Brocklesby Memorial Arch & Brocklesby Wartime Bunkers
After Failing Miserably the other day to find the anti aircraft battery at Brocklesby it was onward once again - this time the Goldeneye scorecard would not be marked with an FM - success was the only option for Operation Brocklesby Park Bunkers and Memorial Arch !
Not wishing to miss the boat as I did last time I was armed with a secret weapon - coordinates !
Last time I used EH coordinates (English Heritage) this time however is used CK coordinates (Chris Keyworth)
The primary differences between EH and CK map directions are that the former cause you to spend a couple of hours fruitlessly walking about in a semi-confused state whilst the later take you straight to the exact spot you want to be !
Memorial Arch
First stop was this impressive structure which is a memorial to Charles Anderson Worsley, 2nd Earl of Yarborough, as you can see it’s extremely impressive and looks and feels as though you’re in the wrong county when you look at it - wrong country even.
It does however, whilst possibly looking a little incongruous, fit in with the elaborate Yarborough Estate style in the area we’ve seen before at Newsham Bridge and Newsham Lodge not to mention being not too far away from the Mausoleum at Great Limber
World War II Underground Bunker
That lead quite easily to the main quarry of the day and an impressive site it was too. Clearly one of considerable size and was once an area of considerable activity during the war. There appeared to be no anti aircraft batteries like those we saw at Stallingborough and most of the underground buildings followed the same pattern - steps leading down to subterranean entrance as seen above the see picture below
Location - How to Find - Directions
Take the B1210 from Brocklesby to Kirmington - you can’t miss the arch and the wood to the right shows an entrance - go down there and the concrete bunkers and installations are on the left just inside the trees.
Ammunition Store - Bunker
The inside was pitch dark but thankfully the new camera managed to deal with it and give us this interior shot. At the end of the ‘tunnel’ is another entrance / exit with an iron ladder and square manhole type entrance.
There are several of these along with an awful lot of foundations for brick buildings.
A quick look about online etc has failed to yield much in the way of information and history so I can only repeat what CK told us initially that it was a a Barracks and Ammunition Dump For RAF 166 Kirmington.
Our thanks go out to Chris Keyworth for the initial tip off and subsequent info - excellent - 15 man points duly awarded 
If anybody knows of anything else, has been there, especially if you were there during the war - please do leave a comment - thank you
The day was rounded off with another 5 churches visited, photographed and catalogued. The whole operation carried out on what turned out to be the nicest day of the month - once again a memorable and thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a day
See also: Pelham’s Pillar
Subterraneanly Yours
Rod
Tom C. said,
August 20, 2009 @ 9:11 am
Good article Rod, it’s very much appreciated. Sometimes you can’t help but think that this area is covered in a history hidden mysteriously by formidable amounts of countryside and such. I guess that this is just the evidence to prove my latter point: though it is a shame this can’t be more well known. After all; ‘those who forget history are doomed to repeat it’.
Rod said,
August 20, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
Tom,
I can only imagine how much history, from all periods, is hidden out there in Lincolnshire.
The really sad thing is that so much information is lost generationally. Take the above, I don’t know much about the sites history but there are people out there who do - who were there even !
As to repeating history, a good point well made though one seemingly incomprehensible to political leaders throughout the ages !
Cheers
Rod
chris keyworth said,
August 20, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
Rod, Pleased you found the site ok
did you go through the wods on the opposit side of the road there is loads of slip trenches in there,
also i dont know if when you visited the morsellium you took in the other impressive monuments in that area there are several greek temples in the wood around there along with yet another air crash of the second world war, but there lies a very sad story but one that is not widley known and worth telling i can give exact coordinates if required, it is a good afternoons walk in really nice parkland, oh yesa and there is the hermitage in there to a very spoky place…
regards
chris
Rod said,
August 20, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
Hi Chris,
didn’t check out the other wood no but that’s good in away as it leaves it open for another worthwhile return visit.
I’d love the coordinates for the other site and when I can get there and write it up you could perhaps share the story then and preserve it.
