NHER 42510 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two air raid shelters west of Breydon Road, Cobholm Island

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Two probable air raid shelters dating to World War Two are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (S1), at TG 5174 0770 and TG 5177 0766. They lay in the back gardens of terrace houses which formerly occupied the Breydon Road frontage (see the aerial photographs and the Ordnance Survey 2nd edition 25 inch map (S2)). This location, together with their small size, suggests that they were private shelters, intended for the use of these particular households. They may have been Anderson shelters, or similar proprietary designs. They are both visible as earthwork mounds, each of which probably covered a small semi-sunken or surface-level structure. In the case of the northwestern shelter, the underlying structure probably had a curved shape in profile. The southeastern shelter appears to have had a recessed entrance, protected by a blast wall. Further shelters may have lain in other gardens nearby, but nothing was convincing or clear enough on the consulted aerial photographs to warrant mapping. More recent aerial photographs, e.g. (S3), and modern Ordnance Survey maps demonstrate that the area has been redeveloped in the post-war period. There is no evidence that any part of the shelters mapped by the NMP now survives above ground.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 16 May 2006.