Totley Wells

NT17NW 189.00 centred 1025 7648

NT17NW 189.01 Centred NT 1034 7647 Military camp

A heavy anti-aircraft battery has been recorded by J Guy from PRO records and is also depicted on the latest edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1984) in a field S of Westfield farm.

Information from RCAHMS (DE) June 1997

Situated in a field on the N side of the road, SW of Westfield, only two holdfasts remain of this heavy anti-aircraft battery. Some buildings remain of the accommodation camp, now being used as stables.

The battery consisted of four 4.5-inch guns and had a code RSG 2.

J A Guy 1997; NMRS MS 810/5, 37-9

Examination of the RAF post-war vertical air photographs (CPE/Scot/UK 292, 5090-1, flown 12 September 1947), shows that this battery was situated mainly on the S side of the road, W of Westfield. Situated in a field about 150m W of Westfield the four gun-emplacements with ready-use ammunition lockers formed a semi-circle in a field imemdiately S of the roadside hedge. Two further gun-emplacements appear to have been constructed to the N of the road, to a different design (NT1020 7652 and NT 1033 7652), the latter still has its holdfast extant. No evidence could be seen on the date of visit of the sunken command centre (NT 1025 7648) nor the arc of gun-emplacements and four blast-walled Nissen huts visible on the photographs, probably for ammunition, to the S and E. In a field to the SW of the T-junction in the road immediately to the W, was the Gl-mat for radar guidance of the guns (centred NT c.1010 7643), the hexagonal pattern still being visible on the vertical air photographs. The accommodation camp for gun crews is now the Westfield Riding Stables.

Information from RCAHMS and visited by D Easton, November 2001