At Moat Farm on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent overlooking the Thames lies an unsuspecting grain store of unusual sloped shape. Believe it or not, this is the roof of an airship (zeppelin) shed dating to the Great War, originally situated at Kingsnorth. The fact this is only the top section; already huge, suggests the size of the original hangar. The airship shed section made of timber; still remaining inside, appears to have been concreted into the ground at its new location and has had corrugated tin cladding added to its sides and an asbestos cement roof at a later date. Still, the core frame of this building remains a rare historic survival. Only sixteen such buildings designed by Dalacombe Marechal & Hervieu Ltd for the Royal Navy Air Service were built in the First World War. It is not known if any other examples survive. There was an RNAS site at Kingsnorth not far from St. Mary Hoo where it was later relocated. It appears to have been operational roughly from 1915 to 1920, and was probably dismantled and moved around 1930.
Thanks to the kind farm owners for letting us take a look.
It is now a Grade II listed building. More information in detail here: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1393144
In our video below, you can see our footage of the shed:
This entry was posted in Location Report
Fabulous photos, though Zeppelin is a little misleading as Kingsnorth Airship Station specialised in non-rigid airships, sometimes called blimps. Submarine Scouts, Coastal and North Sea class airships were designed and built there. Kingsnorth is easy to spot in old aerial photo’s as it was the only station to have a wooden and a metal shed. There’s a rumour that the metal shed ended up at Rochester Airport after it was dismantled in 1938. The wooden sheds caused big rows in parliament as they were imported from Germany before war was declared.