Talk:RNAS Kingsnorth

Is this the same as RNAS Isle of Grain?
The location and history of this base is quite confused.

This article points to a location in an empty field, just north of Kingsnorth Power Plant. To the north appears to be a newer gas-fired plant. However, various references state that "the" field was co-located with Port Victoria. If one follows the link in that article, the location is the Grain Power Station further along to the coast to the east-northeast. There appears to be a new gas plant there as well.

It appears there were several different bases and depots in the area, although it is not at all clear how closely located these were. There is the addition confusion about the naming; I have seen articles that describe Port Victoria, RNAS Kingsnorth and RNAS Isle of Grain, apparently as different entities, although this may have been entirely organizational. One refers to the original base, whichever that may be, being closer to "the town", but that could refer to Grain, Hoo, or any of the other villages in the area.

Long and short - there may have been two or more bases in this area, separated along the shoreline by some distance. More work on this topic is certainly warranted. Maury Markowitz (talk) 12:58, 2 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Have you seen this website ? There may be some information in there somewhere. The fact that there were several aircraft types designated P.V.1, P.V.2 etc (for Port Victoria) and that the above well-researched website consistently refers to RNAS Isle of Grain (or simply 'Grain', after the town which gave the island its name) would suggest that these two locations were distinct entities. There is an aerial photo on that website which may provide further clues; on the left there appear to be several hangars, possibly with access to the river but with no direct access to the field (which seems to be blocked by railway sidings), while the hangars for the airfield face the field, albeit with a possibly taxiway to the shore, which would require towing on trailers. Perhaps comparing the aerial photo with Google earth and this OS map  will help. Google earth shows several rectangular shapes which correspond to the larger hangars on the left, nearer to the location of the Port Victoria railway station than the airfield. Kingsnorth Power Station is at Hoo St. Werburgh, Kent, some 4.5 miles due east of Port Victoria, not on the Isle of Grain at all. It is unlikely that there could have been confusion between Kingsnorth and the other two locations, which also seem to be separate entities. Let me know what you think. Thanks for raising the question.--TraceyR (talk) 16:00, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Update: another aerial photo from the Tondern Raid website identifies the hangars (on the left of the aerial photo mentioned above) as belonging to the Experimental Construction Depot at Port Victoria on the Isle of Grain, which was next to Grain airfield. No mention there of Kingsnorth that I can find.--TraceyR (talk) 16:42, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Kingsnorth was an airship base; some details here: . --TraceyR (talk) 16:53, 2 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Grain and Port Victoria were really the same, Grain was the airfield and Port Victoria as TraceyR says was the experimental department next to it. A 1916 map of Grain airfield (using the os map linked above) starts with the row of hangars just after the inlet next to Port Victoria on the map and then takes up most of the field up to the river to the west and north and all the coast. If you look at a modern aerial photo basically underneath the Grain Power Station, the nearby jetty was part of the airfield. It is just to the south of the geo link at Grain Power Station (which I think is actually the LNG plant). Oh and Kingsnorth is not connected to it. MilborneOne (talk) 20:16, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Excellent stuff guys! Do you think this should be used as the basis for a new article? Maury Markowitz (talk) 22:06, 3 December 2013 (UTC)