Short Brothers Rochester

In 1913 the Short Brothers, Horace, Eustace and Oswald, moved their aircraft manufacturing to the Esplanade Rochester. A large factory, known as the Seaplane Works, was built enabling the brothers to concentrate on production of flying boats and float planes. Production continued after WW1 until the early part of WW2 when production was moved to Windermere and Belfast because of the threat of German bombing.
Oswald Short thought that Neville Chamberlaine's 'peace in our time' declaration was falsely optimistic and that there would be a war. Shorts employed 11,000 workers in Rochester and Oswald set about planning to keep them safe. Oswald was studying in America when Britain declared war and took the first available flight home. He set about building two tunnels into the chalk cliffs behind the factory at his own expense. The tunnels and connecting spurs and shaft run for about 3 miles and were lined with concrete and bricks with electric lighting, water supplies and ventilation and 8 entrances for the workers to access the underground shelters.
Today there is only one entrance which is hidden and locked to avoid vandalism.

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Source

• Text: Sharky Ward
• Photos: Anthony (Sharky) Ward (1, 2, 3), See page for author, (4)
• https://shortbrothersaviationpioneers.co.uk/rochester