NHER 54252 (Monument record) - World War Two searchlight battery

This site was previously recorded under NHER 9589, see record for details of excavation of some components of this installation.

July 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The site of World War Two searchlight battery and associated structures and defences is visible on aerial photographs to the south of the Trowse Bypass (A146), Trowse with Newton (S1-S5). This site, which is centred on TG 2468 0604, was previously recorded under NHER 9589, see record for details of excavation of some components of this installation. The site consists of a large searchlight banked and ditched emplacement, with a possible central concrete pad in the centre, although the identification of this central part was not certain. The existence of a second, smaller emplacement is suggested by a ring ditch visible as a cropmark on later aerial photographs (S5). Within the northern part of the site are a series of structures/huts and a type 22 pillbox. A number of small structures of uncertain function are also visible to the south of the emplacement. This site would appear to have gone out of regular use by April 1942 (S1-S3) and all but the pillbox and another small structure have been removed by June 1946 (S4). Since the removal of the site the remains of the circular emplacements have formed ring ditch-like cropmarks, which were then interpreted as representing the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow, until the site was excavated and proved to be of World War Two date see NHER 9589 and (S6) for details,
S. Horlock (NMP), 01 July 2010.