NHER 52008 (Monument record) - Thirty-eight World War Two surface air raid shelters situated in Thorpe St Andrew, to the south of Plumstead Road.

March 2009. Norfolk NMP.
Thirty-eight above ground air raid shelters are visible on aerial photographs (S1)-(S6) clustered in the streets to the south of Plumstead Road. They are centred around TG 2627 0966, where Thunder Lane meets Spinney Road.

One shelter is located at the top of Thunder Lane, approximately 18m to the south of an emergency water tank at TG 2623 1003 (NHER 519007).
Two surface shelters back to back on Beechwood Drive at TG 2648 1010, one to the south on Belmore Road at TG 2634 0996 and two to the east on Caston Rd at TG 2658 0998 and TG 2662 1003, were all visible on (S3).

Four air raid shelters were visible on South Hill Road, one at TG 2676 0974, two at TG2678 0964 and a further one at TG2681 0942, on (S4). These were still visible on (S5) in early 1946.

Two surface shelters are visible on Charles Avenue at TG 2651 0949, two back to back on Cyril road at TG 2664 0944, one at the end of Thorpe Close at TG2655 0941 and one on Spinney Close at TG 2654 0963 on (S3), as are three more, in a row, to the north east on Oak Avenue at TG 2665 0961. These have all been removed by March 1946 (S6).

A patch of bare soil is visible at TG 26350937, next to a shelter at the junction of Thunder lane and Laundry Lane, (S3), indicating that perhaps there were two shelters here, and one had been recently removed. Two further shelters were visible back to back on Thorpe Avenue at TG 2642 0955 on (S1).

To the west, two shelters are visible on Hillcrest Rd at TG 2599 0903 and TG 2611 0903, two at the junction of Hillcrest and Thor road at TG 2624 0907, one in Thor Close at TG 2607 0914, and one at the junction of Thor close and Thor road at TG 2624 0916, all visible on (S1).

To the north, one shelter is visible at the junction of St Williams Way and Williams Loke at TG 2586 0944, one at the junction of Furze Way and Broom Avenue at TG 2608 0949, as well as two to the north, on Gorse Road, at TG 2582 0973 and TG 2598 0980, visible on (S1).

Further to the west, two equal-sized shelters are visible on Williams Way at TG2564 0948, and one shelter is visible on a patch of open ground to the east of Aerodrome crescent, at TG 2563 0961. A single square structure is visible on Harvey Close at TG 2546 0938, and two sections of unequal length are visible in the street on Pilling Road at TG2562 0940 (S1).

The proliferation of public air raid shelters such as these seems to have taken place following the Baedecker raids of 1942 (S7), the heaviest raids that Norwich was to experience during the course of World War Two (S8).
E. Bales (NMP), 13 March 2009.