January meeting – Prof. Rob Liddiard

For our first meeting of 2022 we welcome back Rob Liddiard who will be talking to us about his latest research on the defences of East Anglia in the early years of the Second World War. This talk was originally scheduled for March 2020 but was postponed because of the first surge of Covid 19. I don’t think we thought at the time that it would take this long to reschedule it.

Coming to a Stop: the Archaeology of Defensive Lines in Eastern Command in the
Second World War

As part of Britain’s preparations for enemy invasion in 1940 hundreds of miles of so called ‘stop lines’ were constructed. These took the form of defensive lines comprised of pillboxes, roadblocks, tank traps and anti-tank ditches. While their lives as fortifications were short-lived, their archaeological remains are plentiful. Several such lines crossed the region (including the Waveney valley) and this talk will explain why the lines were built, what they were for, and their contribution to the archaeological heritage of the region.

If you’d like to dig a little deeper we can recommend Rob and David Sims’ book A Very Dangerous Locality published by University of Hertford Press.

Given the current uncertainty about the omicron variant and the general state of the pandemic we will once again be holding this meeting via Zoom. If we can get back safely to face to face meetings in time we will do so.

Book your free tickets via Eventbrite here

We hope you have a happy Christmas and New Year and we look forward to seeing you if only virtually on January 15th. As ever, stay safe.