NHER 53640 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - World War Two bomb craters, and possible military training area and anti-tank ditch

June 2010. Norfolk NMP.
Various World War Two military and related features (such as bomb craters) are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs (S1)-(S3), perhaps representing a military training area. They are centred at TG 2030 0903. They might perhaps be associated with the former Bowthorpe Comprehensive School which lay to their immediate southeast. The principal feature is a substantial L-shaped embanked ditch which, given its not obviously strategic location (being surrounded by residential streets, allotments, and so on), may have been dug as a training exercise. A large pit-like earthwork to its southeast was probably a bomb crater; a smaller pit to its northeast might also be a crater, although it is rather small; both have been mapped schematically to provide a representation of their location and size, rather than an accurate depiction of their outline. A mound visible in a separate field to the northeast could relate to some sort of defence (for example, a gun emplacement).
S. Tremlett (NMP), 12 June 2010.