Thanks as always Chris
All the best
Rod
chris keyworth said,
August 20, 2009 @ 6:26 pm
Hi Rod
TA 1365 0960 aprox site of plane crash (easy to find there is a memorial on a large tree)
TA 1335 0970 aprox site of Temple
if you follow these grids it will put you in the right area for all the monuments the only one which is hard to find is the hermitage as it is right in the woods off the track but well worth going and searching it out below is a grid for a pill box you may want to check out while you are in the village, and also the grange earthworks….
TA 1400 0850 pill box
TA 1380 0850 Limber grange site of..
regards
chris
chris keyworth said,
August 20, 2009 @ 6:39 pm
one photo off you, of the memorial will tell the story far better than i can Rod, in past wars age was no issue that is a point put across well by this memorial i remember when i first saw it, it brought a tears to my eyes and i am no softy i have seen war and i am battle hardened, i do have the thousand yard stair at times, this site brings my thoughts to friends still serving and battles fought and the moral issues surrounding wars in this day and age…
Chris
Rod said,
August 20, 2009 @ 6:48 pm
Hi Chris,
many thanks for that info, I’ve made a note of it.
I must say it really makes me think when I see some of the grave stones in the churches I visit - the wartime oneswith things like
Gave his life for his country - Aged 19 Years !
I can never quite reconcile the issues I’m full of admiration, gratitude, respect and thanks and yet it is such a horrific waste of life . . . a circle that can never be squared I feel
Thanks again Chris
Rod
chris keyworth said,
August 20, 2009 @ 9:23 pm
Lancaster LM176 Information
Type Lancaster
Serial Number LM176
Squadron 166
X1D AS-X
Operation Karlsruhe
Date 1 4th December 1944
Date 2 4th December 1944
Further Information
“edit by Rod “
Rod said,
August 21, 2009 @ 7:54 am
Hi Chris,
thanks for the info, much appreciated. I’ve edited so it can be used when I visit the actual site.
If I left it and used it again it would cause search engine problems, page would get dumped and never seen by searchers etc
Best
Rod
Phil El said,
April 8, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
Was driving along the B1210 today & came across this huge arch! Thought ‘what the hell is that’ & immediately googled it when i got home. Found this website, the most fascinating ever! Just spent the last hour or so reading about the AA Gunsites - brilliant. Its amazing how much is hidden away in Lincolnshire.
Thanks Rod, bookmarking this site now!
Phil
Rod said,
April 8, 2010 @ 8:04 pm
Phil,
many thanks for the comment and the kind words - welcome to the site.
That arch really does take your breath away doesn’t it Phil - it’s hugely impressive and you’d never imagine seeing such a thing out in Lincolnshire.
Thanks again Phil
All the best
Rod
Martin Bridge said,
May 20, 2010 @ 7:42 pm
..I think any notion that these were “ammunition stores and underground bunkers” is a false impression…
As a kid (I’m now 61) our dad used to take us exploring around this site on Sundays. IF it is the site just to the right (south) of the Yarborough Arch, then it is a dispersed wartime accommodation site for the airmen of RAF Kirmington. The (now long gone) nissen huts were on the estate side of its one central path, and there were several air raid shelters on the other side: the airfield side. These you have found.
The site was I recall, a long thin strip, hugging the side of a wood. Still GREAT to see this memorial remains, AND is in good condition!
History Hunter said,
May 20, 2010 @ 9:26 pm
I have recently taken a stroll round a few of these dispersal sites and there are indeed underground bunkers. There are 3 just in the small area of woodland where the B1210 road forks off the A18 towards Immingham
chris keyworth said,
May 21, 2010 @ 5:04 pm
There are loads of bunkers dotted all over the place if you go looking for them around kirmington, i walked around the now demolished ones years ago but as far as i am aware there are still bunkers to the south of the airfield in the fields…
regards
chris
Martin Bridge said,
May 21, 2010 @ 5:25 pm
…and also, fellow “Time Teamers”, if you have a look-see of the book, “Maximum Effort: One group at War” (Grimsby Evening Telegraph/Manor Publications, by Patrick Otter), you will discover, on page 57, a lovely & detailed B&W aerial photo of RAF Kirmington taken 1945.
