This cafe at Tankerton
was cut off by barbed wire and coastal defences. Picture dated
April, 1945

If you know where to look, the traces of
war are still to be found along the Kent coastline.

Concrete blocks, known as dragons’ teeth
or coffins because of their shapes, were sown in the ground in
their hundreds to stop tanks. Some remain, like rotting teeth.

Crumbling pillboxes, originally
camouflaged as farm buildings, cottages or even haystacks, are
hidden in undergrowth.

Stunted remains of scaffold poles, once
part of our first line of coastal defence, stick from the mud at
low tide.

All still there 70 years after the
Second World War began - for the North Kent coast was once
part of Britain’s frontline.

As the nation braced itself for the
likelihood of a Nazi invasion the coastline was defended with
what was known as the “coastal crust” - a scaffold pole fence
strung with barbed wire and backed-up with minefields, anti-tank
traps and pillboxes.

Now those dark days are being recalled
in a new exhibition, the Forgotten Frontline, which opens at the
Whitstable Museum and Gallery on Saturday, September 12 and runs
until November 16.

Local historian, archaeologist and
senior Kent police officer Mark Harrison has been using his
detection skills to gather material for the exhibition for the last
two or three years.

“Many people have had remarkable
stories to tell about wartime Whitstable,” he said. “But others
have no idea of what life was like living under the shadow of enemy
attack from sea or air at any time.

“The purpose of the exhibition is to
show how the area from Seasalter to Swalecliffe prepared for war
and faced up to the very real prospect of a German
invasion.”

The centrepiece of the exhibition is a
wall display of aerial photographs showing many of the wartime
defensive structures in the Whitstable area.

The photographs were taken by the RAF as
part of a national survey in 1946 to assess the damage inflicted by
the war.

Faversham Road in
Seasalter, opposite Waldens Store

Photographs, including some rarely
shown ones, from the KM Group’s wartime are also among
the exhibits.

Organisers are local history group
Timescapes, Mapping Kent, historian Dr Sandra Dunster and
Canterbury City Council, with support from numerous
organisations including Kent County Council, English Heritage,
Heritage Open Days, Kent Coastal Network, Whitstable Improvement
Trust and the KM Group.

Contact the museum on 01227 276998 or visit http://timescapes.spaces.live.com/