Monument record SUT 136 - World War II Searchlight Battery, Sutton parish

A World War II searchlight battery is visible as earthworks and structures on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s, centred on TM 30824664. The site consists of two circular earthwork emplacements, located at TM 30804662 and TM 30844666. Both emplacements have an entranceway and are surrounded by small mounds of earth. The earthworks enclose an area of roughly 12m and 13m in diameter respectively. A rectangular pillbox is also visible in the hedgeline to the west of the circular earthworks at TM 30794666 and a small semi circular earthwork and another, unidentifiable, structure can also be seen in the hedge to the north-east of the pillbox. The circular earthworks would have been the emplacements for the searchlights and the pillbox probably related to the command post from which the searchlight was operated. Three short trenches or pits can be seen at TM 30834661, TM 30804664 and TM 30874667. These features are probably gun pits or one man trenches, positioned in order to defend the searchlight. (S1, S2) By 1963 the earthwork emplacements have been ploughed and are only visible as circular soilmarks. (S3)