Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

July 2016. 'Brecks from Above' and Breckland National Mapping Programme.
The site of a Second World War military camp, Gurkha hospital and post-war Polish resettlement camp at Weeting Hall (NHER 5637). The Hall and the surrounding park was requisitioned for military use and had multiple functions during the war. A militia camp was established in 1939 (ADS S5) and was a holding camp for the 1st Battalion of The Rifle Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division in the lead up to the Normandy landings in 1944. The site was also used as a hospital for wounded Indian and Gurkha soldiers. The camp was occupied in mid to late 1945 by 'B' Company, 8th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment, who were awaiting demobilisation or further duties in the Far East (S6-S7). Post-war the camp was used to house displaced Polish soldiers and their families from 1949 to 1955. The camp was for the 1st Medical Company (1st Komp. Sanitarna).
The site consists of several groups of large operational buildings and huts, largely clustered around Weeting Hall itself. The remainder of the buildings are located within parkland to the west of the Hall. A large proportion of the accommodation consists of pairs of curved profile huts, nissens or similar structures, which are grouped into clusters of threes. Due to time pressures within this busy area, not all of these groups of huts have been mapped – only one group of three pairs have been included to give a representation of the layout. Reference of the 1945-6 aerial photographs (S1-S3) will provide the location of the remainder. A further arrangement of huts are located around a broad circuit of hard standing/concrete roadway at the entrance to the site.
To the north of the Hall is a type 22 pillbox, set within an area of slit trenches and weapons pits and emplacements. Other small defensive earthworks are located elsewhere in the parkland.
S. Horlock (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 13 July 2016.

Monument Types

• DISPLACED PERSONS CAMP (World War Two to Cold War - 1939 AD to 1992 AD)
• GUN EMPLACEMENT (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• MILITARY CAMP (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• MILITARY HOSPITAL (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• PILLBOX (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• PRACTICE TRENCH (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• SLIT TRENCH (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• WEAPONS PIT (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

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