Site of Second World War Alan-Williams turrets, London Road/St. John’s Road roundabout, Great Clacton (EHER 21251)

Site of Second World War Alan-Williams turrets, now destroyed.

WWII Defence of Clacton survey. In April 1994, it was reported that during World War Two a number, possibly two or three, circular steel turrets were mounted on the roundabout at the junction of London Road and St John’s Road. Local residents stated, through a local historian, that they remembered ‘hopping down inside the circular type structure and moving the top section around’ … ‘made of thick heavy metal; shutters could be closed leaving a small slit hole to peer through’ … ‘revolving’. <1> From these descriptions it is clear that they must have been Alan-Williams turrets, semi-sunken steel cupolas, manned by two infantrymen with a mounted machine-gun. Site visit and trial trenching by Fred Nash, May 1994 There are four large, grassy mounds on the roundabout, with no known purpose, and with the re-shaping of the roundabout imminent in May 1994 it was arranged for some exploratory work to be done. Subsequently, a number of trenches were dug by machinery and parts of the roundabout were pierced by steel rods. Nothing was found. 22 photos were taken. <2> In June 2007, a detailed study of 1946 aerial photographs revealed three small structures on the roundabout, distinct but too small to be interpretable. Each of these was in a position to look along the length of one of the roads into the roundabout, north, east and south, at TM 1715 1647, TM 1717 1647 and TM 1716 1644. It is not known if any or all of these were, in fact, the Alan-Williams turrets remembered but the 1946 aerial photographs show the roundabout otherwise clear and thus it appears a likely identification. <3> The shape of the roundabout has now been altered from its wartime rectangle to completely circular. None of the small structures visible on the 1946 aerial photographs appear to coincide with the grassy mounds. <4>