NHER 53447 (Monument record) - Site of probable World War Two air raid warden’s post

March 2010. Norfolk NMP.
A possible World War Two air raid warden’s post is visible as an extant structure on aerial photographs (S1)-(S4), centred at TG 2293 0982. It may also be visible on aerial photographs taken in 1942 (S5). Banger (S6) records two such posts in the vicinity: one (numbered A6) at the Jolly Gardeners public house on Waterloo Road, and one on Heath Road (numbered M8). The structure visible on the aerial photographs seems to have lain in the northeast corner of a plot of land either attached to the Jolly Gardeners itself (which lay 50m to the southwest) or to an adjacent property to the north (S7). At the same time, Heath Road lies only 20m to the east, access being provided by an alley or minor street. Thus which of the two recorded posts the structure is or could be associated with is unclear; Banger (S6) states that A6 ‘later changed to M8’ so it may be that they were a single structure, renumbered at some time during the war. The small rectangular concrete structure visible on the aerial photographs does in any case resemble other air raid warden’s posts identified elsewhere in the city (for example, NHER 53444), and thus while other interpretations (as an air raid shelter, for example) are possible, the one outlined above is preferred.
The structure was removed at some time after 26 May 1951, and the area built over. The site now underlies the thoroughfare leading to Jolly Gardeners Court and it is not known whether any remains survive below ground.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 1 March 2010.