NHER 42504 (Monument record) - World War Two military site at Great Yarmouth

February 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two military site is visible as a group of structures and buildings on aerial photographs (S1)-(S4), centred at TG 5172 0822. Its function is unknown but given its location immediately to the north of Breydon Viaduct (depicted on the Ordnance Survey 2nd edition 25 inch map (S5)), it may have related to the defence of this important river crossing. It may also have been associated with the light anti aircraft battery 220m to its north (NHER 42503) to which it was connected by a track.

The earliest consulted aerial photographs on which the site is visible were taken in March 1944 (S1). The site consisted of a compound, defined by barbed wire or similar material, laid out either side of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (NHER 13581) which bisected the site from northeast to southwest (see (S5)). Within this enclosure, disturbed ground is visible and at least three buildings. The hut at TG 5172 0819 corresponds with a building depicted on the Ordnance Survey 2nd edition map (S5). It therefore may have been non-military in origin, but disturbed ground visible near it on wartime photographs (for example, (S3)) suggests that it was being used during this period, presumably by military personnel. The structure at TG 5174 0822 has been mapped as a hut or building, but could instead have been a ground-level structure or earthwork. Eight concrete piles or ‘feet’ are visible at this location on aerial photographs taken in 1945 (and possibly on earlier photographs as well). A possible spigot mortar pedestal is visible to the east, at TG 5175 0822.

The site was dismantled after the end of the war. The area has since been re-landscaped and the viaduct replaced by Breydon Bridge. There is no evidence on recent aerial photographs of the site, for example (S6), that any element of the site has survived these events.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 10 February 2006.