Site of Second World War road barrier, between No.s 117 and 118 Maldon Road (EHER 21278)

Now destroyed. The site of a Second World War road barrier, known from contemporary records and proposed to have crossed Maldon Road between Nos 117 and 118. When visited in July 2009, it was noted that the driveway of No. 118 had been re-laid with gravel and there is no sign of the sockets.

July 2009. World War Two Defences in Maldon survey. Contemporary records state, ‘Road Barrier. Road No. B.1010, Maldon Road. Map ref. 393152', '13 conc. cones, San Souci’ and ‘Concrete Pimples. Sans Souci. Map ref. 392151.’ (Mil. Ed.). <1> These three entries clearly all refer to the same road barrier on Maldon Road. The second entry shows ‘H J Austin’ as the occupier of ‘Sans Souci’. While it has not been possible to track down this house name, the 1949 Electoral Register shows ‘H J Austin’ to live at ‘Landfall’, a house which is exactly placed today, on the South side of Maldon Road, and proposed to have been the original wartime ‘Sans Souci’. The road barrier clearly crossed Maldon Road from a garage which stands close to the road in the front garden of ‘Landfall’, No. 117. This is confirmed by a series of three photographs taken by a local resident, undated but probably from the late 1980s or early 1990s. These show a row of eight or nine anti-tank sockets let into the gravel driveway of No. 118, exactly opposite the garage. They lead from the pavement towards the house, from where the photographs were taken. These sockets would have held removable steel rails, dropped upright into them, almost certainly continuing across the road to the fixed pimples of 'San Souci'. <2> <3> When visited in July 2009, it was noted that the driveway of No. 118 had been re-laid with gravel and there is no sign of the sockets. <3>