Monument record WHR 061 - Wherstead Park

A World War II military camp is visible as a series of structures and earthworks on aerial photographs taken in 1944, centred on TM 15974078 in Wherstead Park. The camp consists of a number of small square or rectangular buildings clustered close to Wherstead Park house itself and large numbers of tents. The tents are of two types, small circular and large oval, and are distributed throughout different areas of the park but are particularly clustered in the woodland to the north of the house and close to the house itself. Other military features visible within the parkland include a 'seagull' shaped trench to the east of the church at TM 16234073 and a large rectangular building surrounded by a barbed wire enclosure at TM 15974087. This feature was constructed sometime between March and July 1944. The number of tents within the camp fluctuates between March and September 1944 and there appears to be a marked increase in the number of tents and vehicles in the area on the photographs taken in May 1944, suggesting that the camp might have been an assembly point where troops and vehicles were amassed prior to the D-Day landings. (S1-S4)