Aerial Investigation and Mapping Report - English Heritage

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Air DefenceAir raids were a constant threat throughout the war. The towns on the southern andeastern coasts saw constant air activity either by passing raiding parties or as targetsthemselves. Major towns, ports, industrial and military sites, infrastructure andtransportation links were all targeted.Passive defences comprised tethered barrage balloons to hinder low flying aircraft anddecoys to draw enemy bombing away from the intended target. One such decoy (a QLnight decoy site) was located in the Cuckmere Valley north of the river mouth. This was acomplex of electric lights simulating the factories, railway yards and harbour installations ofNewhaven (Butler, 2007, 55). The control post building survives (Roger Thomas perscomm), but no trace of the actual decoy (lights) could be located from aerialphotographs. It is possible that the earthwork remains of the First World War practicetrenches on Ewe Down beside the river were re-used for this purpose.Light and heavy anti aircraft gun emplacements (LAA & HAA) and searchlight batterieswere constructed across the country to intercept and actively engage with incomingenemy aircraft. Both LAAs and HAAS were temporary installations at the start of the war(a few established before the outbreak of war), with HAAs being replaced with morepermanent sites with static guns. These more substantial batteries with 4-5 large calibre(3-5.25 inch) guns were designed to combat high-flying aircraft. The gun pits were typicallyset in a distinctive clover-leaf formation. They often had a gun laying radar,accommodation, control post, generator, magazine and additional gun emplacements.Many HAAs were upgraded and modified throughout the war. LAAs were equipped witha variety of lighter faster firing machine guns used to engage fast low-flying aircraft,frequently located at coastal locations simply protected with sandbags or a low blockworkwall or incorporated into a pillbox. (Lowry (eds) 2001, 59 & 61).Three heavy anti-aircraft batteries were located between the coast (on SW side ofNewhaven) and Lewes, defending the route up the Ouse Valley. The most northerly ofthese (at Southease) had a sizeable adjacent camp and evidence of a possible gun layingradar platform (Monument Number: 1473043). Another five gun HAA was located onthe Golf Links close to the site of the old First World War South Camp on the southernedge of Seaford.Following D-Day (6 June 1944), Anti-Aircraft Command rapidly redistributed the airdefences of Britain in a programme known as Operation Diver. All available mobile HAAand LAA guns were redistributed to form a belt of anti-aircraft guns across the areabetween the coast and London to counter the threat of the V1 flying bombs (EnglishHeritage 2000). LAA Diver sites were typically armed with 20mm and 40mm guns in linesfacing the expected direction of attack. Many of these were temporary mobileemplacements leaving little or no trace except a distinctive pattern of marks on the© ENGLISH HERITAGE 51 22 - 2013
ground surface. A Diver site was located immediately south of the East Dean Road onCrapham. An arc of eight pale rectilinear marks facing south-east towards the coast (Fig30) indicated the location of the battery. These show the location of where each gunemplacement had compressed the ground sufficiently to affect the vegetation growththree years later.Figure 30 Faint traces of Diver anti-aircraft gun emplacement on Crapham Down visible as pale markswhere each gun has compressed the ground. Extract of RAF 564 CPE/UK/1947 2016 22-JAN-1947English Heritage RAF Photography.The high cliffs at Beachy Head had long been used for coastal observation and signallingposts. With the development in the 1930s of Radar systems to detect incoming enemyaircraft, Beachy Head was used to site an Observer Corps post and a Royal Naval SignalStation, and one of two Chain Home stations located along this section of coast, thesecond sited at Newhaven. Beachy Head Chain Home (CD/CHL) station wasconstructed in spring 1941 by the British Army to detect approaching ships and aircraft. Inthe early 1950s, the station developed into an R1 underground Rotor early warningsystem for use in the Cold War. The station was, finally put on standby in 1957 andclosed in 1960. In the 1960s the bunker was stripped of its equipment and theguardhouse was occupied by the police and the remaining surface features wereremoved. The guardhouse was demolished in 1996, and by 2001 the bunker had beensealed and is the only surviving feature at the site.© ENGLISH HERITAGE 52 22 - 2013
Page 1 and 2:
RESEARCH REPORT SERIES no. 22-2013S
Page 3 and 4:
Cover Photograph: Cuckmere Haven, t
Page 5:
ARCHIVE LOCATIONEnglish Heritage,Th
Page 8 and 9:
Figure 1 Revised project area......
Page 10 and 11: INTRODUCTIONThis report describes t
Page 12 and 13: Weald cut through the Downs forming
Page 14 and 15: Monument records in the NRHE AMIE d
Page 16 and 17: ‘Although there are up to 20…,
Page 18 and 19: Figure 5 Toms’ 1920 survey (left)
Page 20 and 21: Subsequent survey by the Ordnance S
Page 22 and 23: The evidence from aerial photograph
Page 24: on aerial photographs as differenti
Page 27 and 28: Although just outside the project a
Page 29 and 30: Figure 12 General view of the easte
Page 31 and 32: large sub-rectangular field that is
Page 33 and 34: cultivators of these lynchets’ (i
Page 35 and 36: Forest and Lullington Heath - 37 ly
Page 37 and 38: SHEEP AND THE DEVIL’S BOOKFrom th
Page 39 and 40: ‘Celtic’ fields immediately to
Page 41 and 42: The 1835 reference to the earthwork
Page 43 and 44: Figure 20 Medieval and post medieva
Page 45 and 46: Figure 22 An early example of by-pa
Page 47 and 48: absence of a winch on earlier maps
Page 49 and 50: Figure 23 Extents of South Camp, ba
Page 51 and 52: 1988, 234). The grouping of 40 huts
Page 53 and 54: indicating probable re-use for mili
Page 55 and 56: 30th January 1943. The wind velocit
Page 57 and 58: the town appeared to be rendered in
Page 59: Movement upriver was hindered by pi
Page 63 and 64: mouth with lines of pontoons and
Page 65 and 66: Figure 33 Trenches aligned approxim
Page 67 and 68: The aerial photographs taken by the
Page 69 and 70: However, for his painting Coastal D
Page 71 and 72: war aerial photographs show a group
Page 73 and 74: Figure 40 Camouflage netting over t
Page 75 and 76: Description of the current Long Man
Page 77 and 78: which would certainly fit with sugg
Page 79 and 80: separate from it. The toes of the t
Page 81 and 82: other parts of the body, and indeed
Page 83 and 84: lip of a large chalk quarry, was, a
Page 85 and 86: something for which the likes of Pe
Page 87: Hill and the Lavant Caves, both nea
Page 90 and 91: to the present day…’ (Butler &
Page 92 and 93: least was unsupported by evidence f
Page 94 and 95: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
Page 96 and 97: documentary sources or fieldwork. N
Page 98 and 99: Barber M, Wickstead, H in press Dam
Page 100 and 101: Drewett, P 1978 Neolithic Sussex, i
Page 102 and 103: Lowry, B (eds) 2001 20 th Century D
Page 104: ENGLISH HERITAGE RESEARCH AND THE H
show all

Aerial Investigation and Mapping Report - English Heritage

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?