NHER 27545 (Monument record) - Sites of World War Two defences

August 2005. Norfolk NMP.
World War Two defences, including slit trenches and a possible light anti aircraft gun emplacement, are visible on contemporary and later aerial photographs (S1) to (S8). These defences were located on the bridge on Jellicoe Road, Great Yarmouth at TG 5287 0986.
The eastern part of Jellicoe Road and the bridge over the railway were not marked on the 1938 edition of the 6" to the mile Ordnance Survey map (S10). It appears that the bridge was constructed at the very end of the 1930s and may not have been fully complete when World War Two broke out in September 1939. The earliest aerial photographs showing the bridge date from August and September 1940 (S1) to (S2). At that time wide earth banks were present on the north side of the two approaches to the bridge. These appear to have been deposited on top of the road surface, leaving only a single carriageway along the southern side of the two approaches and over the bridge itself. Irregular slit trenches had been cut into these earth banks on both the west and east approaches to the bridge (S1) to (S3). Slightly higher sections of earth bank were present at the western end of the western approach. It is not clear if these served any defensive function. Barbed wire was present on both sides of the eastern approach to the bridge.
By March 1944 only the western part of the slit trench on the western approach to the bridge appears to have been extant (S4). A new emplacement had been constructed close to the top of the western approach at TG 5288 0987. This appears to have been a polygonal structure, with concrete walls measuring up to 8m by 5m. A rectangular annexe, measuring 3.5m by 2m, was located at its eastern end. A possible light anti aircraft gun was visible in the centre of the emplacement in April 1944 (S5) but had been removed by July of that year (S6).
The defences on the Jellicoe Road bridge lay at the southern end of extensive areas of anti invasion defences and training areas to the north (NHER 27528, 32675). The earth bank remained on the bridge for several years after the end of the war (S7) to (S8). By April 1952 the bridge had been completed and both carriageways were in use (S9).
J. Albone (NMP), 8 August 2005