WW2 roadblock at Bugden House

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 26 Apr 2018

In WW2, Loddon was a category 'B' Nodal Point with defences placed to cover the roads into the town and sited to protect the important river crossing between Loddon and Chedgrave. Responsible for the defence was the local Home Guard battalion. Two of three pillboxes > https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/550798 and https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4417920 and the Home Guard stores > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5753098 have survived, as has a spigot mortar emplacement > https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3971491 which can still be seen at the Old Market Green. The rarest survival, however, is situated by the junction of High Street and George Lane, in the garden of Bugden House > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1418870. Six upright sections of railway track in their original positions (one seen at centre, most are hidden in a hedge now) are an example of a roadblock blocking this junction in the village centre to stop the movement of vehicles along George Lane and Bridge Street. See also > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5753180. The original roadblock presumably stretched along both of the roads, with the remaining rails having been placed to prevent tanks from demolishing the wall and going around the roadblock. Roadblocks such as this one were meant to be set up quickly so as not to hinder the movement of friendly troops and consisted of a number of concrete sockets sunk into the surface of the road, into which bent steel girders or sections of railway tracks would have been inserted as and when required.

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