Record Details

NHER Number:38795
Type of record:Monument
Name:Possible World War Two searchlight or anti-aircraft battery

Summary

A possible World War Two searchlight battery and/or anti-aircraft battery is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The site lies approximately one and a quarter kilometres from the modern coastline which was heavily defended during the war. Four bomb craters from a World War Two raid have been identified 500m to the east (NHER 38796). The cropmarks are only visible on one set of vertical aerial photographs, however, and there is no sign of military activity in this field on aerial photographs from 1946. There is consequently some doubt as to the origin of the cropmarks, and it is possible that they represent recent agricultural activity rather than a site of archaeological significance.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TG 2465 3957
Map Sheet:TG23NW
Parish:NORTHREPPS, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

September 2004. Norfolk NMP.
A possible World War Two searchlight and/or anti-aircraft battery is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 2466 3957. The morphology and location of the site suggests this date and function, but ring ditches of possible prehistoric date have been identified in the area (e.g. NHER 11708 350m to the north-east) and other interpretations are possible. The site, however, is broadly comparable to a searchlight battery at Gimingham (NHER 34407), five kilometres to the south-east, which also occupies a position approximately one kilometre inland from the modern coastline. The fact that no trace of the site is visible on 1946 aerial photographs suggests that either its archaeological origin is doubtful or the battery was dismantled and ploughed before or immediately after the end of the war.

The site consists of two conjoined ring ditches measuring 20-30m in diameter. The south-western ring ditch is large for a searchlight emplacement. A third possible ring ditch or partial ring ditch, defined by a less substantial ditch, lies just to the south-east. This is crossed by a linear ditch of unknown date and function. (S1)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 16 September 2004.

Monument Types

  • DITCH (Unknown date)
  • RING DITCH (Unknown date)
  • ANTI AIRCRAFT BATTERY (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
  • GUN EMPLACEMENT (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
  • SEARCHLIGHT BATTERY (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

<S1>Vertical Aerial Photograph: Meridian Airmaps Limited. 1965. MAL 65080 071-2 19-SEP-1965 (NMR).

Related records - none

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