Second World War HAA battery, TN4 Rayleigh, Rawreth Industrial Estate (EHER 20133)

Heavy anti-aircraft gun site at Rawreth Industrial Estate. Documented in contemporary records as 'TN4 Rayleigh'. An aerial photograph taken in 1946 shows four octagonal gun emplacements in a semi-circle facing ENE. An aerial photograph of 1990 show them to have been demolished. A number of accommodation huts still survive built of brick with pitched roofs and metal frame windows. These are now in use as industrial/office units and the areas is now part of an industrial estate.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: Documented in contemporary records as "TN4 Rayleigh", a WWII Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun site at Rawreth. Equipment and manning at the site is documented at various dates: 30 Apr 1940: Regt-unmanned, 20 May 1942: Guns-unarmed, Radar-none, Regt-vacant, 22 Jun 1942: Guns-unarmed, Radar-none, 15 Jan 1946: . An aerial photograph taken in May 1946 shows four octagonal gun emplacements in a semi-circle facing ENE. These each have six internal ammunition recesses and appear to be of the same "March 1938 pattern" as that shown diagrammatically. Between the two northernmost emplacements an on-site magazine bunker can be seen. The command post is in the centre of the semi-circle. Approximately 150 yards to the south-west there are at least 16 huts. <1> - <3> July 1998. Site visit. The site has now become Rawreth Industrial Estate and the position of the gun emplacements is occupied by plant hire and waste station industry. Although still extant in 1970 an aerial photograph taken in 1990 shows them to have been demolished by that date. However, a number of the accommodation huts still survive at the south end of the estate. At least ten still remain - brick built, pitched roof, metal frame windows - and these are now used as industrial/office units. Four photographs taken of the accommodation site. <4> - <7> Some of the original brick-built huts remain, integrated into a working industrial estate. They are not thought to have high WWII archaeological significance. <8> Site visited as part of the MPP programme. Not enough survives to schedule. <9> <10> September 1999. Scheduling report. Documented in contemporary records as 'TN4 Rayleigh', a World War Two anti-aircraft gunsite at Rawreth. Equipment and manning at the site is documented at various dates. Aerial photograph 1946 shows four octagonal gun emplacements each have six internal ammunition recesses and appear to be of the same 'March 1938 pattern' as that show diagrammatically in Dobinson 1996. Between the two northernmost emplacements an on-site magazine bunker can be seen. The command post is in the centre of the semi-circle. Approximately 160m to the south-west there are at least 16 huts. The site has now become Rawreth Industrial Estate and the position of the gun emplacements is occupied by plant hire waste station industry. Although still extant in 1970 an aerial photograph taken in 1990 shows them to have been demolished by that date. However, a number of the accommodation huts still survive at the southern end of the estate. At least ten still remain; brick built with pitched roofs and metal frame windows; these are now in use as industrial/office units. The huts show varying degrees of preservation of original features; however, as all are occupied scheduling is inappropriate. One or two of the huts are fairly well preserved but as a group they are not thought to rank as nationally important. It might be appropriate for the buildings to be considered for Listing. <11> See also: <12> - <17>