Visited today with ShadowOps.
I have been interested in this site for a while, after spotting the aerials in the distance when riding to work.
After a bit of research into the site and after a few emails and phone calls, we visited the site.
We met the owner, Derek, a very interesting man, and full of information and stories, who lives on the site in the old switching station, obviously converted to a house, and has a excellent little museum situated in the old guard house at the enterance!!
The site seems to be mostly in orginal condition, and the owner was good enough to take us around explaining all the details of the site.
He showed us areas where bombs had been dropped in order to destroy these stations and pointed out Jake Humphries (F1 reporter) dads house.
Once we had finished on his site, and after a cup of coffee, he took us for a drive around the area, showing us various areas where bombs had been dropped, 62 on Stoke Holy Cross itself, and 32 in neighbouring Poringland.
We then proceeded to site number two which he had the keys for, and this is home to one of the original mast array's and a newer BT tower.
This is the site where, on the 18th July 1942, a Blenheim IV aircraft flew and hit one of the towers, killing all on board.
A plaque sits in their memory, and the site owner, Derek, remembers the aftermath, and went into grafic detail of what remained, but will not go in to that now.
The masts were all 360 ft tall and were all pulled down in 1957 by a company called Cole Demolition. Derek remembered that at the time the demo guys had never done anything like this before so cut through the bottom of each mast, after managing to tie a cable to the top, and used a hand winch to pull the tower down.
The timber towers were brought down and the timber was purchased by Dawson's in Hellesdon.
There was so much to take in, and hopefully we can get another forum member to tag along to video document everything and put it on Youtube.
Photobucket has messed up the order of my photo's once again, so bear with me as i will explain each pic when you get to it!!
This is the newer BT tower on the second site which by the looks of it has every type of satellite, mobile phone and radio antenna connected through it!!
This picture shows the remaining original antenna array, still in use, but not sure what for??
This structure remains a mystery to both Derek, so if anyone knows then please get in touch
One of many orginal remaining plinths for the antenna to sit on
An imposed image of how the site would of looked then.
This is the memorial plinth in memory of the men who died aboard the plane which hit one of the towers in 1942
And again
This is Jake Humphries dads house, we did not knock on the door to see if he was there!!!
The gap in the hedgerow is where one bomb dropped exploded
If you look closely in the middle of the fore ground you can see the spire of Norwich cathederal
This is the view from Derek's site looking towards the BT and original array site.
One of the group of four plinths which supported the antenna array, the structure next to it again is unknown, Derek has added the roof and front wall, so we imagine it was used to store a mobile station and would have been covered with netting, but again if you know anymore please let me know.
A view from inside one of the pillboxes.
And again!!.
This writing on the wall was spotted by a german lady who came to look round, Derek has since been going over it with pencil as it fades and he wants to keep it readable, he has also done some research trying to find out about these people.
This was quite cool, a bullet hole in one of the fence panels after an attack.
Looking across the site.
The pill box protecting the site.
Derek has created a small museum in the guard hut at the enterance to the site, it is crammed with tons of information, pictures and was very interesting.
And again.
This was a strange story that Derek told us, the two doors into the bunker are well secure, but every now and then when he comes into the bunker the securing bolts across the top and bottom have been undone. In one of the pictures you will see a rectangle of sand in the floor, Derek put this here to see if anyone left any foot prints, they havent, very weird!!!!
In this pic you will see the sand
This room would have been the telephone room.
This piece of wood was discovered by Derek when he was ploughing a field, it was pile driven into the ground and lifted the plough into the air!!!
Some of many paper cutting Derek has on display around the bunker.
A cool picture of Winston Churchill mounted on the side of the power supply box.
The original power supply box which has sadly been vandalised over the years by kids.
The toilet was used by both men and women.
Derek with some of the artifacts he accumalated and has on display in the bunker.
More pics to follow in next post as i have typed to much and computer says NO!!