NHER 53247 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two barrage balloon, Royal Army Service Corps vehicle park and other military activity, Eaton

November 2009. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two barrage balloon site, along with other evidence of military activity, is visible as structures, earthworks and areas of disturbed ground on 1940s aerial photographs (S1)-(S4), centred at TG 2078 0647. The barrage balloon, which may not have been established until after April 1942 (compare (S5) with (S1)), is probably that recorded in a bibliographic source (S6) as ‘Balloon Site 23: grass site south of Newmarket Road’. It is one of several such sites established to protect Norwich from aerial attack. The same source records the balloon site as a Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) vehicle park, but while there is clear evidence of the movement of vehicles around the site (and into the adjacent field to the northeast, which contained World War Two anti-landing trenches, NHER 53254), no clear evidence of this additional function was noted on the aerial photographs (large numbers of parked vehicles, for example).
The first clear photographic evidence of activity in this area dates to April 1942 (S5), although there are clear signs of activity in the surrounding area as early as August 1940 (see NHER 53254, for example). No barrage balloon is visible at this date, but there are considerable signs of disturbed ground and vehicle movement, extending into both NHER 53254 to the northeast and, probably, into the (former?) lime kiln and quarry (NHER 9613) to the immediate southeast (see too the Ordnance Survey 2nd edition 25 inch map (S7)); the nature of the both the military site and the extraction site is such that it is difficult to distinguish between them. By June 1942 (S1) the balloon itself is visible, but on this and later aerial photographs the actual tethering point could not be identified and therefore the balloon itself, as visible in flight in 1944 (S2), has instead been mapped (as an ‘Extent of Area’ at TG 2077 0641). How the balloon’s position in flight relates to its tethering point on the ground is not clear, but it can be assumed that the latter lay in this same approximate area. Hardstandings for huts visible to its south (at TG 2079 0639) are almost certainly related, as may a similar hardstanding visible close to the entrance to the site from Newmarket Road (at TG 2068 0651), although the latter could instead be associated with the RASC vehicle park or other activity at the site.
Other evidence for military activity at the site consists of small structures (or remnants of structures) and earthworks, most of which have not been mapped. These are most clearly visible on the 1945 aerial photographs (S3)-(S4), and include a large pit (at TG 2083 0644), the purpose of which is uncertain, and a small square ditched ‘enclosure’ (at TG 2077 0649). The purpose of the latter is also uncertain, as is its precise form (there is no stereo vertical coverage from the 1945 aerial photographs). Its date is also uncertain; while it appears to have been relatively recently cut in 1945, it perhaps looks slightly earlier (is less ‘fresh’ looking) than the other World War Two earthworks and it is feasible that it pre-dates 1939.
The site has been partially built over and is also considerably wooded, and it is not clear what remnants of the site, if any, still survive.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 26 November 2009.