NHER 27721 (Monument record) - Sites of World War Two air raid shelters

October 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Three probable World War Two air raid shelters are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs taken in 1945 (S1), centred around TG 5291 0911. They lay in close proximity to each other, in the back gardens of 17, 21 and 23 Blake Road. They are all visible as earthwork mounds, probably covering semi-sunken structures such as Anderson shelters. The central shelter (at TG 5291 0912, 21 Blake Road) appears to have been surrounded by a band of dark vegetation (not mapped). To its east a possible bank is visible. This could have extended across the entrance to the shelter, acting as a blast wall; alternatively it might be a garden feature or even a hedge. The northernmost shelter (at 23 Blake Road) also appears to have been associated with a bank; this appears to have been a relatively fresh earthwork in 1945 but was not necessarily associated with domestic defence. There is no evidence on more recent aerial photographs that any of the shelters or banks now survive above ground and they were probably levelled soon after the end of the war.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 4 October 2005.