Site of Second World War Anti-Tank Pimples/Road Barrier, Uplands Road, Clacton-on-Sea (EHER 21207)

Site of Second World War Anti-Tank Pimples/Road Barrier, now destroyed.

WWII Defence of Clacton survey Contemporary records state, “Concrete pimples. ‘The Eaves’, Uplands Road, Lawn and entrance path” and “Concrete pimples. ‘The Gothic’, Uplands Road, Garden.” <1> During World War Two, every road leading into the town from the seafront at Clacton was sealed off by a road barrier. This would have been either a removable type (usually socket and rail) across the roadway between anti-tank pimples in the front gardens or a totally fixed pimple barrier, from one house across the road to the one on the opposite side. Although War Time Contraventions 1968 does not detail whether the road element of each barrier was removable or fixed it is possible to tell this with some confidence by a combination of a wartime plan of the seafront defences drawn up by CRE (Commander, Royal Engineers), Colchester and WDLA (War Department Land Agency) in 1944 and aerial photographs taken in July 1941. <1> <2> <3> At the western end of the Clacton seafront the barrier angled inland and this road barrier at Uplands Road was the westernmost of all. It crossed the road between “The Eaves” (now No. 5) and “The Gothic” (now No. 8) with anti-tank pimples in the front gardens of each and in the roadway between them. These can be faintly seen on an aerial photograph taken in July 1941. <4> Site visit by F. Nash, January 2007 Although the houses both survive and Uplands Road appears very much as it must have done in 1941, nothing of the barrier remains. <5>