NHER 54457 (Monument record) - Possible World War Two bomb craters

September 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The site of four possible World War Two bomb craters may be visible on aerial photographs alongside the railway line in-between Drayton and Costessey (S1-S3). The site is centred on TG 1831 1266. The site consists of a group of four circular pit-like features that are visible on the earliest available 1940s aerial photographs, 1944 (S1). The shape and size of these circular pits could well indicate bomb craters in soft ground, although it is equally possible that they are water-filled pits and/or ponds. There are no such features marked on the Ordnance Survey Second edition map (1902-7, 25 inch), which could indicate that they are not ponds, although it may be that they were not considered worthy of mapping or that they date to the period after that edition of the map but pre-World War Two. It must also be noted that the potential craters do not look especially recent in 1945 (S2), which show the earthworks in the most clarity, although it may be that they date to quite early in the war and the earthworks and surrounding spoil have had sufficient time to become overgrown.
S. Horlock (NMP), 01 September 2010.