Monument record LWT 200 - Site of a group of World War Two pillboxes in Gunton Park, part of wider defensive network LWT 045

September 2013. Lothingland, Lowestoft and North Suffolk Coast and Heaths National Mapping Programme.
The site of a group of six World War Two pillboxes and other associated structures, forming a defensive group in Gunton Park, which originally part of wider defensive network, consisting of an extensive line of anti-tank cubes, barbed wire obstructions and associated defences (see LWT 045) is visible on aerial photographs (S1-S5). The site is centred on TM 5361 9594. The wider system forms a perimeter defence or ‘stop line’ around Lowestoft. See LWT 194-199 for other nearby components of this defensive system. The group is located to the south of Gunton Hall, which was obviously in use as a military camp during World War Two (LWT 201) – slit trenches visible within this area will be recorded as part of that wider site. Some of the pillboxes can be identified in 1941 (S1) – the others may be obscured by tree cover. Five of the pillboxes are type 22. The six, located at TM 5352 9586, is more rectangular in plan, potentially a type 26 pillbox or similar gun emplacement, and is partially embanked. Two further defensive structures are visible within the southwestern part of the site, but cannot be seen clearly enough to interpret sufficiently (S5). One of the pillboxes within the group (LWT A) definitely survives, others are likely to have been destroyed by development within the park, although it is feasible that others survive also and are obscured by trees on the aerial photographs.
S. Horlock (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 12th September 2013.