This possible WWII military installation is visible on vertical aerial photographs of 1946 as a disordered jumble of barbed wire. It is not visible on the vertical aerial photographs of 2007, as the area appears at that time to be a gravel extraction site. The scattered and irregular nature of these defences may be due to the fact that they were possibly in the process of being removed, as the aerial photograph showing them is dated to 1946. The barbed wire may have originally surrounded some form of military base or camp, or perhaps a minefield as seen at a site approximately 2.2km to the south-east (Monument Number 1533412). The barbed wire is centred at TR 0835 1991, and extends across an area measuring approximately 235m north to south and 212m east to west. Although the barbed wire is clearly visible on vertical aerial photographs; none of the photographs show an obvious site or structure intended to be protected by it. However, the barbed wire does appear to surround 17 bomb craters and a possible blast shelter visible on aerial photographs as earthworks. The bomb craters are unusual in appearance in that they are smaller than some of the classic examples nearby. They are approximately three metres in diameter, and consist of a round mound with a hole or depression in the top. It is thought that a comparatively small bomb might have caused this effect in the loose shingle characteristic of this area; by a small explosion at the point of impact causing the shingle to be upcast into a circular bank around the small central crater. This is however speculation, and it is possible that the shingle was banked-up to conceal structures such as land mines. Four further possible bomb craters are visible on aerial photographs in the vicinity of this site. They are centred at TR 0815 1974, TR 0873 1968, TR 0854 1986 and TR 0851 1996. Although dispersed from the barbed wire installation, they have been interpreted as being associated with it as this is the only visible concentration of bomb craters in the immediate area. It may be that the site protected by the barbed wire was the intended target. A possible blast shelter is visible as an open-topped rectilinear banked structure at TR 0830 1979, approximately 20m north-east of the dismantled railway (Monument Number 462811). The structure is roughly square in plan view, and measures approximately seven metres across (1).

<1> RAF, 1946, NMR RAF/106G/UK/1725 3108-3109 10-SEPT-1946 (Photograph). SWX23823.