| Summary : A Second World War military installation, visible as a building and a buried structure, were mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1946 and 1948. Located on Middle Hope at the east end of the Swallow Cliff ridgeline, the site has been built into the west side of an earthwork mound (HOB UID 192646/ST 36 NW 3/SAM 22828). A rectangular brick-built building with a pitched roof measures about 6 metres east-west and 5 metres north-south. Immediately to the east, a linear earthwork measuring about 12 metres long is aligned north-south, at both ends of which are two sets of two parallel linear concrete walls likely to have been entranceways to a buried structure. This site may have been a military observation post with an air raid shelter, although its overt and prominent location is not tactically logical for this role. It seems more likely that the structures are associated with the adjacent bombing decoy site (HOB UID 1460927/ST 36 NW 25), the building providing the accommodation billet for the decoy crew and the buried shelter providing the protected control room from where the lights and other pyrotechnic ignitions were controlled from. The building and shelter entrance walls were visible as upstanding structures in aerial photographs taken in 1948 but, by 1958, aerial photographs show the building has been demolished, with only the concrete floor pad remaining, but the concrete entranceway walls of the shelter behind the building were still upstanding. The remains of the builing's concrete floor and the entranceway walls to the air raid shelter/control room still showed up clearly in aerial photographs taken in 1967. However, in aerial photographs taken in 1969 and 1970, the concrete shelter walls also appear to have been levelled, though still visible. The structure was still visible as a concrete floor pad in aerial photographs taken in 1985. |
More information : A Second World War military building and an air raid shelter or control room, visible as an extant building and a buried structure, were mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1946 and 1948. Located on Middle Hope at the east end of Swallow Cliff's ridgeline, the site has been built into the west side of an earthwork mound, being the remains of Castle Batch, a Medieval motte (HOB UID 192646/ST 36 NW 3/SAM 22828). A rectangular building or hut, likely to have been brick-built (see note 10) with a pitched roof which measures about 6 metres east-west and 5 metres north-south, is centred at ST 3260 6603. It has a rectangular window in its front-facing (west to seaward) wall and a doorway in its north-facing side.
Immediately to the east of the building, centred at ST 3261 6603, a linear earthwork is located, measuring about 12 metres long aligned north-south. At both north and south ends there are two sets of two linear concrete walls aligned north-south, each about 3 metres long and 0.8 metres wide. These walls are about 0.7 metres apart and are likely to have been protected entranceways to a buried structure. Between the building and the buried structure, a pipe-like feature is visible set vertically in the ground in oblique aerial photographs taken in 1948.
This site may have been a military observation post with an air raid shelter, although its overt and prominent location is not tactically logical for this role. It seems more likely that the structures are associated with the adjacent bombing decoy site (HOB UID 1460927/ST 36 NW 25), the building providing the accommodation billet for the decoy crew and the buried shelter providing the control room from where the lights and other pyrotechnic ignitions were controlled from, whilst also providing some protection from falling bombs.
The building/hut and shelter entrance walls were visible as upstanding structures in aerial photographs taken in 1948 but, by 1958, aerial photographs show the building has been demolished, with only the concrete floor pad remaining, but the concrete entranceway walls of the shelter behind the building were still upstanding. The remains of the building's concrete floor and the entranceway walls to the air raid shelter/control room still showed up clearly in aerial photographs taken in 1967. However, in aerial photographs taken in 1969 and 1970, the concrete shelter walls also appear to have been levelled, though still visible. The structure was still visible as a concrete floor pad in aerial photographs taken in 1985. (1-9)
On an API field visit on 10th November 2007 field, the only remains of the building were a grassy flat square area cut into the west side of the (scheduled) Medieval motte (HOB UID 192646/ST 36 NW 3/SAM 22828), along with concrete rubble, whole and part red bricks embedded in the adjacent path to the south. Presumably this was demolition rubble from the building. A square concrete block, in the middle of which is a deep circular shaft about 20 centimetres in diameter, is located immediately east of the former building. Inside the shaft are the remains of a metal construction, with wing-like protrusions from a central pole, which may have been the remains of an air filter for the buried structure. However, dense bramble thickets at the location of the two entranceways to the buried features meant that access could not be gained to any remaining structures. The large linear earthwork between the two entrances suggests it may still be, at least in part, intact. (10)
Customer comment recieved May 2017: 'I believe this building may be a markers shelter for an air to ground firing range. It appears on charts from about 1941/2 and may have been used by 263 Sqn in November 1939, although they referred to Sand Bay. Post war aerial photos appear to show the standard ground to air signal masts (two) in front of the building. I suspect the markers shelter is of the unprotected type, that is, not in the line of fire. I am not sure what the sunken bunker is but it may be a semi-protected shelter for the markers to check the targets after each detail. Unit records indicate it was used in 1943 by the larger 40mm S gun in Hurricanes and a representation of a tank target was used. I haven't viewed any oblique photos of the buildings in question so can't be absolutely sure they were range related but there is no doubt there was a an air to ground range on the Point. I should point out that that area is a confusion of air firing and bombing ranges especially with the Admiralty at Birnbeck Pier using Sand Bay for testing various air dropped weapons. This unit moved to St Thomas' Head post war and took over the wartime bombing range in Woodspring Bay. The RAF also tried to get a post war bombing range at Sand Point but this never went ahead. Also the wrecks of the Fernwood and Staghound are often referred to as bombing targets but to my knowledge they were only trial for destroying concrete filled block ships. Most of my sources have been the National Archives at Kew (TNA) which sadly lack detail on many ranges or stop short where ranges were proposed. Squadron record books at TNA have also helped but they are notorious for being vague on locations and often use unofficial names for ranges. I will try to update this when I manage to order photocopies of the relevant RAF wartime oblique photos of the area.'
|