Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

Decoy airfield.
Landing lights, with length of railway track along which dummy aircraft were moved. Foundations of buildings said to remain.
Information from Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum.
E.Rose (NAU), 17 May 1993.

N Series (Naval) decoy, type SF/QL. (S1)
D.Gurney (NLA), 28 January 1997.

January 2006. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 484 215 to TG 4791 2185.

The Naval decoy described above (there is no evidence of a decoy airfield having been located here) was one of two SF / QL decoys for the naval base at Great Yarmouth, the other being sited at Lound in Suffolk ((S2), p 270). This is the same site (site N9 YA1) as that recorded as NHER 13606. It appears to have been established after July 1941 ((S2), fig. 25), but presumably existed by March 1943 when it was apparently bombed (S3). Possible bomb craters located in the surrounding area (NHER 42362 160m to the north, NHER 42364 150m to the south) may be the product of this or other attacks. The decoy was almost certainly associated with the military base and coastal defences less than 250m to its east (NHER 42183). Parts of the decoy are visible as earthworks and structures on aerial photographs (S4)-(S10), centred at approximately TG 4791 2185.

The site comprises several different types of feature, all visible on aerial photographs taken in 1944 (S4). Groups of structures surrounded by trenches visible at the southern end of the site (e.g. at TG 4807 2156), at TG 4797 2196, and at TG 4779 2182 were almost certainly elements of the Starfish (SF) site. The lines of structures would have held the fires and fuel, while the trenches would have acted as a firebreak. Possible banks visible at TG 4805 2161 and TG 4806 2157 may instead be further fire apparatus. Other elements, such as the row of three structures on concrete bases visible along the east side of the site from TG 4812 2169 to TG 4803 2187, or the pairs of concrete pads (or scars from the removal of a structure) at TG 4804 2187, TG 4798 2175, TG 4782 2206 and TG 4794 2206, are likely to have been part of the QL site. These may have been the positions for lights (see Dobinson 2000 (S2), p 143, fig. 32 for a description of the Naval decoy at Nare Point). In addition, a number of other features are visible, the function of which is unknown. They consist of a concrete cylinder at TG 4803 2175 which was still visible in 2002 (S10), perhaps indicating an agricultural rather than military origin; a small square ditched enclosure at TG 4800 2186 which may have enclosed a structure in 1944 (S4) but the latter was not clear enough to map; a group of rather unclear, possibly temporary structures or equipment, as well as disturbed ground (the extent of which has been mapped), at TG 4793 2185; a further structure, perhaps the decoy shelter, at TG 4790 2186; and a possible emplacement or embanked structure at TG 4776 2185. Probable man-made pits or circular areas of scarred ground are visible at TG 4795 2204, TG 4777 2202 and TG 4771 2199; possible pairs of pits are visible at TG 4778 2201 and TG 4786 2188; possible rectilinear arrangements of four pits are visible at TG 4775 2191 and TG 4777 2188, the latter within a more general area of disturbed ground, the extent of which has been mapped. A second area of pitted or disturbed ground is visible at TG 4783 2198. A possible bomb crater is visible at TG 4777 2199, and is still visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs taken in 2002 (S10). The length of railway-type track mentioned above and by bibliographic sources (S11) is not visible; perhaps the arrangment of lights was meant to imitate Great Yarmouth's urban railway lines, as at the Naval SF / QL decoy at Nare Point (S2) (p 143).

Although the decoy had largely been dismantled by September 1945 (S5) some elements of it may still survive on the ground, including the bomb crater and concrete cylinder described above. The firebreak trenches towards the northern end of the site (at TG 4797 2196 and TG 4779 2182), which remained visible as earthworks for some time after the end of the war (e.g. (S8)) appear to have now been levelled (S10).
S. Tremlett (NMP), 23 January 2006.

July 2009.
[1] states that the site was meant to look like Great Yarmouth harbour from the air. The 'starfish' site shelter and a blast wall survive.
See (S11) for further details
H. White (NLA), 7 July 2009

Monument Types

• BOMB CRATER (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• BOMBING DECOY (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• FIRE TRENCH (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• PIT (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• QL SITE (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• SHELTER (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• STARFISH SITE (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• STRUCTURE (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• TRENCH (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

Related records - none

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Winterton on Sea (Parish Summary)