NHER 27639 (Monument record) - Probable World War Two fuel store

September 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two site is visible as earthworks, buildings and structures (S1 to S9), centred at TG 5285 0547. The main elements of the site, visible on aerial photographs taken from 1944 onwards, are three rectilinear enclosures, each surrounding a circular tank or building camouflaged by a square superstructure. These seem most likely to be fuel tanks, presumably for supplying the naval fleet. A very similar site has been mapped approximately 800m to the south.

There is aerial photographic evidence of military or civil defence activity at the site by 1940/1941 (S1 to S2). At this date it was occupied by a group of small, possibly circular structures, located across the site at approximately TG 5290 0552, TG 5289 0549, TG 5286 0549, TG 5281 0458, TG 5282 0542 and TG 5288 0543. The function of these structures is unknown, and they may have related to pre War activity on South Denes rather than having a military use. There is no evidence that they relate to the later wartime use of the site for fuel storage and they were removed by March 1944 (S3).

The 1940/1941 photographs (S1 to S2) also show that an air raid shelter had been built at the site by this date. This consisted of an elongated mound (presumably a semi sunken, earth covered structure), visible between TG 5286 0552 and TG 5287 0548. Entrances are visible at each end, protected by blast walls perhaps constructed of sandbags. This shelter, missing its southernmost blast wall, is still visible on aerial photographs taken later in the war (for example S5 to S6). It could have been associated with the probable fuel storage site but appears to have been separated from this by the latter’s barbed wire perimeter fence. It might instead have been used by people working locally, for example in the industrial buildings to its north.

The probable fuel storage tanks and their enclosing banks are first visible on photographs taken in March 1944 (S3). The site has generally been mapped as it is visible in 1944 (S3 to S5), although much of the detail is only visible on photographs taken in 1945 (S6). The tanks consisted of circular, vertical sided structures with circular roofs or lids. They were camouflaged by an insubstantial overlying square structure from May 1944 onwards (S4 to S6) and are clearly visible on aerial photographs taken after the end of the war (S7 and S8). Each had a smaller concrete building at its base, conjoined with a structure or mound perhaps sited to protect the entrance. The enclosures each have a small concrete structure at one corner, perhaps marking an access point; in the two northern enclosures a concrete path lead between this and the tank. These two enclosures also had steps and paths leading over their banks, at approximately TG 5288 0549 on the northeastern enclosure, and at TG 5280 0551 and TG 5282 0547 on the southwestern enclosure. As well as much disturbed ground (not mapped), various ancillary structures are also visible, predominantly along the western side of the site, close to what appears to have been a gated entrance at its northwest corner. The function of two conjoined, concrete lined shafts at TG 5280 0546 is not clear. The site was enclosed by a perimeter fence of barbed wire, which meets a fence along the northwestern edge of the site (not mapped), and the area is surrounded by various other military installations and defences (NHER 27638).

The camouflage was removed from the tanks by April 1947 (S7) and installation appears to have been demolished during 1948 (S8 and S9). There is no evidence on later aerial photographs that any of it now survives above ground.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 21 September 2005.