NHER 32560 (Monument record) - World War Two pillbox and gun emplacement south of Happisburgh Road

Rare, type 20v heavy machine gun emplacement, facing north-east. Unusually filled with turnball mounting frames.
Survey No. H2-3.
Information from [1]. See record form (S1) in file.
D.Walker (NLA), July 1996.

September 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The World War Two heavy machine gun emplacement/pillbox described above is visible as an extant structure on aerial photographs (S2)-(S4), at TG 3082 2938. The rectangular building is described in (S1) as a Type 20 variant, and in the Defence of Britain database (S5) and the record for NMR TG 32 NW 53 as a Vickers Machine Gun Emplacement. It has a blast wall or traverse protecting the entrance on its southwest side. The structure is one of two World War Two pillboxes identified in the immediate area; the second, NHER 16789, lies approximately 335m to the northeast. Both may have been associated with the military camp (NHER 38819) that lay on the east side of the North Walsham and Dilham Canal. They formed part of the line of defences that was erected along the River Ant stop line, as described in Kent (1988) (S6). (The river had also been used as a defensive line during World War One, and two circular pillboxes are visible nearby: NHER 16447 and 16788). The emplacement described here was almost certainly sited to defend the river crossing at Ebridge Mill 450m to the northeast.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 20 September 2006.