NHER 52098 (Monument record) - Two probable World War Two air raid shelters

May 2009. Norfolk NMP.
Two probable air raid shelters dating to World War Two are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (S1), at TG 2532 0981 and TG 2547 0973. They lay in the back gardens of nos 32 and 98 Orchard Close. This location, together with their small size, suggests that they were private shelters, intended for the use of these particular households. Both are visible as an earthwork mound, which probably covered a small semi-sunken or surface-level structure. They may have been Anderson shelters, or a similar proprietary design.
The shelter to the north (at TG 2532 0981) is visible with a concrete roof and blast wall covering the entrance, on the west side of the structure. The southern shelter, at (TG 2547 0973) appears to be semi-sunken or underground in nature. Further shelters may have lain in other, nearby gardens, but nothing was convincing or clear enough on the consulted aerial photographs to warrant mapping. Neither of the mapped shelters is visible on recent aerial photographs of the area, e.g. (S2), and they have presumably been levelled.
E. Bales (NMP), 7 May 2009.