAF, 1944, NMR US/7GR/LOC348 2065 27-MAY-1944 (Photograph). SKE55973.

<3> 1947, NMR RAF/CPE/UK/1923 4082 16-JAN-1947 (Photograph). SKE58960.

<4> Public Record Office, 1914, PRO: WO 78/4400 Chatham Field Defences 8.11.1914 (Archive). SKE58402.

<5> English Heritage, 2011, 05-OCT-2011/English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project (Verbal communication). SKE59200.