NHER 62337 (Monument record) - Second World War railblock at Lenwade Railway Bridge

March 2017. Field Observation.
Remains of a Second World War railblock survive at the south-eastern end of the former railway bridge over the River Wensum. The bridge would have been defended as a strategic crossing point over the river valley. Three concrete settings each containing a 0.15m (6 inch) square socket are present. One is positioned centrally within the former track-bed with the other two positioned adjacent to the bridge abutments on either side. The sockets were designed to take bent steel bars or rails (known as hairpins) to create the railblock when required. It is likely that further sockets were originally present along the track on the approach to the bridge from the southeast but these no longer survive. The surviving remains of the railblock are publicly accessible as this section of the former Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway line (NHER 13584) is now part of the Marriott’s Way trail.
See photograph (S1).
J. Albone (HES) 26 September 2017.