NHER 42471 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two searchlight emplacement

February 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two searchlight battery is visible as a group of structures and buildings on aerial photographs taken in 1944 (S1), centred at TG 4846 1954. Some elements were still visible in 1945 (S2 to S3). Roger Thomas (English Heritage) has identified the site as a late form of searchlight site, which utilised a radar controlled 150mm projector mounted on a wheeled trailer. The Somerton site comprised a small structure, presumably the searchlight (at TG 4848 1953), surrounded by what appears to have been a concrete path which leads away towards ancillary structures to the west. This in turn was surrounded by an area of vegetation which appears to have been shorter (or at least different) from the surrounding field; the extent of this has been mapped

To the west (between TG 4844 1955 and TG 4845 1949) was a row of five huts, probably operational buildings and accommodation for the crew. Additional structures are visible at TG 4843 1965, TG 4843 1964, TG 4844 1956 and TG 4845 1947. Structures, or perhaps in some cases pits, at TG 4844 1967, TG 4842 1965 and TG 4849 1943 were probably gun emplacements or similar defences. To the south of the searchlight is an area of higher or denser vegetation and disturbed ground (not mapped) partially enclosed by what was probably a fence.

By September 1945 (S2 to S3) the searchlight had been removed, but most of the huts and structures still remained. These too had been removed by July 1946 (S4). Whether any traces of the structures still survive at the site is not known.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 2 February 2006.