Monday 25 January 2021

Roe Corner remains

The concrete and steel remains just beyond the gate at the corner of Roe enclosure have long been a mystery to me, not being shown on any maps I've seen, nor they or their purpose mentioned in any text I've read. I can only imagine what they represent. When they are mentioned the collection of what look like different mountings or some such which stand within an area of low lumps and bumps which may represent buried features and scatters of broken brickwork, it's always suggested that they represent World War Two remains associated with the nearby wartime Stoney Cross Airfield. I could see that, and maybe they are World War Two era, although not associated with the Airfield. I think maybe they represent the remains of a saw mill; over 400,000 tons of timber were removed from the New Forest between '39 and '45. Some of the concrete remains and mountings here resemble features I've seen at other sites in the forest, two of them are datable sawmill sites; Millyford Bridge a World War One sawmill and Anderswood a World War Two/Post War sawmill. That said, it could be that the remains represent more than one site, the concrete plinth in the bottom photo is a good 50m main group of features and may not be connected. 

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