Go onto “Aerial Views of the UK airfields” websiteyou will be rewarded with a modern-day colour shot. The amount of sites and frying pan dispersals that have disappeared is staggering (eg; the very NE corner of the A18/Caistor was VERY built-up with dispersals and buildings; now it’s just a field. However, approx 400 yards from this same road junction, proceeding along the Caistor road, turn left (that’s eastwards) ..and there is a very open space..this was once a full-size aircraft hangar with a peritrack and 3 dispersals. “Baldric”
chris keyworth said,
May 21, 2010 @ 6:45 pm
yes we have seen it, it is on here under kirmington pow camp if im not mistaken…
regards
chris…
History Hunter said,
May 21, 2010 @ 8:06 pm
There were in fact 38 aircraft dispersal sites around RAF Kirmington and 3 T2 Type aircraft hangers. Each one was bigger than the largest hanger that is on site now, namely the Roissy hanger. One is correctly positioned by Martin Bridge as to the left of Caistor Road. One was sited where the Avis and Europcar wash bays and the Waste Compound are now, and the second one in the footprint of where the Roissy hanger and the Cold Store are now, but at a 45 degree angle from their orientation
Martin Bridge said,
May 22, 2010 @ 6:04 pm
..bit of a diversion here ‘time-teamers..’ Goxhill:
Did you know a local Goxhill man, Ron Parker, has a great book out, (2007) “Goxhill Airfield in Memories & Photographs?” The collective results from years of his most dedicated research. Now, recently, the powers-that-be have well and truly ******-up Goxhill airfield! (I would go as far to say “FUBAR” - look it up in US military slang) Many of Goxhill’s once excellent runways & peri-tracks have been pulled-up and the site reforested. But worst of all, (shades of Monty Python here) ..the Yanks have gone and demolished the once excellent control tower..to reconstruct it somewhere in Virginia Beach.. as a “WW2 theme park!” (”gee, that’s sure swell, honey..”) HOWEVER - Ron’s book has some excellent photos of P51’s & P38’s & their crews at ‘lonely, far-flung dispersals’.. These are still in situ along Chapelfield Road, (running east of the main base.) Compare and contrast to today; quite atmospheric.. Best wishes “Baldric”
Rod said,
May 22, 2010 @ 8:19 pm
Martin,
very interesting contribution and many thanks indeed. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for the book.
I’ve done some stuff on Goxhill and still have an article or two in drafts waiting to go but I certainly need to check out the buildings you mention.
Thanks again for the great comment Martin
All the best
Rod
Richard said,
September 19, 2010 @ 12:30 pm
Hi.
We live in Briggate lodge (2) just inside Charles Anderson Worsley’s Stone Arch & our rear garden backs onto the woodland where your photo’s show the bunkers.
There are also down there still remaining the bases for the houses which were occupied by the RAF during the WW II operations.
The roadway is still also just viewable giving access to them.I dont suppose you have any photos or can tell me where to locate some showing what this area of the woodland was like at that time, it was obviously quite a community & also across from us behind Briggate Lodge (1) there are the artilliary placements still just in place, it would be fascinating to see what they looked like during action times. Must have been scary for the occupents of our two lodges at the height of operations as there were no Anderson Shelters form them, just a long & fast leg it down to the RAF Houseing ones!!
Thanks.
Rich.
Rod said,
September 19, 2010 @ 3:37 pm
Hi Rich,
thanks for the comment and welcome to the site - you certainly live in a nice spot.
I don’t know of any pictures but if any turn up or anybody has any I’d be happy to put them up here
Regards
Rod
Richard said,
October 16, 2010 @ 2:51 pm
Thanks Rod
That would be great i understand that someone at the Brocklesby estate office is writing a full history of the estate for a dgree project.
You might want to contact him.
Mick Day the Estate Architect or Robert Barr the Estate Manager would i am sure introduce you-Mick & Robert are really nice guys.
Good Luck.
Rich.
Rod said,
October 16, 2010 @ 4:38 pm
Richard,
that sounds fascinating - do they have a copy of the Black Book that’s now in the Lincoln archive ?
best
Rod
chris keyworth said,
October 16, 2010 @ 5:55 pm
rod/richard
no they dont have one the one they had is in the repository at lincoln and in a bad way there is one other but its in the hands of a private collector..
regards
chris
Rod said,
October 16, 2010 @ 6:48 pm
Chris,
I was just wondering whether it had been copied prior to going into the archive, there could be a photcopy somewhere.
best
Rod