NHER 42290 (Monument record) - World War Two air raid shelters on Pier Plain and England's Lane, Gorleston on Sea

January 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A group of World War Two air raid shelters are visible on aerial photographs associated with a factory and houses on Pier Plain and England's Lane, Gorleston (S1). The site is centred on TG 5246 0460. The northern group of air raid shelters are located in front of a factory on Pier Plain, centred on TG 5276 0406, later a clothing factory, but its wartime usage is not known. These shelters are large and are either communal or constructed for the use of the factory workers. Two elongated mounds are positioned either side of the entrance to the factory, one is 13m by 3m and the other 15m by 4m. Both have entrances cut into the ground to the west and exit hatches/vents to the east. A third entrance is visible to the south of the pair and this may indicate further subsurface shelters, not indicated by mounds. There appears to be rectangular new concrete surfaces set into the usual yard surface, this may be a surface put over the subsurface shelters. The southern rectangular area has a square area of non concrete material in it, possibly related to an emergency exit made from a loosely bonded material. Tucked into the western corner of the Factory yard is another earth-covered shelter, measuring 12.5m by 5m, with an entrance to the east. The factory has expanded by 1947 (S2) covering the location of the shelters.

The shelters towards the south of the site are located within rear gardens of houses on England’s Lane and are probably for the use of the nearby inhabitants or individual families, such as the small shelter, probably an Anderson, located in 57 England’s Lane. Two possible further shelters were also identified are located at TG 5273 0402 (9.5m by 3m) and at TG 5273 0397 (13m by 2.5m). Although these were less convincing than others in the area, however these seemed too substantial to be vegetation such a hedges.
S. Massey (NMP), 04 January 2006.