Site of Second World War HAA Gun Site "C15 Rollestone", West of Chelmsford (EHER 20125)

Former site of the anti-aircraft battery; no longer extant

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. NGR's: Gun Emplacements TL 6763 0537 Accommodation Site TL 6746 0528 Dec 1993: WWII anti-aircraft battery appearing on RAF vertical photography from 1947. The site consists of five main earthen bank enclosures (presumably gun emplacements), one central command post and two small satellite posts. A quarry for earth to construct the banks is visible to the NE along a field boundary. <5> July 1998: Documented in contemporary records as "C15 Rollestone", a Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun site W of Chelmsford. Manning at the site is documented at the end of 1943 as manned by 399 battery of the 118th Royal Artillery Regiment in 1943. Manning Date Guns Radar Regt Bty 9 Dec 1943 118 399 <1> An aerial photograph taken in June 1946 shows the remains of four possibly square emplacements in a semi-circle facing NW from a field S of Writtle. In the centre is the remains of the command post. 200 yards to the WSW - at the side of the road - the parch marks of two huts can be seen. An aerial photograph taken in 1960 shows the field to be completely clear and the area returned to agriculture.<1> - <3> Site visit July 1998: The site is now an open cultivated field with no apparent sign of any remains. One photo taken of site. <4> <5> Aerial photograph <6>