NHER 52480 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two slit trench

February 2010. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two slit trench is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs (S1)-(S5), centred at TG 2395 0510. A small separate pit or scrape is also visible just to its west. First visible, as a not particularly fresh earthwork (so presumably excavated some months or even years earlier) in April 1942 (S1), it has the zig-zag plan typical of such features. Whether it was excavated as a practice trench by personnel based at the Anti-Aircraft Ordnance Depot 180m to the northwest (NHER 52492), or as a genuine defence, either for the depot or the city itself, is not clear. On photographs taken in June 1946 (S3) the depth of the trench appears to vary considerably; this could have been an original feature, or reflect deliberate or natural infilling (for example, where the trench edges have collapsed), or just be an effect of the light and vegetation. Although still surviving as an earthwork in 1947, the trench has since been levelled, with no obvious signs of any above-ground remains visible on more recent aerial photographs.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 3 February 2010.