WW2 Spigot Mortar Base

A concrete platform in the Suffolk countryside marks where Home Guard volunteers once trained with an experimental anti-tank weapon. The WW2 Spigot Mortar Base sits near Eye - a squat, functional relic that makes you think about what ordinary people were preparing for during the invasion scare of 1940-41.

There's not much to it, frankly. You get a circular concrete emplacement, some fading markers, and the knowledge that lads from the village would have gathered here to learn how to fire what was essentially a pipe on a stick. The mortar itself was crude and often unreliable, but it mattered to the people who trained on it. The surrounding flatland gives you a sense of how exposed this part of Suffolk felt during wartime - the Germans could have arrived on foot from the coast.

This works best for military history buffs or anyone doing a proper WW2 trail through East Anglia. Kids under ten will struggle to care about a concrete pad with no interpretation boards. There's no visitor centre, no café, no facilities - just the base itself and open access.

Allow twenty minutes max, and go on a clear day when you can actually see across the fields. It's free and open 24/7, so no planning needed. The real value is threading it into a broader day's walking or driving through this quiet corner of Suffolk. Hill Farm Holiday Park is just a couple of miles away, making it an easy detour if you're staying locally. The landscape itself - flat, agricultural, lined with old trees - tells you more about wartime defence than any exhibition could.