| Summary : Artillery battery for coastal defence battery, built between 1867 and 1869 and originally known as Grain Battery. In co-operation with Grain Fort, it crossed its fire with the guns at Sheerness. It was an open battery in the form of a J-shaped earthwork with a concrete core . The armament was an unknown number of heavy rifled muzzle-loaders, possibly 4 or 5 of them, firing through embrasures. Rebuilt and renamed in 1905, it was upgraded with two 4.7-inch breech-loaders for use against torpedo-boats or destroyers. By the First World War it was obsolete for river defence, but was armed with two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns. It went out of use after the First World War and has been severely mutilated by demolitions and excavations for materials in the 1950s. The earthwork and structural remains of the Grain/Dummy Battery was mapped from 1942 RAF aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project |
More information : [TQ 893 756] Dummy Battery (NAT) (1)
[TQ 893 753] Grain Battery, 1865 to house 9" rifle muzzle-loading guns. Dummy Battery, 1900 to house twin breech-loaders, still extant. (2)
This was an open battery for 14 guns bearing on the entrance to the Medway and was constructed at the same time as Grain Fort. It was then proposed to provide 10 guns on Moncrieff carriages, but these never materialised and eventually 11in RML were installed. They were replaced in about 1895 by 6in BL guns, a battery of four being installed. Like Grain Fort it had active status until 1956, and was sold in 1961 and
demolished in 1962. (sic) (3)
Additional bibliography. (3)
TQ 892 756
Originally named Grain Battery, it was partially remodelled in 1905 for two 4.7-inch QF guns with a magazine under, a separate battery observation post and a troop shelter behind the main trace. At this time also it was renamed as Dummy Battery. During the First World War it was used for anti-aircraft defence, after which it appears to have gone out of use.
The battery was severely damaged in the 1950's when the south-western part of the trace was removed and the earth and sand cover removed from much of the remainder, leaving only an L-shaped concrete core and the 4.7-inch battery intact, though the latter now appears more prominent than originally built. The `moat' around the battery is also a creation of the 1950's. Nothing is left of the original emplacements of 1867 and all the support buildings behind the trace have been removed.
The concrete remains of the 4.7-inch battery include both gun emplacements, the battery observation post survives and the magazine.
Dummy Battery was surveyed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England between March and April 1998, following a request from Kent County Council and as part of a European project looking at similar sites in Kent, Nord-Pas de Calais and West Flanders. See archive report and plans. (4)
Two gun emplacements and battery observation post survive in reasonable condition. The earthworks have been subject to alteration and now include a moat. The magazines to the rear of the emplacements have been removed. (11)
The earthwork and structural remains of the Grain/Dummy Battery described by the previous authorities was mapped from 1942 RAF aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (12) |