More information : The conun drum is located at TR 0842 2201, approximately 30m to the seaward side of the Second World War anti-invasion beach scaffolding at Greatstone-on-Sea (Monument Number 1533948). It is rectangular in plan view, measuring 13 by 18 metres. These drums were attached to the rear of pipeline-laying ships, and their considerable size was due to the fact that the rigid metal pipeline could not be wound onto a drum of smaller diameter. Online sources report that during the pipeline-laying process; one of the conun drums broke free from its ship and washed up on the beach at Greatstone-on-Sea. These websites (noted here in the Sources section) contain ground-based photographs of the stranded drum, complete with its unravelling pipeline. It is thought that the conun drum mapped and recorded here is this particular documented example. It can also clearly be seen at this location in an RAF oblique aerial photograph of 1947. By the time of the next available vertical aerial photograph of 1959; the conun drum had been removed (1-5). |