NHER 65268 (Monument record) - Second World War Norcon pillbox

Norcon pillbox in grounds of The Old Rectory.

July 2015. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of new outbuilding to north-east of The Old Rectory.
The pillbox lay only a metre from the south-east corner of the new building’s footprint and was partly covered by soil, rubble and vegetation. Clearance of this material demonstration that it was a well-preserved example of a circular Type CP/6/40/111 Norcon pillbox. It has a low entrance to the south (which may have once sat within a slit trench) and a domed concrete roof (the apex of which is noticeable off centre). Its interior was void to just below the six loopholes, which still had interior metal fittings. The pillbox is half buried in an earthen mound, over which concrete had been poured (perhaps to form the base for a sandbag wall surrounding the pillbox). The arrangement of the loopholes (two of which were larger and would have functioned as machine gun embrasures) suggests that the pillbox was positioned to defend against an enemy advance from the north (i.e. along Station Road).
See report (S1) for further details (including measured plans and elevations) and NHER 65269 for information on the other discoveries made during this watching brief.
P. Watkins (HES), 10 January 2022.

This is one of five Norcon pillboxes now recorded in Docking. The others are located at TF 7681 368 (NHER 30778), TF 7671 368 (NHER 30779), TF 7677 3695 (NHER 57853) and TF 7636 3701 (NHER 58229). These are a significant group, Docking being one of only two locations in the county where this type of structure is known to have been present (the other being a group of coastal defences in the vicinity of Kelling and Weybourne – see NHER 24185).
P. Watkins (HES), 10 January 2022.

June 2025. Northwest Norfolk Aerial Investigation and Mapping (AI&M) Project.
The Second World War Norcon pillbox described above is partially visible as an extant structure on aerial photographs (S2). It unfortunately could not be identified on the consulted aerial photographs taken in the 1940s, presumably because it was too small, had been camouflaged or deliberately hidden, and/or was obscured by vegetation. A small structure visible a short distance to the south on the 1940s aerial photographs (such as S3) could be a related feature, but it appears to be rectangular rather than circular, and to be located a few metres further to the south than its position on the 2022 aerial photography; it has not been mapped. The aerial photographic imagery used to map the site is fairly recent (2022) and the structure presumably still survives.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 16 June 2025.