NHER 53278 (Monument record) - World War Two anti-landing obstacles, barrage balloon site and other contemporary features and defences

June 2010. Norfolk NMP.
World War Two anti-landing obstacles, a barrage balloon site, a probable spigot mortar emplacement and other, more enigmatic World War Two features are visible as earthworks and structures on aerial photographs (S1)-(S6), centred at TG 2285 0654. Like those visible in other fields around the south side of Norwich, the anti-landing obstacles are visible on the earliest aerial photographs of the site (S1); they comprised a cross-pattern of pits and trenches. The barrage balloon appears to have been established at a later date (by 1944 (S3)). Most of the ground elements of the latter site are uncertain; a possible tethering point has been mapped at TG 2285 0652, and a few small huts (which may be agricultural in origin) and a concrete building platform are visible in the southwest corner of the site. The barrage balloon site is recorded by a bibliographic source (S7) as Site 25: ‘Grazing land adjoining Tuckswood Farm at junction of Lakenham Road and Hall Road’. The possible spigot mortar emplacement lies at the far southeastern corner of the site (at TG 2286 0648), overlooking the road junction to its southeast. There are signs of a small structure within the embanked, triangular pit. More enigmatic is the near-circular earthwork ditch visible at TG 2288 0654, which appears to be of World War Two date but the origin of which is unclear. Various other earthworks and small structures are visible on low-level aerial photographs taken in 1945, but their date, origin and archaeological significance is uncertain and they have not been mapped.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 28 June 2010.