Defending Norfolk. The Military Landscape from Prehistory to the Present.

Osborne, Mike:

ISBN 10: 1781554994 / ISBN 13: 9781781554999

Published by UK: Fonthill Media, 2015

About this Item

First edition. Paperback book : colour photo-illustrated card wrappers. 208pp, quarto. With over 100 b&w previously unpublished photos, and illustrations, in text. Detailed history of various periods, and what evidence remains (eg Warham Iron Age Fort; Second World War and Cold War installations). A Fine copy. Photos available.

Seller Inventory # 34151

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Defending Norfolk. The Military Landscape from Prehistory to the Present.
• Publisher: UK: Fonthill Media
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781554994
• ISBN 13: 9781781554999
• Binding: Fine
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Military

About this title

Synopsis

Norfolk's status, in mediaeval times, as one of England's wealthiest and most populous counties, is reflected in the variety of defensible structures crowding its landscape. Vulnerable to invasion across the North Sea, by Romans and Vikings, the Spanish Armada and Napoleon, and in more recent times, Norfolk has always defended its coastline. Features in Norfolk of two world wars, were renewed anti-invasion defences, the evolution of military flight, the Navy's safeguarding of shipping, air-defence measures, the training of troops and airmen, and the provision of a platform for retaliatory bombing. Through its defensive screen of radar and anti-aircraft missiles, and elements of Britain's nuclear deterrent, Norfolk was placed in the front line of the Cold War. Norfolk's landscape is littered with evidence of all this military activity: Iron-age and Roman forts; mediaeval castles, fortified manors and abbeys; moats and town-walls; pillboxes, anti-tank obstacles, coast artillery batteries and trench systems; airfields and radar sites; Cold War bunkers and missile sites. This book describes the whole range of these monuments, placing them within their social, historical, political and military contexts.

About the Author

Dr. Mike Osborne's interest in fortification began with childhood visits to castles. It has developed over the years to include all aspects of the topic from Iron-Age forts to Cold War bunkers. He was a volunteer-coordinator for the Defence of Britain Project recording the military structures of the Twentieth Century. After a thirty-year career in education he took early retirement and since then has produced nearly twenty books. Topics include: Civil War sieges and fortifications, drill halls, twentieth-century military structures and the best-selling Defending Britain. This volume on Norfolk is the seventh in a continuing county series