Shingle Street

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Shingle Street
Shingle Street shown within Suffolk
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	Suffolk
Fire	Suffolk
Ambulance	East of England
European Parliament	East of England
List of places: UK • England • Suffolk

Coordinates: 52°01′55″N 1°27′00″E / 52.032, 1.45

Shingle Street is a small coastal hamlet in Suffolk, England, at the mouth of Orford Ness, situated between Orford and Bawdsey. This part of the coast is also known as Hollesley Bay and there is the HM Young Offender Institution, Hollesley Bay Colony nearby.

Shingle Street was originally a home for fishermen and river pilots for the River Ore. Early in the nineteenth century a Martello tower was built, and was later home for coastguards. Many of the original buildings date from this period, also several buildings were destroyed during World War II, including the hamlet's pub. A report from October 2004 suggests that Shingle Street is at risk from the sea and could disappear within 20 years if sea defences are not erected.^[1]

Shingle Street was the inspiration of the Thomas Dolby song "Cloudburst at Shingle Street", from the album The Golden Age of Wireless.

[edit] World War II

During WWII many strange happenings were reported to have taken place at Shingle Street, including a failed German Invasion.^[2][3][4] The civilian population that might have witnessed anything had already been evacuated from the coast and all rumours were vigorously denied, although official documents were kept classified as secret until questions in the House of Commons led to their premature release in 1993.^[5] A BBC report in 2002 suggested that the invasion was a fake manufactured by the British Head of Propaganda during the war, who may have spread rumours of a failed invasion to boost morale.^[6] If this is so then the British certainly went to good lengths as the Suffolk Home Guard received reports of an incident resembling this at the time. Author James Hayward has proposed that the rumours, which were widely reported in the American press, were a successfully-engineered example of black propaganda with an aim of ensuring American co-operation and securing lend lease resources by showing that the UK was capable of successfully resisting the German Army.^[7]

[edit] References