NHER 42513 (Monument record) - World War Two anti invasion defences west of Black Gate Farm, Great Yarmouth

February 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A group of World War Two anti invasion defences is visible as extant buildings, structures and earthworks on aerial photographs taken from 1944 onwards (S1)-(S5), centred at TG 5124 0682. The site comprised four Type 24 pillboxes (at TG 5126 0693, TG 5140 0682, TG 5122 0673 and TG 5113 0681). These were all camouflaged as sheds during the war, although the easternmost structure was only partially covered in 1944-5: see (S2)-(S3). It is clear on a number of the photographs that at least some of the pillboxes were constructed on concrete bases (not mapped) which were slightly larger than the building itself. Three spigot mortar emplacements are also visible (at TG 5126 0680, TG 5123 0672 and TG 5115 0678). A pit or pond at TG 5122 0680 was probably a bomb crater. Whether the defences were the intended target for the bomb is not known.

Three of the pillboxes are still visible as extant buildings on recent aerial photographs of the site taken in 1989 (S5) and are also depicted on modern Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping (S6). Two (the southern and eastern pillboxes) were visited on the ground in 1995 and were recorded individually as NHER 32656 and 32658 respectively. The northern pillbox has been demolished. The eastern spigot mortar emplacement is also visible on the 1989 aerial photographs; it is not known whether this or any part of the other emplacements still survive. The bomb crater appears to have been partially filled in by this date; its current state of preservation is not known.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 13 February 2006.