AN IGLOO style building erected to defend Chatham Dockyard from French invasion has been uncovered at a Kent college campus.

The nineteenth century Napoleonic listening post was found during work at the new Mid Kent College (MKC) site in Prince Arthur Road, Lower Lines, Brompton.

The extraordinary domed structure would have been used as a monitoring station for soldiers to listen out for enemy sapping activity (tunnel digging). It has been confirmed by experts at English Heritage to be the only known exposed listening post of its type in the UK.

The fascinating discovery was unearthed during construction works for the new £76 million college campus. The project, led by developer Kier Build began at the end of August.

The new campus will have three buildings linked by two enclosed pavilions, providing some 28,000sq m of education space catering for a number of activities including media, IT, science and animal care. None will affect the archaeological find.

Due to the historical importance of this find, it is hoped the listening post and the network of tunnels connected to it will be carefully preserved. Archaeologists are currently on site continuing to uncover the station.

In the near future a team from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust will be meeting some of MKC’s history students to demonstrate techniques use to unearth relics from the past.

MKC project director Jane Jones, said: “For an education institution, having a unique historical structure on our site is very exciting and we are keen to ensure that the history of this and the rest of the important heritage of the site is a focal point for students and other visitors to the campus.”

“Fortunately for us, this find is in a position where it will not have a major impact on our build programme so we will still be opening in September 2009.’