NHER 27539 (Monument record) - World War Two air raid shelters

August 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Two World War Two air raid shelters are visible as earth covered structures on aerial photographs (S1) and (S2), centred at TG 5301 0733. They lay within the grounds of a former grammar school (S3), but not within the area of the former rope walk on which the school stands (NHER 33475). They were presumably constructed for the use of staff and pupils at the school. The larger of the two shelters, which is first visible on aerial photographs taken in 1941 (S1), was semi sunken and was probably a covered trench shelter. Two entrances are visible, revetted in at least one case and both furnished with steps, but there may have been others. A structure visible towards the northeast corner of the shelter's roof, which appears to have some height, may be a ventilation shaft (compare the extract vent of a Nissen air raid shelter, for example, (S4)). The smaller shelter to the west was probably also semi sunken; it had a revetted entrance at its north end. More recent aerial photographs and modern maps indicate that since the end of the war the site has been levelled.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 2 August 2005.