NHER 43673 (Monument record) - Site of probable World War Two air raid shelters off Archer's Road and North River Road

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A group of probable air raid shelters dating to World War Two is visible as earthworks and structures on aerial photographs (S1), centred around TG 5212 0828. They lay in the back gardens of houses on Archer’s Road and North River Road. This location, together with their small size, suggests that they were private shelters, each intended for the use of a particular household. For the most part the shelters are visible as earthwork mounds, which probably covered small semi-sunken or surface-level structures. In the case of the southernmost shelter (visible at TG 5212 0826) the underlying structure is partially visible. Judging by its shape, and that of the other mounds, the structures were probably curved in profile, with flat, vertical façades at one or both ends. They may have been Anderson shelters, or similar proprietary designs. The northwestern shelter (or shelters: it may represent two small shelters erected side by side), which is visible at approximately TG 5210 0830, appears to incorporate a structural element on its west side, perhaps marking the location of an entrance. Further shelters may have lain in other gardens nearby, but nothing was convincing or clear enough on the consulted aerial photographs to warrant mapping. None of the mapped shelters are visible on more recent aerial photographs of the site, for example (S2), and they were presumably levelled after the end of the war.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 18 May 2006.