NHER 43662 (Monument record) - Site of probable World War Two air raid shelters at 1, 19 and 23 Raleigh Avenue

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Three probable air raid shelters dating to World War Two are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (S1), between TG 5283 0949 and TG 5289 0949. They lay in the back gardens of 1, 19 and 23 Raleigh Avenue. This location, together with their small size, suggests that they were private shelters, intended for the use of these particular households. They may have been Anderson shelters, or similar proprietary designs. They are all visible as earthwork mounds, each of which probably covered a small semi-sunken or surface-level structure. The surface of the mound at Number 19 has a patterned appearance, almost as if it had been camouflaged, although this seems unlikely. A pit or depression at the west end of the shelter at Number 1 probably marks the location of a sunken entrance. Further shelters may have stood in other gardens nearby, such as that belonging to Number 25, but nothing was convincing or clear enough on the consulted aerial photographs to warrant mapping. None of the mapped shelters is visible on more recent aerial photographs of the site, e.g. (S2), and they have presumably been levelled. The site of the shelter at Number 23 appears to be occupied by a garage or similar outbuilding.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 23 May 2006.