Military Matters in Norfolk

As well as the usual range of archaeological features routinely recorded as part of any NMP project, 20th-century military archaeology has been a large component of the project in Norfolk. The main features encountered are structures and installations dating to World War Two, and these can not only illustrate the defences erected by the military but also the way that the war affected the everyday life of civilians.

Great Yarmouth on the East Norfolk coast has been a particularly interesting area to map, as the town was virtually turned into a fortress for the duration of World War Two. Here we can see one of the anti-invasion measures taken by the town, cutting the end of Britannia Pier off from the land leaving just a narrow walkway joining the two parts. Even by 1945, when this photograph was taken, the pier had still not been rebuilt, despite the holidaymakers thronging the beach.

Great Yarmouth suffered more bombing than any other coastal town in the country, changing the townscape of this medieval port forever. The numerous air-raid shelters, both large and small, recorded by the Norfolk NMP project, are testimony to the precautions taken against this aerial bombardment. These two large semi-sunken shelters lay behind Alderman Swindell School and were probably used both by the staff and pupils at the school and by local residents.

One of the measures taken to counteract the aerial attack was the erection of numerous barrage balloons in a perimeter around the town and harbour. On aerial photographs taken in the first half of 1944 many of the balloons are still visible; that on the left was tethered on the recreation ground off Barnard Avenue. Forty years later, these sites can still be visible from the air; the photograph on the right shows cropmarks formed over the holes left by the removal of a balloon's tethering blocks.