Rochester Site planning applications 1934 - 1940

The information on the diagram is from the 'Notice of Intended Building' register held by Medway Archives.

Medway Archives hold all of the referenced drawings as submitted to Rochester City Council, with the exception of #3639 (Aircraft Shed : Mar 1934).

#3639 (Aircraft Shed : Mar 1934)

Because the drawings are not available for this 40' Hangar building, further investigation of, for example, contemporary local newspapers, will be required to ascertain details of the origin of this building.

The booklet 'A Brief History of Rochester Airport' includes an aerial photograph of Rochester Airport in 1935, showing this as the sole Short Bros building at that time.
* It also claims that it is 'ex-Kingsnorth airship hangars', but no evidence has been provided to support this claim, and there are valid reasons suggesting that the claim cannot be true.

* Local RAeS records allege that these Hangars were acquired from Cardington and were then reassembled at Rochester Airport by Redpath Brown (now part of Tata Steel). Again there is no known evidence, and the Airship Heritage Trust at Cardington have no record or knowledge of any sheds other than the two which still exist as Cardington Studios.


#5089 (Flight Shed : Jul 1939)

The drawings for this 40' Hangar building contain the text 'For detail & sizes of steelwork see drawings by Harland & Wolff Ltd.', thus suggesting that it was new (i.e. not a repurposed building acquired from another site) and was designed for Short Bros to match and extend the existing #3639 Hangar.

A local newspaper reported that in June 1940, during construction of this building, some steel girders collapsed killing four men and badly injuring another three. All these men were employees of Harland and Wolff structural engineers.

* The local RAeS records have the story that this Hangar (with the curved roof) came from the Kingsnorth (Hoo) Royal Naval Airship Station, but again no evidence has been provided to support this claim, and there are valid reasons suggesting that the claim cannot be true.