NHER 27863 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two gun emplacements

October 2002. Norfolk NMP.
Earthworks of gun emplacements of World War Two Light Anti-Aircraft Battery and military huts, visible on RAF aerial photographs from 1946 (S1) and 1950 (S2). The earthworks and structures are less clearly visible on the 1946 RAF aerial photographs, than the others examples on the heath to the north (NHER 19389-19394). The enclosures around the gun emplacements appear less substantial. It is possible that they were built of different materials, with sandbags and not properly constructed banks. Another possibility is that these gun emplacements are an earlier system of defences and were therefore out of use several years before the 1946 RAF aerial photographs (S1). The seven gun emplacements are visible as very slight banks and cleared areas of ground, linked by an E-shaped system of tracks. At TG 0727 4180 is a roughly U-shaped bank, approximately 1m wide and measuring 11.5m by 16m. To the north at TG 0723 4187 are two sections of bank, 1-2m wide, which define a rectangular area 11.5m by 10m. At TG 0728 4192 is another two opposing sections of bank, again defining an area 12m by 9m. The ground enclosed appears to be slightly sunken. To the south-east at TG 0736 4185 is a rectangular embanked area, measuring 14m by 11.5m, with an entrance gap to the north-east. Again the interior appears to be sunken. At TG 0722 4196 is another rectangular emplacement, with an entrance to the north west, measuring 12m by 9.5m and a 2m wide surrounding bank. At TG 0713 4202 is a slighter more irregular shaped emplacement, measuring 9.5m by 7.5m with an entrance to the south-east. To the south of this is another gun emplacement at TG 0710 4192. It is oblong in shape and measures 14.5m by 12.5m and has an entrance to the west. The heath at Salthouse is covered with a multitude of gun emplacements, with over twenty individual enclosures, in close proximity. It is unlikely that all of these guns were in use at one time, in fact. It is obvious from the 1946 RAF aerial photographs (S1) that they are in contemporary use. It is also possible that some of these emplacements were for searchlights. It is possible that these groups of gun emplacements are part of anti-aircraft battery training, perhaps associated with the Weybourne Camp site to the east.
S. Massey (NMP), 14 April 2003.