Anti Aircraft Unit North Wales Nov 1941

for your interest Map of Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun sites in England, Scotland and Wales

This shows Heavy Anti Aircraft sites around Hawarden. 5 miles from Kinnerton

 

I have no information on its AA Battery use, sorry.

It is unclear when it opened as a hostel but I suspect it was attached to and under Ledsham Hall camp, whose records seem have gone with the ruthless weeders over the years, both in MoD and FO. Ledsham was a camp founded in 1945 I think.

54 Prisoners in May 1947, closed by October 47. A couple of references in here if you look in the hostels list at the beginning of each camp inspection report See the brilliant site put together by Martin J Richards:
https://www.systonimages.co.uk/p143499731/he2568e50#he2568e50

 

For a closer view of the Kinnerton sites see the Mersey and Hawarden GDA maps on my site.

 

For interest I have posted pages from 33AA Brigade diary WO166/2258 from the last monthly entry of February 41 and you can see there is no mention of AA defences south west of Chester but of course could easily have been added later that year. If WO166/2259 has the same level of detail, hopefully you will find the AA Regiment / Battery you are after. At some point 2259 would be on my list to copy but no current plans to visit Kew I'm afraid.

 

Thank you so much....with my research i have been told there were mobile AA guns in kinnerton...but a more of a temporary position in addition there is structures located there (possibly cold war era) now used for paintball games. We noticed another structure a few hundred yards away in the farmers field and looks solid enough to hold ammo etc...this could of been the temporary position..

 

Mike Photos would Help

for further info

Historic England Research Records
Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery Mersey H22
Hob Uid: 1412960
Location :
Cheshire West and Chester
Dodleston
Grid Ref : SJ3415061880
Summary : Site of Second World War heavy anti aircraft battery VC/H22 near Bridge Farm, Lower Kinnerton. It was listed as unarmed in 1942, but was equipped with GL Mark II radar.
More information :
ANTI AIRCRAFT BATTERY. SRF
Heritage Gateway - Results


Dodlestone AA battery
Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 38561
Trust : Clwyd Powys
Community : Higher Kinnerton
Unitary authority : Flintshire
NGR : SJ34186168
Site Type (preferred type first) : MODERN ANTI AIRCRAFT BATTERY

Description :
Remains of AA battery with gun pits (PRNs 85607-85610) covered but probably intact, Nissen huts (used as ammunition stores PRNs 85615-85623), the generator house (PRN 85624) and the command post (PRN 38560) both with steel doors and shutters. Also surviving is an observation post (PRN 85625) and the gates (PRN 85626) and fencing of the site (PRN 85627). The battery dates from the post-war period and is "a most unusual and apparently intact survival of a Cold War defence site" (Defence of Britain Project, 1997).

5.25-inch gun site probably built about 1950. Also present are engine houses at the gun emplacements (PRNs 85611-85614), trackway (PRN 85628) and a simple ramp (PRN 85629) so that the mobile fire control radar could be raised above local ground clutter (Cocroft, Wayne, D & Thomas, Roger J C, 2003, pp151-3).

Ammunition store hut types are 'Elephants' rather than 'Nissens' (Thomas, R J C, pers. comm., 2004).

Domestic quarters made use of a disused Second World War AA gun-site/PoW camp just to the north, in Cheshire (at SJ3418661892). The battery (the only one of its type in Wales), formed part of a defence system for the ports and docks of Merseyside, there being similar batteries on the Wirral, though these are thought to have been destroyed (Jeff Spencer, CPAT, January 2004).

CPAT38561

 

As requested...photos from cold war era location kinnerton...