Video filmed inside rare wartime Tett Turrets at Docking

Rare concrete turrets linked by a narrow tunnel were dug at Docking, near Hunstanton, in 1940, close to land which is now set to be developed for housing.

One of the Tett Turrets at Dockin (Image: BlueSky UAV Specialists)

There are plans to build a path to the structures so that people can visit them.

Docking parish councillor Lisa Leverett said: "At the moment the turrets are on private land, but as a parish council we will be taking ownership of the land they sit on.

"Hill are the contractor now and they have to tidy up the area and put railings and a path to the turrets so people can come and look at them.

"Once this is done we will take over, we will contact the relevant people to advise us on how to preserve the turrets and we also plan to erect an information board for people who wish to visit." 

An image shot inside the tunnel connecting the turrets by a robot vehicle (Image: BlueSky UAV Specialists)

A robot vehicle has been used to film underground and survey the turrets.

James Horne, director of Southrepps-based BlueSky UAV Specialists, said: "It was an awkward one.

A still from the underground video shot by the robot (Image: BlueSky UAV Specialists)

"They wanted to look at the condition of them but no one could go down there so we sent a little tracked robot down." 

Soldiers or members of the local Home Guard would have squeezed inside their concrete domes, which turned so they could bring their rifles to bear on the enemy.

A sketch plan of a Tett Turret (Image: National Archive)

But the so-called Tett Turrets were never used in anger. And the design was soon discarded by the War Office because it was too cramped and offered little protection against bullets or grenades. 

RARE TURRETS FORMED PART OF VILLAGE DEFENCES

A Tett Turret at North Mymms in Hertfordshire (Image: Evelyn Simak/Creative Commons)

Tett Turrets were only installed at six sites around the south and east of England before the design was abandoned in favour of the more substantial pillbox.

The only other known examples to survive are at the former RAF Hornchurch, in Essex and two sites in neighbouring Hertfordshire.

The Docking turrets have been designated Grade II listed by Historic England, which says they are "evocative reminders of the early part of the Second World War when enemy invasion from mainland Europe was widely anticipated".

A Second World War machine gun post at Docking (Image: Matthew Usher)

They were part of a wider system of defences around the village which included larger pillboxes, while an armoured train patrolled the nearby coast between Hunstanton and King's Lynn.

There were fears the German Army might launch an invasion on the Norfolk coast (Image: PA)

After the British Army withdrew from Dunkirk, plans were drawn up for defending the country from an invasion on the East coast.

Docking was ringed with defences during the war (Image: Ian Burt)

Docking was strategically important because it was within 15 miles of the coast and stands at the junction of key roads. It was also the home of the wartime airfield.