NHER 42184 (Monument record) - Possible World War Two gun emplacements behind Horsey Dunes

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Two doughnut-shaped mounds, each enclosed by a ditch, are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs taken from 1944 onwards (S1), (S2), (S3), (S4) and (S5), at TG 4691 2319 and TG 4695 2313. They are located on the seaward side of Horsey Dunes, an area that was used intensively by the military during World War Two (see NHER 42120, for example). Their form and their proximity to other defences suggests that they are likely to have been World War Two emplacements, probably for guns but perhaps for searchlights. They do not appear to be fresh earthworks on the 1940s aerial photographs, however, suggesting that they either date to the early years of the war or to World War One. Alternatively, they may not be emplacements but could be associated with the civilian use of the area, in the years before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. The northwestern mound and ditch still survived as an earthwork in 2002 (S5).
S. Tremlett (NMP), 23 March 2006.