Reproduced below are some boyhood reminiscences of Ray Milton who explored the site of Capel Battery as a 14 year old boy in the early 1960's.

It was around 1960/61 when I was about 14 years old, together with a couple of friends we often used to visit what we then called the Capel army camp. This was a group of derelict buildings and gun emplacements of world war 2 vintage on the cliff top just above Folkestone in Kent, just off the old Dover Road. This disused military site was wide open to the public with no fences and only a few “keep out “ signs which were obviously not meant to apply to a group of 14 year old adventurers. We were always aware of the 3 or 4 small buildings close to the Old Dover Rd at Capel, but as these were all unlocked with broken windows and easily accessible they never proved to be of much interest. On the edge of the cliff was a metal shuttered lookout post which was much more fun because it was partly buried, although it was empty the position made it seem more intriguing. 

The 2 gun emplacements were really just strange circular concrete structures which didn't really leave much to the imagination. What was really interesting was the two small brick built buildings, each about the size of a garden shed, which had no windows and padlocked steel doors. It took us many weeks to eventually remove the padlock from the door of the one nearest to Folkestone and what an adventure that proved to be. Inside the building was nothing but a steel trapdoor in the floor, under this there was a concrete shaft with a steel ladder, the ladder went down for about 15 ft which took you into a small room probably no more than 10 ft square. In one corner of this room was a concrete lined tunnel about 2ft wide and about 4ft tall. Next to the tunnel was a metal counter with just enough room for someone to stand behind. On the wall opposite the ladder was a metal door which led into the next room. This room was huge, probably about 20 ft square with concrete walls and what looked like a steel vaulted ceiling, although this may also have been concrete, we were only armed with feeble torches and a few candles at the time. On one wall of the room was a blackboard, not the old fashioned one on a stand but a roller type. I seem to remember there were some desks and chairs but I cannot recall how many or of what type. Opposite the entrance door was another metal door which led to a small room which was almost entirely filled by 2 huge metal fans with a vertical air duct above them. 

On returning to the small entrance room we decided to explore the concrete tunnel. Although this was quite easy to get into, it was difficult to manoeuvre inside . There was a gentle downward slope and a 90 degree left turn at regular intervals, even in candle light it was obvious that we were travelling downwards in a spiral. The further we went the smaller the tunnel became. We only went down about 3 or 4 levels because there wasn't enough room to turn around and crawling backwards in the dark is not easy. I can only assume it was a drainage tunnel because it certainly wasn't made to fit normal sized people. All this exploration took place over a few visits, mainly because we never seemed to have enough candles. On our final visit the door to the building above ground had not only been fitted with a new padlock, it had also been welded shut. We never gained access to the other building, although as it was of identical appearance above ground we assumed it was similar below. 

Around that time my interest shifted to the opposite sex and exploring old army camps was no longer much fun. About a year later, the buildings were demolished and all above ground evidence was removed, apart from the lookout post which is still there today.. I would guess the entrance and ventilation shafts were just filled in. Filling in the rooms as well would have been a mammoth task. I would imagine they are still there just waiting to be re-discovered. During the 1980's a local landowner bought part of the site to the West of the gun emplacements and attempted to excavate a World War Two underground hospital which was known to be on the site. Sadly his efforts had to be abandoned because most of the structure had collapsed. I did re-visit the site fairly recently but it was mid summer and I wasn't suitably dressed to go diving about in a load of brambles looking for clues. Apart from the landscaping further down on the site where the Battle of Britain memorial now stands, the part of the site where the underground rooms were has remained untouched and used only by a few dogwalkers ( and probably some 14 year old adventurers who just don't know what they are missing). 

I haven't really made any serious attempt to find out more about this site but nobody local seems to have been aware of it. I would be nice to hear from anyone who has any further information or even remembers it. Please be aware that the information I have given above is all from memory of about 45 years ago and although I have made no attempt to elaborate on things I can't really guarantee how accurate the information is now.