NHER 49450 (Monument record) - Possible World War Two searchlight or gun emplacement

May 2007. Norfolk NMP.
A circular parchmark, possibly the remains of a World War Two searchlight or gun emplacement, is visible on aerial photographs to the north of a World War Two High Frequency Direction Finding Station (HF/DF) (NHER 49451) in South Walsham (S1). The site is centred on TG 3658 1279.
The HF/DF sites formed a system of direction finding stations that helped lost aircraft return to base and to plot the location of mayday signals. This circular parchmark is of comparable size and shape as two other parchmarks located to the immediate east of a radio mast (NHER 49452) located approximately 800m to the southwest.
An alternative interpretation is that this parchmarks represents the ploughed out remains of a Bronze Age round barrow. Although given the close proximity to the other World War Two radar/radio sites and the 1946 date it seems most likely that this parching relates to a recently removed military structure that had a circular concrete base.
The parchmark is 17.5m in diameter and has possible traces of a narrow external ditch.
S. Massey (NMP), 23 May 2007.