Aerial Investigation and Mapping Report - English Heritage

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photographs taken in 1942 may show Newhaven’s beach defences at their mostdeveloped (Dobinson 1942, 47). The most noticeable addition at Newhaven was threedefence lines, constructed from scaffolding, along the beach to the east of the harbourmouth. The forward line roughly follows the low water mark, the second the high watermark while the third runs close to the rear of the beach, in front of a line of anti-tankcubes put in place in 1940.Snapshots of the increasing and changing defences at Newhaven and along the coast arerecorded on the aerial photographs taken at intervals through the war and after. By 1942there had also been a significant amount of building to the west of Newhaven with theconstruction of a Heavy Anti-Aircraft battery on Peacehaven Heights and a CoastalDefence/Chain Home Low radar station to the south on the cliff edge overlooking Friar’sBay. The radar station at Newhaven provided target and range information for the coastalbatteries at Newhaven and Brighton and 1942 also saw the start of construction ofadditional coastal guns immediately to the west of Newhaven’s Victorian fort. Both thefort and the new battery were protected by extensive lines of barbed wire, particularly onthe landward side. A group of buildings to the north of the HAA battery are likely to bedomestic quarters, possibly serving both the battery and the radar station. Barbed wiredefence was extended across this area protecting both these installations and possiblyalso enhancing the 1940 defences on the western edge of Newhaven.Deceiving the enemy: concealment from the airBy 1943 numerous installations had been built in and around Newhaven reflecting itsimportance as a wartime port. Aerial photographs taken that year also indicate that thethreat of invasion had receded, but that air attack was still considered a threat. In 1944,the directorate of Camouflage issued a memorandum in the form of a booklet calledConcealment of New Buildings. This outlined important points to be followed whenconsidering the siting and construction of new buildings to ‘achieve concealment from theair by day or night’ (Anon 1944).Increased naval use of Newhaven is reflected by the provision of fuel oil storage tanks andconcerns about concealment from the air may explain why these tanks were not groupedtogether but instead distributed around the town in smaller groups. Some storage tankswere partly concealed by the disused quarries in which they were built (four tanks inMeeching Quarry and two in disused working on the hill above Gibbon Road - a site nowoccupied by the western end of Hill Crest Road). At least one storage tank had its sidespainted with a disruptive pattern but storage tanks at Meeching Quarry were alsoconcealed with camouflaged netting used to break up their circular plan when viewedfrom above (Fig 37).A slightly different technique was applied to the fuel oil storage tank near West Quay.This was entirely covered by netting which was tethered well away from the base givingthe appearance of a flat-topped mound (Fig 38). At a storage depot at West Quay, post-© ENGLISH HERITAGE 61 22 - 2013
war aerial photographs show a group of regularly arranged earth-covered structureslinked by pathways. During the war, this site was entirely covered with camouflage netting.Figure 37 Fuel oil storage tanks in Meeching Quarry. The outline of the tanks when viewed from abovewas disrupted by the camouflaged netting, which was stretched down to the ground or up to thequarry’s edge. RAF TQ4400/9 5-Sep-1943 English Heritage RAF Photography.Figure 38 Camouflage netting concealing a storage tank (right) and a group storage buildings, possiblymagazines near West Quay. RAF TQ4400/2 5-Sep-1943 English Heritage RAF Photography.Camouflage netting was also used on the wartime coastal battery, placed over the gunemplacements to conceal the extensive concrete structures that made up the landwardside of each emplacement (Fig 39). The post-war view of these exposed emplacementsprovides a stark contrast to the battery’s operational appearance.The camouflage netting was used to conceal temporary structures. To the north ofNewhaven, it covered 185m by 70m of the River Ouse as far upriver as Tarring Neville(Fig 40). This presumably provided a stretch or river where vessels could be moored andconcealed from enemy aircraft. The netting is first seen on aerial photographs taken on© ENGLISH HERITAGE 62 22 - 2013
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RESEARCH REPORT SERIES no. 22-2013S
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Cover Photograph: Cuckmere Haven, t
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ARCHIVE LOCATIONEnglish Heritage,Th
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Figure 1 Revised project area......
Page 10 and 11:
INTRODUCTIONThis report describes t
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Weald cut through the Downs forming
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Monument records in the NRHE AMIE d
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‘Although there are up to 20…,
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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 and 60: Movement upriver was hindered by pi
Page 61 and 62: ground surface. A Diver site was lo
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: However, for his painting Coastal D
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
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Aerial Investigation and Mapping Report - English Heritage

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