More information : (TA 2090 4780) Hornsea world war II town defences
This complex of anti-invasion defences, built circa 1940, encircles
the town of Hornsea. The structures can be divided into two groups, beach defences, and landward defences. The beach defences consisted of pillboxes flanking the promanade which was fronted with a series of anti-tank cubes. The defence scheme was extended beyond the beach by two 4.7inch quick firing guns installed on the rising ground of the south cliff. The beach was mined, although no evidence of this was found during the FSG Holderness Survey.
The landward defences consisted of minefields, roadblocks,
railblocks, and pillboxes. There was a long belt of mines around the outside of the town, from the South Cliff via Suffolk Terrace, to the North Cliff. This meant that the town could only be entered via
Rolston Road, Hull Road, Atwick Road, Cliff Road, and the railway.
Each entrance point to the town was narrowed by concrete cubes into roadblocks covered by pillboxes. Although the defences could have operated either facing into, or out of Hornsea, the pillboxes face into the town, inticating the anticipated direction of the attack.
The defences were intended to provide a holding action for any
beachead formed by invading forces until re-inforcements could
arrive.
The site was visited by the Fortress Study Group during the
Holderness Survey in 1992. The FSG found that the survival of the
monuments could be split into two distinct bands. The beach defences systems have almost all been destroyed by coastal erosion and have been plotted from aerial photographs by the FSG. The landward defences show better preservation and, with the exception of the minefield, almost all survive. The survival and the form of the various sites is discussed individually (see parent-child relationships).(1)
This complex of anti-invasion defences, built circa 1940, encircles the town of Hornsea. The structures can be divided into two groups, beach defences, and landward defences. The beach defences consisted of pillboxes flanking the promanade which was fronted with a series of anti-tank cubes. The defence scheme was extended beyond the beach by two 4.7inch quick firing guns installed on the rising ground of the south cliff. The beach was mined. The landward defences consisted of minefields, roadblocks, railblocks, and pillboxes. There was a long belt of mines around the outside of the town, from the South Cliff via Suffolk Terrace, to the North Cliff. This meant that the town could only be entered via Rolston Road, Hull Road, Atwick Road, Cliff Road, and the railway. Each entrance point to the town was narrowed by concrete cubes into roadblocks covered by pillboxes. Although the defences could have operated either facing into, or out of Hornsea, the pillboxes face into the town, inticating the anticipated direction of the attack. The defences were intended to provide a holding action for any beachead formed by invading forces until re-inforcements could arrive. By 1992, the beach defences systems had almost all been destroyed by coastal erosion. The landward defences show better preservation and, with the exception of the minefield, almost all survive. The survival and the form of the various sites are discussed individually in this gazetteer. (2)
|