NHER 16790 (Monument record) - World War Two defences at Hemsby

Newport.
Pillbox and tank trap, approximate site.
Information from Pillbox Survey.
E. Rose (NAU), 25 November 1980.

Plan illustrated in (S1).

1992. Grid reference corrected on ground.
Pillbox is butterfly pattern with central blast wall and another in front of entrance; ricochet gun posts, one retaining metal support for gun. To north, mortar spigot, and various manholes constructed in haste now exposed. To south, double row of concrete blocks set at angles as tank trap, some with mortices for lifting; lifeboat house now in centre.
E. Rose (NLA), 1 May 1992.

September 2001.
All changed, except for the pillbox.
The mortar spigot and the blocks have been gathered underneath the lifeboat slipway, south of the pillbox which is almost buried.
E. Rose (NLA), 21 September 2001. 9.

May-November 2004. Norfolk Rapid Coastal Zone Archaeological Survey.
Inter-tidal survey (Environmental Zone 22).
Context 254:
A World War Two type 2/20 pillbox was monitored. It was located on the beach, east of the sand dunes, at TG 50734 17351.
Context 261.
World War Two concrete anti tank blocks, scaffold poles and one spigot mortar base were recorded between TG 50728 17312 and TG 50747 17293. They appear to have been collected together, as stated above, to provide sea defence for the lifeboat station to the south.
See assessment report (S1) for further details.
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.421).
J. Allen (NLA), 26 April 2005. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 20 July 201

February 2006. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 50697 17369 to TG 5072 1734.

The structures described above form part of a World War Two defensive site visible on aerial photographs taken from 1940 onwards (S3)-(S8). These protected a gap in the dunes and access to the road leading west towards Hemsby. They were augmented by a line of barbed wire or similar material laid out along the beach, later replaced by a double line of beach scaffolding (both recorded as NHER 27278). The earliest elements of the site were in place by August 1940 (S1). At this date a tank trap, formed by a single line of anti tank blocks, had been erected across the gap. Space was left for access to the beach; three structures (not mapped) visible at approximately TG 5080 1730 were probably fishing boats, the owners of which probably utilised this access point. An earthwork gun emplacement is visible to the south of the tank trap, at TG 5077 1725. By September 1940 (S2) the gap in the tank trap appears to have been closed. By December a slit trench had been excavated at TG 5069 1741. By 1944, and on later aerial photographs, (S6)-(S8), the tank trap is visible in its final form. This consisted of a double line of anti tank cubes laid corner to corner; a narrow gap at TG 5075 1727 was flanked by larger cubes laid side-on. (It is this final form that has been mapped by the NMP but it should be noted that the number and precise location of individual blocks may be inaccurate as the 1940s photographs are not particularly clear and some of the blocks were already partly covered by sand by the end of the war.) A short length of beach or anti tank scaffolding is visible at TG 5071 1727, the strategic purpose of which is not known. The Type 2/20 pillbox, (the form was based on the Type 26 (S1)), is visible at TG 5074 1734, positioned just in front of the inner line of beach scaffolding (recorded as NHER 27278). Approximately 45m to its north, at TG 5072 1739, is an unidentified structure, perhaps a spigot mortar emplacement, the pedestal (or ‘thimble’) from which is described above.

As discussed above, and as is visible on recent photographs of the site (S9), many of the structures still survive although most are no longer in their original positions. No trace is visible of the earthwork elements of the site which have presumably been levelled and/or eroded.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 3 February 2006.