NHER 28938 (Monument record) - World War Two pillbox and associated structure on Hemsby beach

Pillbox. On beach, buried in sand up to roof.
Polygonal, concrete. Scattered around in sand are various fragments of brick faced concrete in higher quality brickwork than is usual for defensive structures.
E. Rose (NLA), 1 May 1992.

July 1994.
Pillbox exposed and complete (1992) now fragmented; blocks of concrete visible along high tide mark.
D. Gurney (NLA), 22 July 1994.

September 2001. Visited.
The brickwork is certainly the inner lining of the pillbox, but is Phopress rather than Whitlingsea. Just a pile of concrete and brick now.
E. Rose (NLA), 21 September 2001.

February 2006. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 5061 1762 to TG 5061 1768.

A Type 22 pillbox visible as an extant structure at TG 5061 1770 on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2) is almost certainly the same as that described above. It may be visible on the edge of the sand dunes, perhaps disguised as a hut, on aerial photographs taken in 1940, e.g. (S3)-(S4). It is first clearly visible, however, on aerial photographs taken in 1944 (S1), by which time it stood on the beach. A possible slit trench (only visible in 1940) and an unidentified structure, located approximately 30m and 25m to its south respectively, were probably associated defences. The pillbox survived more or less intact for some years after the war but, as described above, it has since been destroyed, presumably by coastal erosion.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 2 February 2006.