NHER 42251 (Monument record) - World War Two roadblock to north of anti-aircraft battery on Beccles Road, Gorleston-on-Sea

December 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two road block, consisting of two rows of anti-tank cubes, is visible on aerial photographs from 1944-5 (S1)-(S2), blocking the Beccles Road to the north of the Anti-Aircraft Battery (NHER 32667) at Gorleston-on-Sea. This roadblock is located to the immediate east of the Gun Operations Room (GOR) for the Great Yarmouth Gun Defended Area. A type 22 pillbox is also located to the immediate north (NHER 42245). The positioning of the roadblock is curious and it is not clear how it would have defended or impeded access to the anti-aircraft battery, unless it was being approached from the Great Yarmouth side. Also the rest of the camp does not appear to have been heavily defended it this manner. It is therefore possible that the roadblock is part of the outer defences protecting Great Yarmouth itself, as Beccles Road leads to the West Quay. This is also suggested by the fact that the roadblock is blocking the road and not necessarily the entrance to the battery. The site is centred on TG 5151 0469.

The road block appears to have been formed by two rows of large blocks, measuring 1.5m across, which unusually continue into the garden of 324 Beccles Road in 1944 (S1)-(S2). These photographs are not especially clear, although it appears that the central section of the roadblock has been removed, opening up the road, therefore the blocks in the garden may well be re-positioned blocks, originally in the centre of the road. However the accuracy of the spacing of the two rows of blocks in the garden, and the fact that it continues the line of the main road block, suggests that these blocks in the garden are part of the original design. All of the blocks have been removed by 1945 (S2). This is also indicated by the markings in the centre of the road visible in 1945 (S2). These suggest that the central section originally comprised of four rows of smaller blocks, approximately 0.75m across, with a front L-shaped structure. These smaller square marks on the road are likely to be the remains of either straight or curved (‘hairpin’) rails, with the small marks representing the remains of the square concrete socket created for the rails. The front L-shaped mark must have been created by a structure of some sort. 30m to the west is a further mark across the road, adjacent to the ‘Gun Operations Room’ for the defence of the Yarmouth and Gorleston area. This is likely linear mark across the road is likely to have represented a horizontal bar across the road.
S. Massey (NMP), 19 December 2005.