St Margaret's Battery / Z Rocket, Dover, July 2010

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chinc

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Joined
Jul 14, 2010
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Location
Surrey
This battery was the location of of the "Z Rocket", an anti-aircraft weapon during WW2.

The situation inside is slightly precarious, in the un-made section the roof was propped up with wooden logs and railway sleepers, but most of these have now fallen away - but the chalk seems to be doing a good job of supporting itself regardless.

Further inside some of the wooden railway sleepers and metal panelling and obviously struggling from bits of chalk that have fallen off. One of the former entrances is covered with chalk and masonry.

Loads more photos are here.

Looking down from one of the entrances, air conditioning ducting at the bottom.

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Wooden sleepers are bowing in the middle from the pressure.

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Surprisingly dry overall, some of the wooden panelling is in pretty good condition.

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Not obvious where this soil has come from, there's no roof collapse or similar nearby.

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Half way up the stairs for the other entrance. The two parts of the stairs are at 90 degrees to each other.

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Looking up the stairs, I didn't hang around here too long as the masonry looked heavy ;)

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Down the stairs, some kind of wooden fitting on the ceiling.

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Material that presumably used to cover the entirety of the inside, it looked a little like it was tar treated to keep the water out.

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In the distance the light is from the hole in the cliff side that drops down some feet onto the rocks and water below.

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Precarious roof supports.

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Interesting place and it looks to be in good condition all things considered. Was it a single tunnel or did it have side rooms? I found the layout to be a bit confusing ,did the unlined section seem to be an unfinished part ? Nice Report:)
 
Hi,

Interesting place and it looks to be in good condition all things considered. Was it a single tunnel or did it have side rooms?

Two parallel tunnels with a number of interconnecting corridors.

There's a plan here:

http://www.kentexploration.co.uk/images/stories/ww2/st_margarets_battery/shelter/zbatteryplan.gif

I found the layout to be a bit confusing ,did the unlined section seem to be an unfinished part ?

I've read that the hole in the cliff was used to tip spoil out of, which could make more sense than taking it to the surface for disposal. If this is the case, then it could simply be a service tunnel to aid disposal, and never intended to be finished.

Nice Report:)

Thanks :)
 
Nicely done, it's a good explore that, I forgot how big it was.
According to the plan, the random pile of soil is from decomposed sandbags. :)
 
Thanks for the comments all.

Nicely done, it's a good explore that, I forgot how big it was.
According to the plan, the random pile of soil is from decomposed sandbags. :)

Yes, I enjoyed it a lot. I've just got the rest of the Dover-area ones on my todo list now :)

Well done for spotting that on the plan - I hadn't seen it before googling it in response to the questions.

Cheers.
 
Well, you're only in Surrey, so give us a shout if you do! I could easily spend the rest of my life wandering round dover!
 
A great report and photo's the sort of thing Fluffy loves.:)

TOO BLOODY RIGHT HE DOES !!!
Got to say that these are probably the best pics i've seen of any of the Dover shelters.Youve got that lighting spot on Fella !!! Fantastic work.
 
TOO BLOODY RIGHT HE DOES !!!
Got to say that these are probably the best pics i've seen of any of the Dover shelters.Youve got that lighting spot on Fella !!! Fantastic work.

Thanks a lot, appreciated. :)

They were 8-30 second exposures on a Canon EOS 7D at f10, illuminated with a Fenix L2D torch. A couple were done with just the flash. Post processing (white balance and levels) in Photoshop Lightroom.
 
fluffy5518;163822O said:
.. Got to say that these are probably the best pics i've seen of any of the Dover shelters.Youve got that lighting spot on Fella !!! Fantastic work.

Totally agree. :mrgreen: Great to see all the various features and your comments about them. Cracking report.
And welcome to DP, btw. :)
 

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