NHER 43616 (Monument) - Site of World War Two bomb crater or spigot mortar emplacement at Great Yarmouth College, Southtown

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A pit is visible as an earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs (S1)-(S4), centred at TG 5213 0646. Its relatively ‘fresh’ appearance in 1944 suggests that it dates to World War Two. It may represent a bomb crater: several craters have been identified in the area (e.g. NHER 43477 280m to the south) and any of the roads, railways, industrial sites and military installations that surrounded the site could have been a target. On some of the photographs, however, principally (S3)-(S4), it looks more like a spigot mortar emplacement, with a possible central pedestal (not mapped). If it was a gun emplacement, it may have been associated with the possible military training area to its southeast (NHER 43306). Alternatively, it could have formed part of the line of anti invasion defences that protected Great Yarmouth’s landward side; see, for example, NHER 32652 320m to the northwest and NHER 32661 140m to the southwest. Aerial photographs taken more recently (S5) and modern Ordnance Survey maps demonstrate that the site has since been levelled and partially built over, and now underlies part of Great Yarmouth College.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 5 May 2006.