Across the country hundreds of air raid shelters were built at the outbreak of World War Two, both above and beneath the surface with the majority built across the South-East. We’ve visited two shelters, one by the coast and the other down the road in Broadstairs. We haven’t published the location of these shelters to…
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Nearly 1,000 anti-aircraft sites were built during the Second World War and 192 were retained for use with nuclear weapons in what would be known as the Cold War. Under a plan code named ‘Igloo’, 78 sites were chosen with 54 having guns permanently mounted however at the outbreak of the Korean War, 683 batteries…
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Overlooking the A127 with views spanning from Essex to London, the Grade II-listed All Saints Church has stood semi-abandoned for decades until 2021 when an army of volunteers set about transforming the area to make it more visitor friendly. The current building isn’t the first church to be built on that spot, in fact it’s…
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This Isle of Sheppey, which name comes from Old English for ‘Sheep Island’, was once two isles, Harty to the south east and the Isle of Elmley to the south west which have overtime merged, giving us the one island we know today. The port at Sheerness dates back to the 17th Century when it was established by…
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Seventeen miles west of Cardiff is the small village of St Athan’s, where this derelict village remains off of an unassuming country road. The idea for building a holiday camp first arose in 1923 when two philanthropists, co-founders of the Boys’ Clubs of Wales, visited a similar site in New Romney, Kent. The Boys’ Club…
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The SS Richard Montgomery was a US Liberty Ship, constructed in 1943. In 1944 it was part of a convoy delivering explosives with 7,000 tonnes on this ship along. Whilst heading to Sheerness on August 12th 1944, the ships anchor was caught in the sandbanks off the Kent coast, causing the vessel to become grounded….
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At the outbreak of World War II, the Port of London was the busiest port in the world. As such, a large proportion of supplies to the UK entered by ships navigating the Thames. The German Navy quickly sought to put a stranglehold on this route, and to this end, utilised a new secret weapon…
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Now an overgrown brownfield site, this was once the factory for one of the leading fireworks companies in the whole of the UK. Joseph Wells was the founder of ‘Wells Fireworks’ and established it in Dartford in 1837. He learnt his trade as an explosive lighter man, working along the Thames. The company rapidly became…
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Above the surface it looks like a normal country cottage, but beneath the building lies something completely different – a nuclear bunker. The only clue from above the surface is a pylon, although beneath the surface various rooms were build to accommodate a team to keep the country running in the event of a nuclear…
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In April 1959 proposals were revealed for a new County Library premises, which had been approved by the council but needed funding of £144,000 plus almost £20,000 for archives. Meeting notes from the time reveal that signification improvements in concrete structures since the Second World War meant that pre-cast concrete buildings were becoming more common,…
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