NHER 42355 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two anti invasion defences at junction of Queen Anne's Road and Southtown Road, Southtown

February 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A group of World War Two anti invasion defences is visible as extant buildings and structures on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), centred at TG 5240 0589. They appear to have been sited to control access along Southtown Road and Bollard Quay, and also the junction with Queen Anne’s Road. The central element of the site was a substantial road block, designed to check the progress of tanks rather than simply act as a check point. On Southtown Road the barrier is visible as linear arrangements of marks on the road surface, the extent of which has been mapped. These were probably sockets to take anti tank hairpins or vertical rails; the pattern formed by the marks, which is comparable to that depicted in a bibliographic source illustrating a layout of anti tank hairpins (S3) suggests that the latter is most likely. To the east, a double line of anti tank cubes extended across Bollard Quay. A gap in the blocks (at TG 5242 0589) seems to have been surfaced with concrete or similar material. This may mark the former location of further sockets or perhaps some other type of anti tank obstacle. To the south, the road block was flanked by two pillboxes, a Type 22 on the quay (at TG 5242 0586) and a possible Type 24 or variant pillbox on the north side of Queen Anne’s Road (at TG 5236 0587). The northwest corner of the latter, whose footprint extended into the front garden of Number 2 Queen Anne’s Road, was not visible on the consulted aerial photographs making it difficult to identify to a particular type. It may have been joined to the corner of the house. A structure to the north of the road block (at TG 5241 0592) may have been another pillbox, probably covered with camouflage nets or similar material. The defences were removed and the road resurfaced before August 1945 (S4), although the impression of the base of the Type 22 pillbox remained visible at this date. No trace of the site is visible on more recent aerial photographs, for example (S5).
S. Tremlett (NMP), 16 February 2006.