Monument record LCS 102 - Complex of World War II emplacements.

Two World War II barbed wire emplacements in Leiston parish are visible as earthworks and structures on aerial photographs from 1940, centred on TM 47076451 and TM 47226459. By 1943 they have been absorbed into and superseded by a larger single barbed wire emplacement centred on circa TM 47086465. The emplacements may be associated with the Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery sites located to the west, as they are connected by a length of trackway (see LCS 094). The first emplacement at TM 47076451 is just over 1 hectare in area and contains a length of trench connecting 4 structures, which may have be either pillboxes or covered bomb shelters. The second emplacement at TM 47226459 is roughly 1.10 hectares in area, but also has a roughly circular barbed wire annexe of circa 0.2 hectares to the east. This emplacement encloses a 30m long slit trench which runs from TM2736462 to 47246460, and 5 possible pillbox structures (at TM47236462, TM47226460, TM 47226459, TM47226457 and TM47246460), with a further probable structure located in the annexe (TM47326464). By 1943 the trench has been extended to circa 90m and extends from TM47206461 to TM57246458. The later, larger emplacement is circa 13 hectares in area and is centred on TM47116467. Further slit trenches were located outside the area of the earlier emplacements, but within the bounds of the later larger one, at circa TM47226474, TM47176470 and TM 47076465. A cluster of 3 possible structures, one of which is probably a pillbox are visible at circa TM47016462, adjacent to the trackway leading west towards the Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery sites. It is probable that this site played a specific role in the defence of the Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery sites, whilst also being a component of the of the wider coastal anti-invasion defences that were in place along much of the Suffolk coast during World War II. (S1-3)