Monument record SOL 030 - Site of World War Two military training area, probably related to Herringfleet military camp

September 2013. Lothingland, Lowestoft and North Suffolk Coast and Heaths National Mapping Programme.
An area of World War Two military training activity is visible as vehicle tracks, disturbed ground and small earthworks on aerial photographs (S1-S5). The vehicle tracks are centred around TM 4692 9810, but the site extends some distance further to the south. This is one of three military training sites in this area (see SOL 031, MSX27213, and SOL 032, MSX27214). They all probably relate to Herringfleet military camp, which was a D-day tank school (S6). Certainly the vehicle tracks visible at this site, and the clear evidence of activity during 1944, would seem to concord with this interpretation, although the evidence at the site is somewhat smaller in scale and less formally arranged than might be expected. Unlike the other two sites, activity is visible here by March 1944 (S1, the earliest photographs available for consultation). By October 1945 (S7) the site appears partially overgrown, although some activity could still have been taking place (again in contrast to the other two sites). The site is marked as 'Shooting Ground' on modern Ordnance Survey maps. As there is little discernible formal organisation at the site, nor evidence of permanent structures or installations, only the extent of the site has been mapped, together with a selection of the most prominent earthwork features. More recent photography suggests that it is possible that some traces of the earthworks could still survive at the site.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 11th September 2013.