NHER 27546 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two defences on Great Yarmouth seafront

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A group of World War Two anti invasion defences is visible on aerial photographs (S1)-(S7), between The Jetty and Wellington Gardens (from TG 5323 0705 to TG 5316 0657). It formed part of a long line of defences stretching all the way along Great Yarmouth seafront. The earliest elements of the group described here are first visible on photographs taken in 1940-41, (S1)-(S3). By this time barbed wire or scaffolding had been laid out along the beach, forming a line between and around The Jetty and Wellington Pier (visible between TG 5323 0705 and TG 5319 0667) with secondary elements lying perpendicular to this. A similar barrier had also been placed across The Jetty itself. A pit, probably a bomb crater or weapons pit, is visible on the beach at TG 5319 0681 on the 1941 aerial photographs (S3).

By 1944-45 various additions and modifications had been made (S4)-(S7). The earlier line of barbed wire or scaffolding described above had been replaced or augmented by a line of beach or anti tank scaffolding sited further inland along the promenade. An additional line of scaffolding or wire projected inland from this at the northern end of the site, and two short lengths of scaffolding are visible on the beach to each side of Wellington Pier. Two Type 24 pillboxes are visible, at TG 5317 0677 and TG 5311 0682. The northwestern pillbox was camouflaged by a conical ‘hat’ in 1944-45; it had lost its disguise but was still standing in 1948 (S8)-(S9). Spigot mortar emplacements are visible at TG 5317 0701, TG 5312 0700 and TG 5311 0683. The latter emplacement, which was sited adjacent to the camouflaged pillbox, is somewhat dubious, as it is visible on aerial photographs taken in November 1945 (S7) but not on aerial photographs taken in September of that year (S6).

Later aerial photographs indicate that like many of Great Yarmouth’s seafront defences, most of those described here were removed soon after the end of the war. There is no evidence that any trace of them now survives above ground.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 9 March 2006.