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I was very excited recently when I identified these slips in Marchwood. They're Landing Craft repair slips, built in advance of D-Day and vital for #EmbarkingtheDDayArmada. And perfectly preserved, even the metal cradles are still there! Unfortunately... (short thread)
The view on Google Maps dates to 2016. Less than a year later and this was the view. It's a great shame as there are less well preserved slips of this design that are scheduled. In an ideal world these would have been too, but sadly it's probably a little too late now (continues)
It's not anyone's fault that they have been cleared - the slips sadly weren't on the local HER, so no-one will have had any reason to suspect their heritage. This piece of D-Day heritage has been identified just a little too late, a shame as it was so well preserved so recently.
But it highlights the importance of identifying such sites and adding them to archaeological records (especially local HERs) before it's too late. Otherwise we risk losing a lot of the Second World War infrastructure all around us, often unrecognised and uncared for.
Here's just some of that infrastructure that's still very much in use today. https://twitter.com/SeaSpitfires/status/1104332622287851520
And a little more. https://twitter.com/SeaSpitfires/status/1029665990710374401
And a really surprising one. All of these sites have been added to the Hampshire Historic Environment Record. It doesn't guarantee them preservation, but it does at least identify them. https://twitter.com/SeaSpitfires/status/1031892149271490560
