Monument record SOL 040 - Site of probable World War Two structure adjacent to Somerleyton Primary School

November 2013. Lothingland, Lowestoft and North Suffolk Coast and Heaths National Mapping Programme.
A small rectangular structure, perhaps a hut or surface air raid shelter, is visible on 1940s aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), centred at TM 4851 9747 adjacent to Somerleyton Primary School. The structure, which is visible on photographs taken in 1944 to 1946 but had been removed by 1951 (S3), seems likely to be of World War Two date and to be associated with the school, perhaps functioning as an air raid shelter. Alternatively, this approximate grid reference is given for Herringfleet Camp, a tented camp that formed part of a D-Day tank school (see archive for Schofield, 2006, ‘England’s Army Camps’, S4). Conceivably, the structure might be related to this camp, but it seems more likely that the grid reference is approximate and its co-location with the structure coincidental. Training areas presumed to be associated with this camp have been recorded more than 1km to the northwest (SHER SOL 030, SOL 031 and SOL 032).
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 19th November 2013.