Record Details

NHER Number:30781
Type of record:Monument
Name:Second World War spigot mortar emplacement

Summary

A Second World War spigot mortar emplacement has been recorded on the ground as an extant structure. It is also visible as a structure and earthwork on aerial photographs taken in 1946. Docking was a category ‘A’ nodal point during the war (NHER 69317), and various anti-invasion defences were constructed at strategic locations around the village.

Images

  • Docking Spigot mortar thimble  © C. Kolonko

Location

Grid Reference:TF 7673 3716
Map Sheet:TF73NE
Parish:DOCKING, WEST NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

Mortar spigot.
See (S1).
Comp. E.Rose 1994

Source [2] states that the local Home Guard members tell him this was in fact a support for an anti-tank rocket launcher, not a mortar, in case German tanks landed at Brancaster.
E. Rose (NLA) 24 May 2000.

June 2025. Northwest Norfolk Aerial Investigation and Mapping (AI&M) Project.
A Second World War spigot mortar emplacement visible as an extant structure and earthwork on aerial photographs taken in 1945 (S2) is probably the same as the spigot mortar emplacement described above. There is a discrepancy of approximately 36m between the previously recorded location of the emplacement (at TF 7673 3716) and its location as mapped by the project, but the latter appears more likely to be correct. The site is probably also the same as the spigot mortar emplacement recorded approximately 48m to the north by the Historic England Archive (S3), on the basis of information derived from the Defence of Britain database. Again, it seems likely that all the records relate to the same emplacement, and that the location mapped by the project from the 1940s aerial photographs is the most accurate.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 18 June 2025.

Monument Types

  • SPIGOT MORTAR EMPLACEMENT (World War Two - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---Secondary File: Secondary File.
<S1>Unpublished Document: 1995. Norfolk Defensive Structures Survey.
<S2>Vertical Aerial Photograph: Various. Various. Vertical Aerial Photography from the Historic England Archive. RAF/106G/UK/1571 RP 3318-3319 07-JUN-1946.
<S3>Digital Dataset: Historic England. Historic England Research Record (formerly National Record for the Historic Environment; formerly National Monument Record). UNIQUE IDENTIFIER: 1418372, TF 73 NE 29.

Related records

69317Part of: Second World War category ‘A’ nodal point at Docking (Monument)

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