NHER 15089 (Monument record) - World War Two barrage balloon site

17 July 1979.
Reverse parch marks.

9 June 1980.
Concentric circules of pits; possible windmill site?
See detailed report in file.
D. Edwards (NAU) 31 July 1979.

More probably Naval gunnery training emplacement.
E. Rose (NAU) 6 August 1986.

13 September 1995. NLA air photography.
Mark is in grass very faint, but site is visible.
M. Brennand (NLA), 19 April 2001.

June 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two barrage balloon site is visible as extant structures, buildings and earthworks (subsequently demolished and levelled) on aerial photographs (S1) to (S4), centred at TG 5301 0947. The site is first visible on photographs taken in 1944 (e.g. S1) but may have existed for a number of years by this date. The balloon and some of the ancillary structures were removed by July 1944 (S2), but the concrete tethering blocks remained in place for several years (e.g. S3).

The site consists of a central tethering 'platform' surrounded by concentric circles of tethering blocks; the individual blocks have been mapped as circular but were probably oval or sub-rectangular. Several ancillary structures are visible but their function is not always clear, nor were they particularly clear on the photographs and the mapping must be treated with some caution. The structures to the east of the balloon may have provided accommodation for the crew. Sunken structures in the northeast corner of the site mark the site of one or more air raid shelters; these may also have been used by the crew but pre-date the balloon (S5). A possible structure visible as a cropmark at approximately TG 5298 0946 (S6) does not correspond with a visible wartime structure and may not be of archaeological origin.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 20 June 2005.