NHER 43478 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two air raid shelters on Ordnance Road

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Three probable air raid shelters dating to World War Two are visible as earthworks with structural elements on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 5270 0637. They lay on open ground to the north of a complex of industrial buildings. Their small size, however, and the presence of several washing lines in close proximity to the shelters, suggests that these were not industrial shelters provided for workers at the site, but rather private shelters probably used by those living in the terraced houses on the opposite side of Ordnance Road. The earthwork mounds probably covered small semi-sunken or surface-level structures. They may have been Anderson shelters, or similar proprietary designs. Each had some form of structural element at its east end, presumably defining and reinforcing an entrance. More recent aerial photographs of the area, e.g. (S2), and modern Ordnance Survey maps demonstrate that the site has since been redeveloped and the area is now occupied by housing and gardens. The shelters themselves have presumably been levelled.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 9 May 2006.