NHER 27358 (Monument record) - World War Two barrage balloon site

May 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two barrage balloon site is visible as extant structures on aerial photographs (S1), (S2) and (S3), centred at TG 5215 0786. It is one of many such sites used in the defence of Great Yarmouth against aerial attack (e.g. see NHER 27363). The area is shown as heavily built up on historic maps (S4) and on a pre World War Two aerial photograph (S5) but was open ground when the 1944 aerial photographs were taken, and it may have been subjected to a bombing raid and subsequent clearance.

The balloon itself is visible on the earliest consulted aerial photographs of the site, e.g. (S1). At ground level at least three concentric circles of tethering blocks are evident; none of the photographs of the site are particularly clear and many may be hidden by vegetation, so the plan of blocks is incomplete and some mapped features may reflect disturbed ground rather than a block. Additional blocks can be seen both within and outside this core pattern. Three huts are visible less than 20m to the west of the outer circle. The central hut may be a Nissen type hut, with a circular or polygonal section in profile. The southernmost stood on a concrete base (S3). They presumably provided accommodation for the crew in charge of the barrage balloon. Most the structures seem to have been removed in the immediate post war period; more recent aerial photographs and modern maps indicate that the area has now been built over.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 13 May 2005.