NHER 27418 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two air raid shelter

June 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A large semi-sunken air raid shelter, dating to World War Two, is visible as an earth-covered structure on aerial photographs (S1) to (S4), centred at TG 5294 0889. It is visible on the earliest available photographs, taken in September 1940 (S1), and consists of a rectilinear arrangement of what are almost certainly earth-covered structures. It is one of several large shelters to have been mapped at Great Yarmouth and its location, within the grounds of the High School, is typical. Unusually it may have been already partially levelled, or at least modified, by 1944 (e.g. S3 to S4).

By 1944 a row of five huts or similar structures are visible, again on aerial photographs (S3) and (S4), between TG 5294 0894 and TG 5301 0894. The function of these structures is unclear, but given the period of their construction a specific wartime use seems likely. They perhaps served as additional air raid shelters, or provided temporary accommodation of some type. One still remained as late as June 1955 (S5), but more recent aerial photographs and modern maps indicate that the site of both the huts and the shelter has since been levelled. It is now largely occupied by school buildings and a surfaced playground.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 27 June 2005.