Long Shot

I was recently travelling to Kelling heath ( Norfolk ) on the A148 and i noticed what was definitely a hard standing right next to the road.I was north of Holt (i Think) and there were no other obvious structures that i could see but bare in mind i was driving and wondered if anyone would know which base it was.Sorry for being so vague.

Little Snoring? That's south of Holt though...

The only place that springs to mind is RAF Bard Hill: initially commissioned as a Coast defence Chain Home Low radar station, and in January 1942 one of the first Army radar stations used for coast watching to be taken over by the RAF. By mid-1943 the station was equipped with a coast defence No. 1 Mk VI radar which was mounted on top of a 60 metres (200 ft) high steel tower. The station was located not very far to the north-west of Kelling in the direction of Salthouse, at the northern edge of Salthouse Heath to be more precise (but not beside the A148 road).

I am going with Agricultural too. The nearest military site along that bit of road is the CH Radar site at West Beckham, just south of the A148 but its in the countryside away from the road. Not sure what else it could be unless you could pinpoint the location a bit more.

Thanks for your responses,i will be going up again soon and i will be more accurate with a location for you.Thanks again.

This rings a dimly remembered bell.

When the RAF replaced the 80-series static radars with 90-series mobile units in the 1980/90s, the latter were, in general, positioned in the same old, well-established -- and well-known -- locations. This could have defeated the point of their mobility, so alternative, wartime locations were prepared and surveyed, and occasional exercises staged to practice emergency deployment there.

I would not say that this could be a wartime radar dispersal, but the point remains that such were dotted about the countryside at locations which may, or may not have been recorded for posterity. Indeed, they might still be secret.

My guess is that it will be a sugar beet loading pad. In the next month or so it will be covered with a huge heap of sugar beet, located close to a main road for easy access by the heavy lorries.

The main sugar beet factories at newark Bury St Edmunds, Wissington and cantley all opened last week and the campaign is just starting to get into its stride. All we have to do now is wait for the rain and the mud on the roads!

At a rough guess its the sugar beet pad at sharrington nr Langham crossroads nr where they sell strawberries during the season.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.8986177,1.0294...ta=!3m1!1e3?hl=en-GB

If you zoom in to the triangle of grass in the right of the map you will see the entrance to Melton Constable R.O.C. Post.