MMO1713 - World War Two military training earthworks on Shilstone Hill (Monument)

Four groups of roughly circular earthworks of Second World War date and probable military function are visible on aerial photographs of the 1940s on the northwestern face of Shilstone Hill, centred on circa SS 7584 4606. Each feature appear to be composed of 3 circular earthworks, a large feature roughly 7 metres in diameter abutted on its northwestern edge by two smaller features of 3 to 4 metres diameter. On aerial photographs of the 1940s they appear to be low earthwork mounds but by 1952 they resemble shallow craters or scoops. Their arrangement is reminiscent of a Light Anti Aircraft Artillery battery but such an emplacement seems unlikely within a military firing range. Therefore the function of the earthworks remains unclear. However, they are probably associated with the activities of the military training area which operated across large areas of Exmoor during the Second World War, including Brendon Common. [1-3] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [4]