# Market Deeping WW2 Royal Observer Post - July 2010



## sYnc_below (Jul 23, 2010)

*Explored with Winch It In*

This was a bonus find while we were out on a ROC Fest day last week (8 ROC Posts in one day....reports to follow !!), I've not seen anything like this before but I checked with a fellow explorer who has good knowledge of WW2 defences (*thx cptpies* ) and he thinks it was almost certainly a World War 2 Royal Observer Corps Post. Failing that there's a few people here who think this was a Starfish Decoy Control Bunker related to RAF Wittering

The reason behind this is that its in direct line of a known German Bomber route to London and would have been used to report the height and heading of bomber streams to fighter command.

The building has three rooms, one small room at the front, which is now buried and was possibly either a generator room or more likely a toilet, a 12ft x 10ft room to one side of the entrance corridor and a large 30ft x 12ft room. The large room has a ladder on the end wall going up to a hatch in the concrete roof which looked like at one time it had a brick surround. At various points in the roof were large circular holes and on the large flat concrete roof was evidence of mounting points, possibly for a 'Micklethwaite' type device or maybe another small platform/canopy. Surrounding this site are piles of broken brickwork and at least one Blast Wall which may well have covered the main entrance originally.

All in all an interesting find and despite the graffiti the place had a nice feel to it.


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## Krypton (Jul 23, 2010)

Wow this looks very interesting. Never seen anything like it before!


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## cptpies (Jul 23, 2010)

Whilst I still think this is probably an ROC post it also bears a striking resemblance to a decoy control bunker. However no decoys are listed anywhere near this site so it can't be that.


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## krela (Jul 23, 2010)

Looks like a generator set house to me =/


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## sYnc_below (Jul 23, 2010)

krela said:


> Looks like a generator set house to me =/



What would it be providing power for though? There's nowt for miles here.


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## fluffy5518 (Jul 23, 2010)

Just a guess but it could be some type of air raid/blast shelter.(dont know the area so dont know what else could have been there in the war years !!) I found a similarly strange building t'other day at Slade Green in Kent which,according to D/O/B is a pillbox,but according to the locals was in actual fact an air raid shelter for the nearby HAA site-which did make more sense !!!!
This had two entrances two entrance corridors two long rooms and two weird 'window' appatures in the corridor ends.












This is what always intigues me so much about WWII structures--it was 'only' 70 yrs ago but very few people know anything about them,leaving us to only guess as to their purpose. !!!
PS sorry not intending to hijack your thread !!


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## sYnc_below (Jul 23, 2010)

fluffy5518 said:


> This is what always intigues me so much about WWII structures--it was 'only' 70 yrs ago but very few people know anything about them,leaving us to only guess as to their purpose. !!!
> PS sorry not intending to hijack your thread !!




All comments welcome 

Having just looked at some Starfish Decoy Control Bunkers online it looks JUST like one....if only there was anything near it that required a decoy...curiouser and curiouser


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## krela (Jul 23, 2010)

Don't get too hung up on the starfish decoy thing. The control bunkers they used were based on fairly standard generator set bunkers. It could have been for anything.


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## Krypton (Jul 23, 2010)

TBH, its only the entrance that looks like a Starfish Decoy Bunker IMO.


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## Goldie87 (Jul 23, 2010)

Its definetly not an ROC aircraft observation post, though it is possible the roof could have been used for this purpose. There was apparently a decoy site for RAF Wittering round there, so I think its the control bunker from that. The underground ROC post here is great as well, still one of the best I have seen.


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## sick* (Jul 23, 2010)

looks like a magazine to me, probably an AA gun nearby and this held the ammo


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## fluffy5518 (Jul 23, 2010)

According to my kml overlay file on Google Earth Maxey RAF Decoy site -for Wittering- lies approx 1.5 miles due south of Market Deeping.These are generally not that accurately pinpointed so i would suggest that you have actually found the control bunker for that site. !!!


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## fluffy5518 (Jul 23, 2010)

Sorry Goldie just seen your post !! Great minds think alike OR fools seldom differ !!! YOU DECIDE !!


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## sYnc_below (Jul 23, 2010)

fluffy5518 said:


> According to my kml overlay file on Google Earth Maxey RAF Decoy site -for Wittering- lies approx 1.5 miles due south of Market Deeping.These are generally not that accurately pinpointed so i would suggest that you have actually found the control bunker for that site. !!!



Thanks, I've added some comments to the original post that mention this. It does make more sense than it being an Observer Post.


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## MD (Jul 24, 2010)

did you get in the ROC post?
its one of the best


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## outkast (Jul 24, 2010)

That biulding is exactly the same as the ones at the decoy sites at nazeing and bulpham, if it is a decoy site theres a control bunker underground nearby


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## cptpies (Jul 24, 2010)

The consensus is for a decoy bunker although it's a bit far from the Wittering decoy location the NGR's are only approximate so I'll shift the placemark in my overlay to this location.


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## Winch It In (Jul 26, 2010)

Bit of a delay on posting pictures as i moved work sites over the weekend, 
Only a couple from me.











Thanks for looking.


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