Monument record LWT 320 - World War Two Coastal Battery

July 2014. Lothingland, Lowestoft and North Suffolk Coast and Heaths National Mapping Programme.
The site of the Emergency Coastal Battery at the Grand Hotel at Pakefield is visible on aerial photographs (S1). This is outside of the current project area (falling within the previous Suffolk Coastal NMP project) and therefore has not been included within the mapping. Limited components of the wider site have previously been identified and recorded as square pillboxes (LWT 118 & LWT 120), but are likely to represent part of the Coastal Battery network of defences and lights. The gun battery itself was located at the end of Kensington Road, disguised as cliff top shelters (S2) and the coastal artillery searchlights are set into the cliff to either side of the guns. Additional military structures and activity is visible at the Grand Hotel itself. The gun casement for the northern gun survives in use as a cliff shelter, as stated by Peter Kent in 1988 (S2) and Google Earth most recent photography (S3).
The site of the school to the immediate north has been included within the polygon as military buildings are apparent on the aerial photographs.
S. Horlock (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 23rd July 2014.