MSO12470 - World War Two tank maintenance building at North Hill (Monument)

A wide concrete road leads from the tank loading ramps to a raised concrete platform 14 by 11 metres which housed a building. [1] The road suggests access for tanks to the building which may therefore have been used to maintain them. Two further buildings can be seen off the concrete hard standing on 1946 RAF aerial photographs. [2] Part of tank marshalling area MSO626. [3] SS 9546 4746 A Second World War tank marshalling area, visible as buildings, structures and roads, was mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1946. Located in Moor Wood on Minehead's North Hill, the features are associated with the extensive military training area and tank firing range that covered North Hill during the war. The tank marshalling area consists of a 57 metres long concrete road that leads through Moor Wood to a large area of roughly triangular concrete slab hard standing (centred on SS 9547 4744, about 61 metres east to west, 35 metres northnortheast to southsouthwest and 60 metres westnorthwest to eastsoutheast). The 9 metres wide concrete road leads north a further 50 metres at the far end of the hard standing area to a large rectangular building (SS 9552 4751) about 15.5 metres long westnorthwest to eastsoutheast and 10 metres wide northnortheast to southsouthwest. It has been suggested that this was a tank/vehicle maintenance building. 11 metres to the west of this building, a small building (SS 9550 4751) is about 8.3 metres long north to south and 5 metres wide east to west. Although the concrete building platforms, roads, ramps and hard standing area remained extant in 2001, the buildings were no longer visible in 1950. [4-9] The site of the two buildings is depicted on 2018 MasterMap data. [10]