Cley Patrol

Published information concerning the location of the OB site is conflicting in that one account puts it in a disused limekiln on the outskirts of Cley village, where chalk workings once used to be situated (now obliterated by new housing), whereas several other accounts describe it as having been situated on The Hangs – where we found it.

We found what appears to have been an entrance or exit opening near the upper edge of an overgrown slope that forms part of a geological feature called The Hangs, created by gravel deposits during the ice age. Small disused gravel extraction pits, and at lower elevations also marl or chalk pits, can be found all over this area.

In a second account, also published in A Hoare, Patrol member Ronald Hill gives the names of the other Patrol members. We managed to confirm all these names in personal interviews. Mr Hill also describes the location of the Patrol’s OB as having been on The Hangs, “a hilly area on the Cley/Kelling Road”. Mrs V Hill in a personal interview confirmed the OB’s location as having been on The Hangs, as did Geoff Cubitt, who knew members of both Cley and Blakeney Patrols.

The OB is inaccessible and there are no eye-witness accounts which would describe its size and the building materials used. The ground above is level, indicating that the main chamber might still be intact.