NHER 53255 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two railblock on the Norfolk Railway

December 2009. Norfolk NMP.
A World War Two railblock is evident as a group of structures visible on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 2307 0547. It was positioned along the Norfolk Railway (NHER 13571; also known as the Norwich and Brandon Railway, NMR TG 20 NW LINEAR 1085), in a strategic location to the east of a rail bridge crossing the River Yare. It was one of several railblocks located along this railway line, and there appears to have been a particular concentration in this area to the south of Norwich, where the numerous rail bridges crossing the rivers and low-lying ground were presumably of strategic significance; others nearby include NHER 52496 1.25km further along the line to the west. Many of the other railway lines leading to and from Norwich were equipped with similar defences (for example NHER 52494 on the Ipswich to Norwich or Norwich to Diss Railway, NHER 13578, 400m to the southwest).
The railblock appears to have consisted of multiple lines of sockets spanning the railway line into which anti-tank rails or similar obstacles could be inserted (only the sockets are visible and have been mapped as ‘Extent of Area’, although it is possible that further lines of sockets were present but barely visible on the aerial photographs). To the west and along the south side of the railway line three concrete blocks are visible; these closed the gap created by the angle of the sockets in relation to the railway bridge and river. As with other such railblocks, corresponding structures may have stood on the north side of the railway line but if this was the case they had been removed by 1945. Whether any element of the site still survives today is not known.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 30 December 2009.