Record Details
| NHER Number: | 33897 |
|---|
| Type of record: | Monument |
|---|
| Name: | Warham dummy airfield World War Two control bunker |
|---|
Summary
A site visit in 1998 confirmed the presence of a World War Two building on this site. This is the remains of a control bunker for the Warham dummy airfield site (NHER 23142), for RAF Langham, and was built in 1944. The two chambers were an operations room and a generator room. A 'lookout' platform was a mounting for a decoy airfield searchlight.
Images - none
Location
| Grid Reference: | TF 9437 4300 |
|---|
| Map Sheet: | TF94SW |
|---|
| Parish: | WARHAM, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK |
|---|
Full description
West of Garden Drove.
Bunker. Consists of tall (around 3m to 4m) mound of earth covering corrugated iron structure of rounded profile. Entrance to north (towards sea) between brick walls, now ruinous. Within chamber there remains a metal table fixed to the floor and a circular outlet at ground level. Above chamber is a lookout platform retaining handrails. At south end of chamber a metal door gives access to a cross passage open to the air and walled in brick. Beyond this is a second, similar but smaller, chamber containing two bases or stands formerly fed by pipes from water tanks remaining on top.
Large (around 1m diameter) ceramic pipe projects south at top of mound, and some distance to south a brick honeycomb grill at ground level. Structure is on south slope of hill, over crest from sea. Remarkably well preserved example of a type found elsewhere in area.
E. Rose (NLA), 22 October 1998.
English Heritage note; this is a K site decoy bunker. The smaller chamber housed the generators, the larger the control and stove: the lookout platform was in fact for shining a searchlight to imitate aircraft movements.
E. Rose (NLA), 23 October 2000.
The building is the control bunker for the Warham Q site (NHER 23142), a night time dummy airfield for RAF Langham, built summer 1944. The bunker had blast walls to the north and west entrances (the cross passage referred to), still partially roofed in 1970. The north chamber was the operations room, the south chamber the generator room. The 'lookout' platform was the mounting for the chance light - a decoy airfield searchlight.
See (S1) in file.
A. Miller (Suffolk County Council NMP)
D. Gurney (NLA), 13 February 2002.
Monument Types
- BOMBING DECOY (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
- UNDERGROUND MILITARY HEADQUARTERS (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
Associated Finds - none
Protected Status - none
Sources and further reading
| --- | Monograph: Fairhead, H.. 1996. Huby Fairhead's Decoy Sites. Wartime Deception in Norfolk and Suffolk.. pp 29-30. |
| --- | Aerial Photograph: Ordnance Survey. 1970. OS 70-008-(205-6). |
| <S1> | Map: NMP Plot. |
Related records
| 23142 | Related to: Site of World War Two bombing decoy airfield (Monument) |
Find out more...