ESCAPE ROUTE BEWARE Cliff Death Drop FOR LYDDEN SPOUT BUNKER

ydden Spout Battery is one of a number of coastal batteries established during WW2 along the Kent Coast. It was built in 1941 and manned by men of 520 Coastal Regiment Royal Artillery. The battery was located on the south side of a dead end minor road running west from Dover (now the A20) and in April 1941 was armed with three 6" Mk. VII naval guns on Mk. V mountings. These were later changed to Mk. XXIV guns on Mk. V mountings. They were 45 degree high angle guns giving then a longer range and they fired a 102lb shell a maximum of 24,550 yards on a full charge. The battery is identical to Fan Bay Battery on the east side of Dover.

Although initially little appears visible as most of the buildings have been demolished most of the underground features are still intact. The three emplacements are still extant although they have been infilled with only the concrete surrounding them visible.

The three magazines serving the emplacements are still accessible with care as is the deep level shelter.

The most prominent features are two single storey brick buildings beside a public footpath on the south side of the A20. The smaller of the two buildings, closer to the A20, was the Warrant Officer’s and Sergeants' Mess. This is a rectangular brick building with an extension on one end with an entrance porch and a ladder up to the roof on the wall alongside.

The second larger building is roughly ‘T’ shaped; this was the dining room and cookhouse. Both buildings have been completely stripped of all fixtures and fittings including windows and doors and are now used as cattle sheds. All other buildings on the site have been demolished although some footings are visible as are the roads.

Just past the dining room on the opposite side of the camp road there is a large earth covered mound. Beneath this is the underground battery plotting room and command post. The main entrance block was demolished in the 1960’s although the backfilled access shaft is still visible on top of the mound. At the southern end of the mound is the emergency escape shaft with a hinged metal hatch. This was sealed with concrete in the 1960’s but was re-opened in March 2003 giving access to the well preserved plotting room below.

Each battery within that fortress also had its own underground plotting room that could just control the guns for that battery. At South Foreland the fortress and battery plotting rooms were at different locations, 400 yards apart but at Hougham the two plotting rooms were co-located within the same bunker.

Although the main entrance to the deep shelter has been backfilled with no trace remaining a secondary entrance is still accessible by climbing down the now disused cliff path and steps, which can be found by following the footpath south from the A20 beyond the coastal path. About 60 feet down there is a retaining wall and just beyond this some brickwork can be seen 20 yards to the east of the cliff path. Extreme care should be taken here as it is necessary to traverse across a scree slope and then climb up to the entrance that is located behind the brickwork. It is strongly advised to use a properly rigged safety line as a loss of footing on the climb could prove fatal. The traverse and climb should not be attempted when the ground is wet as the chalk is very slippery.

Behind the brick wall is the partially collapsed tunnel entrance and just inside the original wooden door is still in place. The tunnel roof here is very unstable and it is necessary to crawl across a number of large blocks of chalk that have fallen out of the roof to reach open tunnel. Beyond two major roof falls the rest of the network of tunnels are sound and safe to explore with no further roof collapses.


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email me at me@thematthewwilliams.com
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Also present on this explore were
Exploring Within - https://www.youtube.com/user/richtea8
Vacant Haven - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn8Bi7M05rRsINBxQ_LbyIw
Hidden History with Ray - https://www.youtube.com/user/beale7125
Glen - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClqJDPolwHgpgJl-r9PTQZg

Equipment used:
DJI Mavic Zoom DRONE
Sony A7s ii with Samyang 14mm full frame lens
Dji Pocket 2 camera
Insta 360x R
BOBLOV 32GB Ambarella A7L50 Bodyworn Infra Red Camera
Adobe Premiere Pro 2020
Ryzen 5950X
65GB Ram
Windows 10 (No Apple shiz here)
Nvidia RTX 3950 GFX

#Abandonedplaces #Abandonedplacesuk #urbexuk #undergroundbunker #urbexexploration #urbex_europe_ #urbextreme #urbexphotography #DerelictBuildings #frozenintime #timecapsule
#abandoned