Yesterday I popped into a quiet corner of the #NewForest Crown Lands that looks like it hasn’t changed in a thousand years.

Well, almost. Why's that dirty great piece of concrete in the stream and how did it get there?

(A short military history thread)

Crockford Stream is a gently meandering watercourse half way between Beaulieu and Lymington, where pretty much the only other visitors are ponies and cattle. But alongside the stream it’s possible to see large concrete monoliths with no apparent purpose.

2.5 miles south east is Embarkation Hard A in Lymington. 6 miles east are Embarkation Hards Q and Q2 at Lepe. Built in 1942 and 1943, all 3 were used for the next 2 years. Troops and vehicles boarded their D-Day landing craft here in June 1944.

The hards would be viable targets for night time bombing raids, so decoy hards were built to divert attention away from them. One was constructed at Keyhaven marshes, another alongside Sowley Pond and one more, 608, at Crockford Stream.

Crockford didn’t have as much water as the pond & marshes. Instead, dams were built across the stream to build up water. Lights could then be shone onto the pools to create the impression of an illuminated hard at night. This January 1943 Luftwaffe photo shows the dams in action.

Although the dams were certainly built, there’s no definite evidence that the lights were installed or used. Sowley was recorded in a number of deception operations, although Crockford is not similarly listed. By 1946, the dams had been breached.

Today only the concrete still remains, showing the location of the control room and arrangement of dams. But tangible features like these are an important legacy of the massive scale of infrastructure built during #WW2. I for one am glad to find them, even in this ancient forest.