Monument record LCS 204 - Second World War ‘SOS’ Field Artillery position and training area

January 2015. Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Beauty National Mapping Programme.
The site of a probable Second World War ‘SOS’ Field Artillery position and an associated area of dispersed military training and is visible on aerial photographs on and around Black Walks, Leiston (S1-S3). The area of heathland and plantation is surrounded by barbed wire obstructions and sections of trenchwork can be seen around the edges of the woods. It may be that the field guns were located on the edges of the woodland, providing some camouflage. A concrete or earthen-covered section post or bunker is located within the central area of rough ground on Black Walks. This may have related to the field artillery position or another defensive strategy/activity. The LIDAR 2m DTM data would suggest that some components of the structure survive (S4). The rough ground and surrounding fields are covered in short trenches and weapons pits (defined by ‘extents of area’ on the mapping), some of which are created in linear and angular arrangements. Earthworks relating to some of these features are likely to survive on the heathland. See (S5) for discussion of ‘SOS’ Field Artillery positions in the area.
S. Horlock (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 2nd January 2015.