Monument record FEX 212 - Manor House Battery

Manor House Battery, a World War II emergency gun battery, and associated features are visible on aerial photographs taken from 1944 onwards, centred on TM 29023254 to the south of Landguard Lodge, Felixstowe. The site consists of two concrete gun houses positioned adjacent to each other on the beach at TM 28983250 and TM 29023254 and a number of other probable World War II military features which may be related to the battery. These include two concrete structures that appear to be half-roofed half-open Type 23 pillboxes located to the south of the gun houses at TM 28933239 and TM 28943241, two probable military buildings which may be engine rooms or accommodation at TM 29013257 and TM 29013263, a possible coastal searchlight in front of Landguard Lodge at TM 29053259, a small structure of unknown function at TM 28983265 and a large circular hollow, 11m in diameter at TM 28953261. A stretch of barbed wire to the north-east of Landguard Lodge was probably intended to protect the battery. (S1) (S2) (S3) (S4) The emergency battery was constructed in the summer of 1940 and housed two 6 inch guns. It was probably constructed as modifications to Landguard Right Battery had restricted its left arc and therefore Manor House battery worked as a coastal and as a beach defence battery. (S5) (S6) Landguard Lodge has been pinpointed as the site of the command post and accommodation buildings. (S6)
The site of Manor House coastal battery, an emergency battery built during the Second World War as part of Eastern Command's coastal defences. It was constructed in 1940 and armed with two 6-inch Mk. XII guns. The battery was initially manned by 329 Coast Battery Royal Artillery, by the Home Guard between 1943-1944 and 138 Coast Battery Royal Artillery by 1945. The guns were reduced to care and maintenance by September 1944. The battery was dismantled in 1946 and only remnants of concrete mark its location (S7).
A Spigot mortar Emplacement visible on a 1953 oblique AP at TM28993267 (S8,S9).