Hougham Battery Plotting Room, Dover

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DigitalNoise

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Well, after a few weeks of poor explores I thought I'd jump in the car and do something proper. My instinct took me to Dover, I'd been meaning to get down here again for ages and by 'eck I'm glad I did. A quick wander on the coastline and within a couple of minutes I found this......


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The hatch took some lifting but I was quite smug when I looked into the shaft. My main concern was whether the strong wind would blow the hatch shut again. Fingers were crossed!

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The tunnel at the base of the shaft.

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Once at the end of the tunnel there is a door leading into the plotting room. This entrance would have been the emergency exit.

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Inside the plotting room

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The plotting room would have been for the local coastal artillery batteries, directing their fire towards the enemy.

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Frustratingly, I couldn't get into this door.

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Through the open door is the plant room, with some ventilation kit still in place.

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Switchgear still on the wall.

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Lying on the floor are plenty of air filters, I presume these were for respirators rather than the ventilation system.

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Certainly beats an ROC Post!
I've got several more sites to come yet, it'll probably take me a week to sift through the hundreds of images I took , but watch this space....
 
I love the look of this. It looks in good condition too. Any idea when it was vacated? Where in Dover is this? Is it up on the cliffs? I found an odd hole in the ground, and there was definitely something there, but I couldn't get in due to a large blockage.
 
Yeah, this is on the cliffs west of Dover. There's plenty of holes in the ground, If I was half the size, and had a spare month, I'd have checked some more out!
It was WW2 era, so probably vacated late 40's or so.
 
looks maybe empty at least since the 80's, possibly even 70's? to me anyway :)

Love the photos, especially the one with the small escape hatch to another room from the plotting room. Think if you oiled that door it might open?
 
Cheers guys. That door was locked somehow. I could get it to move, but only by a few mil. I kept fiddling with the little handles on the sides but to no avail. Shame really:(
 
Great pics DN!! You beat me to this one, as I'm off to it in the next couple of days:lol: Did you do the Lydden Spout Rifle Range and the Acoustic Mirror too?
 
Cheers Godzilla, I reccomend it, top place to explore. This has turned out to be the Lydden Spout plotting room, the Hougham one is much bigger and quite close.
Didn't do the range, I didnt see it until I looked on google after. The whole trip was a spur of the moment job, did loads but you'd need weeks to do everything in Dover. Ill be back during the next month or so.
The detatched bastion is definately worth a trip, best place of the day by far. St Margrets deep shelter has to be done too.
 
Cheers Godzilla, I reccomend it, top place to explore. This has turned out to be the Lydden Spout plotting room, the Hougham one is much bigger and quite close.
Didn't do the range, I didnt see it until I looked on google after. The whole trip was a spur of the moment job, did loads but you'd need weeks to do everything in Dover. Ill be back during the next month or so.
The detatched bastion is definately worth a trip, best place of the day by far. St Margrets deep shelter has to be done too.

Yeah - I know! I spent 19 years there and didn't manage to fit everything in!!! I'm doing the rifle range and a few other bits in the near future - probably do Hougham as well. We can compare pics!! Good job though, both on this and the bastion - can't believe I spent so much time in that place as a teenage ne'er-do-well without really realising what it was!!!
 
Right - after a bit of a chat with some local MOD "sources" its clear that (as I had suspected) this place was in use right up until the 80s - this may explain some of the slightly more modern features that DN has identified. Still doing more research, so will let you know!
 

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