NHER 32652 (Monument record) - World War Two pillbox east of Yarmouth Business Park, Southtown

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Summary

A World War Two Type 24 pillbox still survived in 2001 on land to the east of Yarmouth Business Park, Southtown. It has been visited on the ground and surveyed, and is also visible as a structure on aerial photographs taken from 1944 onwards. On the earliest of these it was camouflaged as a shed. It was the southeastern element of a cluster of pillboxes and other World War Two defences identified in this area, including further pillboxes and a spigot mortar emplacement to its northwest (NHER 15989 and 32654). The line of defences was continued by another pillbox (NHER 32661) located 365m to the southeast. All these anti invasion defences were presumably sited to protect Great Yarmouth in the event of an attack on its landward side. The pillbox described here occupied a strategic position on a bank between a parallel arrangement of drains. The current condition of the building is not known.

Protected Status/Designation

None recorded

Location

Map sheet	TG50NW
Civil Parish	GREAT YARMOUTH, GREAT YARMOUTH, NORFOLK

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Full Description

Type 24 pill box, between 2 dykes.
See (S1) and (S2).
D. Gurney (NLA) October 1996.

June 2002. Building Survey.
Pillbox surveyed and recorded by NAU.
See report (S3) for further details. This survey is also noted in (S7).
J. Allen (NLA), 12 July 2002. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 8 April 2015.

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 5184 0663 to TG 5184 0662.

The World War Two Type 24 pillbox described above is visible as an extant building on aerial photographs (S4)-(S6). The earliest consulted aerial photographs on which the pillbox is visible were taken in 1944, e.g. (S4)-(S5). At this time, the pillbox was covered with a superstructure, camouflaging it as a shed, but is later visible free of its disguise (see (S6)). It is also depicted as a structure by modern Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 7 March 2006.

Associated Sources (8)

--- SNF8804 Secondary File: Secondary File.
<S1> SNF54383 Unpublished Document: 1995. Norfolk Defensive Structures Survey.
<S2> SNF59610 Photograph: Smith, R.. 1995. RDS 65.
<S3> SNF51053 Unpublished Contractor Report: Hobbs, B. P. 2002. Report on the structural survey of two pillboxes near Thamesfield Way, Pasteur Road, Great Yarmouth. Norfolk Archaeological Unit. 718.
<S4> SNF61651 Vertical Aerial Photograph: RAF. 1944. RAF HLA/698 4063-4 08-APR-1944 (NMR).
<S5> SNF61230 Vertical Aerial Photograph: RAF. 1944. RAF 106G/LA/21 4010-1 04-JUL-1944 (NMR).
<S6> SNF61652 Vertical Aerial Photograph: RAF. 1947. RAF CPE/UK/2170 5150-1 26-JUN-1947 (NMR).
<S7> SNF82149 Article in Serial: Gurney, D. and Penn, K. (eds). 2003. Excavations and Surveys in Norfolk, 2002. Norfolk Archaeology. Vol XLIV Pt II pp 368-384. p 372.