NHER 27658 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two seafront defences

September 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A group of World War Two anti invasion defences is visible on aerial photographs, (S1 to S6), from Wellington Pier to the Pleasure Beach (TG 5320 0667 to TG 5316 0606). It formed part of a long line of defences stretching all the way along Great Yarmouth seafront. The section described here continued to the north and south, where it is recorded as NHER 27546 and 27645 although the divisions between the different sections are largely arbitrary. There is also extensive evidence of military activity behind these seafront defences, e.g. on St Nicholas Recreation Ground (NHER 43375).

The earliest elements of the seafront defences are first visible on photographs taken in 1940 to1941, (S1 to S2). By this time barbed wire and/or beach scaffolding had been laid out along the beach. Other elements visible at this early date in the war include, at the southern end of the site, a length of zigzag slit trench (at TG 5317 0611). A Type 22 pillbox clearly visible to its southwest on later aerial photographs, e.g. (S5), may also have been constructed by this date.

By 1944, (S3 to S4), most of the remaining elements of the site had been constructed, although many are only clearly visible on low level photographs taken in 1945, (S5 to S6). A prominent feature was a line of beach scaffolding and possibly also barbed wire laid out along the eastern edge of the promenade, with a double line laid out through Nelson Gardens. Along the edge of the Pleasure Beach the scaffolding is only just visible below the existing shelter along the seawall. Two spigot mortar emplacements were constructed at the southern end of the site, one at TG 5316 0609, the other at TG 5311 0607. To the north, at TG 5312 0643, a polygonal structure is visible standing on a concrete platform. This was probably a pillbox but could have been some other kind of military installation; a gazetteer of military sites in Norfolk records a gun emplacement within 50m of this structure (S7). It had already been removed by July 1944 (S4). Further to the north, in Nelson Gardens, various structures and earthworks can be seen. They include two large pits (at TG 5312 0644 and TG 5313 0649) which could have been large weapons pits or bomb craters. Two huts, the function of which is unknown, stood at TG 5313 0654 and TG 5317 0646. A third hut or other kind of structure may have stood at TG 5317 0651, where the outline of its base is visible. The function of a concrete structure which stood on the sea wall at TG 5318 0649 is also unknown; it had already been partially demolished by August 1945 (S5). Two concrete lined slots dug into the bank immediately to its west probably led into one or more sunken air raid shelters.

The defences described above were largely removed soon after the end of the war. There is no evidence on more recent aerial photographs that any element of the World War Two site now survives as an upstanding earthwork or structure.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 27 September 2005.