NHER 43561 (Monument record) - Site of probable World War Two air raid shelters between Palgrave Road and Northgate Street

April 2006. Norfolk NMP.
At least four probable air raid shelters, dating to World War Two, are visible as earthworks and structures on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 5241 0853. They lay in the back gardens of houses on the Palgrave Road and Northgate Street frontages. This location, together with their small size, suggests that they were private shelters, each intended for the use of a particular household. Some may have been Anderson shelters or similar proprietary designs, each of the earthwork mounds presumably covering a structure. The two easternmost shelters, located in the gardens of 90 and 91 Northgate Street, appear to have curved profiles. The middle shelter, in the garden of 86 Northgate Street (which is set back from the street frontage) may have a blast wall or bank at its southwestern corner. The southernmost shelter has an unusual form, comprising two mounds on each side of a small structure. Whether this is a single shelter or two conjoined is not clear. Further shelters may have existed in other nearby gardens but nothing else is clear enough on the consulted aerial photographs to warrant mapping. Recent aerial photographs of the area, for example (S2), demonstrate that the shelters have almost certainly now been levelled.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 20 April 2006.