NHER 18195 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two searchlight battery, pillbox and related structures

Pill box, concrete, polygonal.
Location is exact as can be plotted with hedge boundaries removed.
First noted by Pillbox Survey.
Confirmed by E. Rose (NAU), 18 June 1982.

See record form in file (S1). [1]
Common type 22 pillbox situated in field near White House Farm.
Demolished in April 1994.
Survey No. M2-3.
Compiled by D. Walker (NLA), July 1996.

November 2008. Norfolk NMP.
The site of a World War Two searchlight battery and related structures, including a Type 22 pillbox (described above), is visible on aerial photographs (S2)-(S7). The site is centred on TG 2633 1191. The large size of this battery and the presence of more than one light indicates that this battery must have played a major part in the Sprowston area passive air defence.

In May 1944 (S2) the battery consisted of three joined circular earthwork emplacements, two separate emplacements and, towards the southwest of the site, a series of rectangular footings and parchmarks indicating the former presence of temporary structures and some remaining huts. The three central emplacements, all 15m in diameter, were arranged in a trefoil shape and embanked all the way around, these would have held either three lights or predictors. A further emplacement to the east, measuring approximately 13m in diameter, may also have held a light, and a smaller figure-of-eight emplacement, to the north, is also just visible on the photographs (S2). A further three circular platforms were visible, all approximately 12m in diameter, two of which appeared to be extant as concrete foundations (at TG 2638 1196 and TG 2636 1192) in 1944 (S2), but were all merely visible as parchmarks by the end of the war (S5). The tracks and parchmarks visible in 1944 (S2) suggest that even by this time the site was no longer entirely in use, if at all.

The Type 22 pillbox described above was located on the northeastern edge of the site at TG 2636 1197 (rather than at TG 2631 1199, as previously recorded).
E. Bales (NMP), 4 November 2008.