NHER 43660 (Monument record) - Site of probable World War Two air raid shelters at 46 and 52 Wellesley Road

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Two probable air raid shelters dating to World War Two are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (S1), at TG 5292 0816 and TG 5293 0811. They lay in the back gardens of 46 and 52 Wellesley Road. This location, together with their small size, suggests that they were private shelters, intended for the use of these particular households. They are both visible as earthwork mounds, each of which probably covered a small semi-sunken or surface-level structure. Both could have been Anderson shelters, or similar proprietary designs. Judging by the shape of the mound, the underlying structure at Number 46 (and perhaps also at Number 52) may have had a curved shape in profile and a flat, vertical façade at its east end. At the same time, its interpretation is not certain, and it could instead merely have been garden vegetation. A bank projecting from the east end of the shelter at Number 52 was probably a blast wall protecting its entrance. A line of white dots along the north side and northeast corner of the mound has not been mapped by the NMP as their identity or purpose is not known. There is no evidence on more recent aerial photographs, e.g. (S2), that any element of the shelters now survives above ground.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 17 May 2006.