Site Records

SiteName: Grain Tower Battery

Grain
Kent
TQ89817603

Sub Brit site visit May 1996

A free standing, two storey barrack block was added to the north-west side of the tower to accommodate the increased compliment required to operate the battery. The new block incorporated a cookhouse, dining hall, sleeping quarters and latrines and had its own landing stage. There were three points of access from the tower, a reinforced concrete cat walk from the western end of the ablutions block to the top floor of the barracks, a set of steps up from the tower landing stage and a lower walkway from the tower landing stage to the barrack block landing stage.

The barrack block has been largely stripped but the cookhouse still retains its tiled walls and some pipes and supports indicating the position of the cooker and sink. There is a serving hatch through to the large dining hall which runs the width of the block. The latrines are at the north end of the dining hall with stairs down to the lower level. The lower floor consists of a shower room and the sleeping quarters, a single large room with a partitioned room in one corner for an NCO.

In 1954 the personnel required to operate Grain Tower Battery were 56 men and two officers. Of this number 16 had jobs on shore (engine room etc.) or jobs that didn't require a permanent presence on the Tower (cooks etc) this left 42 men to be accommodated on the Tower. There were 4 beds available in the barrack room in the tower, 16 hammock spaces in the Men's Shelter and 25 beds in the new barrack block.

Grain Tower can be visited at low tide when the causeway is exposed for two hours, access to the inside of the tower is difficult however as the steps have gone making access to the first floor entrance difficult.

Source: RCHME (Now English Heritage) Report on Grain Fortifications

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