Middleton Patrol (Norfolk)

The OB-site is located in a small private woodland which was accessed by kind permission. Currently, the area adjoining in the east is a huge sand and gravel quarry which, in due time, will be extended further westwards and within the next few years the woodland and its adjoining fields will be obliterated.

The site is located at the highest elevation in the area, about 300 metres distant from the main road.

Patrol member Arthur Wilson recalled that access was through a vertical shaft that was secured by a trapdoor covered with roofing felt. The key required to open it was hidden under pine needles at the base of a pine tree.

The OB was built by the Patrol members themselves. All building materials were ‘borrowed’ from local sources. The roof was constructed from railway sleepers and corrugated sheeting covered with roofing felt. Roadside kerbstones were used for building the walls. The main chamber contained a cubby-hole for storing explosives and another for a chemical toilet. Sometime later an escape tunnel was added. It ran down a slope in a zig-zag course.

What Arthur Wilson described as an ‘emergency bolthole’ was situated on the woodland’s southern edge. The location affords wide all-around views including a good view of Lynn Road (A 47) some 300 metres further to the south. No trace remains.

Nothing remains of the OB which is presumed to have collapsed quite some time ago.