NHER 27368 (Monument record) - World War Two air raid shelter

May 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two, semi sunken air raid shelter is visible as an earth covered structure on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 5261 0705. Its size and location suggest that it was a purpose built public shelter, constructed to provide protection for the civilian population living in the surrounding narrow, terraced streets. Historic maps, e.g. (S2) indicate that this area had been occupied with buildings before the war. It was relatively open land, however, in 1944 (when the earliest consulted aerial photographs to show the shelter were taken) and may have already been subjected to bomb damage and subsequent clearance, thereby providing space for the shelter to be built. More recent aerial photographs and modern maps show that the area has since been levelled, re surfaced and partially built over.

The shelter consists of a roughly rectangular earth covered structure, with projections at each end housing revetted entrances. Four concrete structures on its roof mark probable ventilation shafts and/or emergency exits.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 19 May 2005.