Site of Second World War Anti-Tank Pimples/Road Barrier, Penfold Road, Clacton-on-Sea (EHER 21217)

Anti-Tank Pimples/Road Barrier, now destroyed.

WWII Defences of Clacton survey. Contemporary records state, “Concrete pimples, dannert wire and rails. Tower Lodge, Penfold Road, Garden.” <1> ‘Tower Lodge’ is some 50 yards down Penfold Road, from Marine Parade West, on the east side. It can be seen from an aerial photograph taken in July 1941 that at that time this was the first house on that side and therefore the best place to “anchor” a road barrier. However, oddly, opposite it is a gap between two houses, which doesn’t provide an opposite anchorage point. A copy of an aerial photograph taken in July 1941 does not provide a clear image but the original, at the National Monuments Record, Swindon, shows about 40 pimples in the barrier. <2> <3> Site visit by F. Nash, 2007 “Tower Lodge” (No. 2) is still extant. The opposite gap, however, is now a house (No. 3 and 3a). <4>