NHER 39188 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two coastal defences

January 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A group of World War Two coastal defences are visible as earthworks, structures, buildings and areas of disturbance on wartime aerial photographs (S1-5), centred around TG 3127 3683. While some elements of the site were not necessarily closely linked, they all form part of the same network of defences which protected Mundesley and the surrounding coastline during the war. They also form a distinct cluster around the Manor House Hotel, which was perhaps requisitioned.

All of the defences are visible on photographs taken between September 1940 and July 1941. In 1940 (S1-2) two possible guns, perhaps covered by light structures or camouflage nets, are visible on the cliff edge at TG 3132 3683, and are still visible in 1941 (S3-4). To their south-east (at TG 3136 3680) are a group of earthworks, including a slit trench, which may have been levelled by 1941 (S3-4). A nearby structure (at TG 3135 3679) with a conical thatched roof may simply be a garden house or could be a pillbox disguised as one. It seems to have survived until at least 1968, and appears to perhaps be a polygonal structure on aerial photographs taken in 1965 (S6). Other features visible in 1940 are located towards the north-west corner of the site. These include a large emplacement, probably for a gun, at TG 3125 3688. A concrete structure is visible within it on later aerial photographs (S7), possibly the 'thimble' for a spigot mortar. A group of pits, probably weapons pits, and small, possible structures lie to the north-west. A track leads from these to a large building at TG 3119 3687 which is painted with a camouflage pattern. It is not known whether this was constructed by the military or was a pre-war building appropriated for military use. Oblique aerial photographs (S2) show that it had a large, barn-type entrance on its north side. It was not demolished until the 1980s (S8-9).

By 1941 (S3-4) various additions are visible. Signs of probable military activity, i.e. tracks and other disturbance, are visible along the cliff face from approximately TG 3120 3693 to TG 3124 3690, but no features are particularly clear and none have been mapped individually. To the south-west (at TG 3126 3687), a group of pits, perhaps weapons pits, are visible, surrounded by two lengths of bank. A more isolated pit can be seen along the same field boundary as the earlier gun emplacement (at TG 3124 3687). A possible concrete structure at TG 3128 3685 might be an anti-tank block or similar structure. At TG 3126 3680, overlooking a road junction and controlling the main route into the site, is a polygonal pillbox. This is just visible on aerial photographs taken in 1943 (S5) but appears to have been removed by April 1946 (S10). Since 1946 a large part of the area once covered by the site has been lost to coastal erosion and no World War Two features are visible on modern aerial photographs of the site.
(S1-10)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 10 January 2005.