NHER 27425 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two barrage balloon site

June 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two barrage balloon site is visible as a variety of structures on aerial photographs (S1) to (S5), centred at TG 5305 0838. It is first visible on photographs taken in March 1944 (S1), when the balloon itself is visible, but it may have been in existence for several years by this date. On later photographs, the concentric circles of tethering blocks are clearly visible. A number of ancillary structures are also visible to the south of the balloon; paths and some possible temporary structures (i.e. visible on only one set of photographs) can also been seen but have not been mapped. The three structures at the southern edge of the site are not particularly clear but are probably huts; to the north is a curved profile hut, probably a Nissen hut, which stands on a concrete pad. These huts presumably provided shelter for the balloon crew. The site was already being dismantled during 1944; there is no evidence, at least on the aerial photographs, that any of it now survives above ground.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 29 June 2005.