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Summary

A network of earthwork ditches, visible on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s and less distinctly on visualisations of lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017. They are interpreted as Second World War trenches, though could be earlier.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1002585: Staddon Heights Defences including Fort Staddon Fort, Brownhill Battery, Watch House Battery, Staddon Heights Battery, Staddon Battery and associated features and structures

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX45SE/44/1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• TRENCH (World War I to World War II - 1914 AD to 1945 AD (Between))

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV159934.

Des=plymouth fortress survey/pye, a. /(1992)/frobisher battery/copy and plan in smr.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, RAF/CPE/UK/1890 FS 2127-2128 10-DEC-1946 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

Two conjoined irregular earthwork ditches are visible.

PLYMOUTH FORTRESS SURVEY, 1992, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV27236.

Vis=-/3/1992 (pye) probable wwii foxholes. These consist of a small network of trenches, some with corrugated-iron revetment visible, and including at least one sunken corrugated-iron bunker. They are located in an earlier earthen mound immediately to the north of the road opposite frobisher battery. They may have been constructed during the last war to protect access around southern end of the rifle butts. The origin of the earlier earthwork is not known although it probably originates from the excavation of magazines for frobisher battery in the 1890s; it is marked on the 1896 os survey plan but not on the 1870 plan.(plymouth fortress survey).

Environment Agency, 1998-2017, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: South Devon Coast to Dartmoor, LIDAR SX4950 Environment Agency DTM 01-JAN-1998 to 31-MAY-2017 (Cartographic). SDV361470.

An irregular earthwork ditch is visible.

Hegarty, C., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2019-2020, The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping Survey. Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (AI&M, formerly NMP) (Interpretation). SDV362982.

Two conjoined earthwork ditches, approximately a metre wide and irregular in layout, are visible on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s. They are likely to be the probable Second World War trenches recorded in the Plymouth Fortress Survey, although they are not particularly clearly defined and may be earlier, perhaps dating from the First Word War. They are indistinctly visible on visualisations of lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017, indicating that earthworks probably survive below vegetation cover.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8098 - The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping (formerly NMP) Survey, Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (Ref: ACD2040)

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