NHER 42182 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two minefield

November 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two minefield is visible as lines of disturbed ground on aerial photographs taken in 1940
(S1), (S2) and (S3), between TG 4724 2326 and TG 4799 2239. It formed part of a continuous line of defences which stretched along Horsey beach and dunes and its division as a discrete archaeological site from these other military installations is purely for the purposes of recording. The mined area continued to its northwest as part of NHER 42120 and to its southeast as NHER 42183, separated from the minefield described here by a track and the course of the Hundred Stream respectively. At TG 4762 2283 the minefield overlay a large shallow pit. This has the appearance of being a freshly excavated feature on the 1940 aerial photographs and it too may have been a product of military activity. It could have been used as a borrow pit for sand used in constructing other nearby defences, for example (compare the pit 575m to the northwest, recorded as part of NHER 42120). It could instead have been pre-war extractive pit. There are still earthworks visible at this location on the most recent consulted aerial photographs of the site, taken in 2002 (S4). Craters left by the detonation and/or removal of the mines are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs taken from 1945 onwards, e.g. (S5), including those taken in 2002 (S4).
S. Tremlett (NMP), 24 November 2005.