Round Pillbox, Harlow Hill. RAF Ouston Thick Fronted Round Pillbox. S0007987
Colin
466 posts
This pillbox closely resembles the standard “Northumberland D Type” but has a shorter side wall. It is completely sealed so no interior shots. The entrance is now at the top of a 30ft drop. It appears that it may have been built on top of a lime kiln which has […]
This pillbox is listed as a Type 24 but when measured it appears not to be it is a very strange shape. The last two pictures show the fancy grilles over a ventilation system. It still has it’s wooden shuttering in place inside the pillbox.
This Type 22 is slightly taller than usual and has a raised floor. There are holes either side of the, blocked up, doorway that indicate there may have been steps with railings fitted originally.
This variant pillbox is circular and brick shuttered, it has two large MG loopholes and a smaller rifle or pistol loop. The entrance is semi sunken and a hawthorn tree makes access very difficult.
Civil Air raid shelter built into bank. entrance hidden by hedge. emergency exit in concrete slab next to building at far end.
Type 22 now preserved in the new housing estate. The grilles on the loopholes look rather out of place but at least it’s still there. This pillbox will shortly be in the middle of a large new housing estate.
See WW2 Airfield Battle Headquarters (battlehq.info) for more information about Airfield Battle HQs
PILLBOX (TYPE FW3/22): S0015722 (Extant)
This unusual pillbox was in the grounds of a large Victorian house until that was demolished and replaced by at least 14 modern houses. A planning condition was imposed that the pillbox must be preserved, enhanced and protected during and after the building works. This was done and the pillbox […]
This pillbox used to have a corrugated iron roof structure above as camouflage.
The maps below clearly show this pillbox to be in the location shown on google earth for S0004624. Mike Osborne’s book “Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland” shows a picture on page 148 which appears to be this pillbox but gives a grid ref which matches S0004824. It is possible that […]
Type 24 pillbox on verge of Brampton Road above station. About 50m E of junction with B 1354. The pillbox faces E. In corner of John Gaunt School playing field, near railway station and railway bridge, Aylsham.
Once again it appears the pictures have not aged very well and there are no negatives to scan.
Rear of Bruce Building, Haymarket, Newcastle Upon Tyne. This firewatchers post has survived a major renovation to the Bruce building during which it was removed and stored away from the site. Unfortunately it was rotated by 90 degrees when refitted. These pictures were taken during a visit shortly before the […]
Just to the south side of southbound platform of elevated tube station and before District Line trains cross River Thames. Pillbox is multi-sided and of two storeys – lower storey has doorway in west side and one embrasure. Upper storey projects westwards beyond lower storey and has a doorway on […]
Looking through a packet of photographs, I came across two of a two storey, or elevated, pillbox and one of a ford escort next to a large building. I wasn’t sure if the picture with the Escort in was connected at this stage. I posted the two of the pillbox […]
featuring Variant pillbox S0006529 at middle left.
This one is still extant and appears in good condition.
S0006362 This Type 22 with no ricochet wall and an external blast wall is still extant and in very good condition.
This small pillbox appears most likely to be S0013698. Marked as removed in the EODBD overlay.
8 photos over a page and a half in the photo album included in the collection show 3 different pillboxes in Bridgewater, Somerset. Two of them were easily identified using the EDOBD overlay for google Earth. The third is proving more difficult as there is nothing on the overlay that […]
Two variant Pillboxes at Kew Railway Bridge, London. The Pillbox as it appears today The pillbox below is described as –Polygonal concrete-faced pillbox, of a particular design for railway linesides. Embrasures providing all-round fire. Front wall is a chamfered corner. Field of fire from two angled walls and side walls. […]
Pillboxes near Mildenhall, pictures from 1973
Henry Wills seminal book Pillboxes, A study of U.K. defences 1940 is where much of the interest, there is today in pillboxes and other defences, really began. He wrote to over 200 newspapers all over the country. Responses were numerous and the first nationwide survey of surviving WWII defences got […]
This Type 24 appears not to be listed in the DOB or EDOB databases. Update 21/6/2020 it now appears as PILLBOX (TYPE FW3/24): e41998 The photos in the gallery below don’t appear to have aged very well and quite a lot of work has gone into recovering as much detail […]
The third set of photo’s I decided to scan showed this curious, double decker, pillbox. Checking out it’s location on the google Earth EDOB overlay showed nothing. A bout of old OS 1″ map viewing, Streetviewing and google mapping later I came up with the last view in the gallery. […]
Early in 2017 we received an Email from Jon Mills. He had been interested in Pillboxes and WWII defences from the early 1970’s but was now no longer interested and looking to find a home for his photographs and notes. Did we want them he asked – we certainly did […]
Demolition Practice Site, Swinley Forest, Berkshire. NGR SU882638 This is an incredible find which is not on the Defence of Britain Database or anywhere else I have looked. I had a conversation in November 2001 with a Forest Ranger in Swinley Forest when I was looking for some reported bunkers, […]
I am a member of “The Coast Defense Study Group” in the USA and a resident of the Island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. I am curious as to whether or not your group has come across any cast-metal turreted pillboxes in the U.K. in conjunction with defenses of […]
I have included several photos of pillbox types found on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is a WW2 mass-produced variant built of reinforced concrete and built either at Army engineer base yards, then transported to the site, or poured in place on site depending on the location. It includes […]
Pillbox on Skeppsholmen Island, Stokholm, Sweden By Ian Sanders
My brother was on holiday in South Africa during April 2004 and photographed this pillbox which appears to be based on a type 22 design. The pillbox is located near the entrance to Durban Dockyard. A local resident believes the pillbox will be demolished in the near future as part […]
Altea Pillboxes, Altea, Valencia, Spain There are two well preserved – but frustratingly unrecorded – pillboxes and one ruined one about 2km North of the town of Altea, (Valencia Region), in the area known as Cap Negret. The design of the two survivors is as good as, or maybe better than, […]
In 1942 the Italians had surrounded the city with a Ring of Wire, later they fortified the road junctions with pillboxes and roadblocks. Almost all the defences had been removed just one or two pillboxes remain. The Ring of Wire is protected as a National Park it is in fact […]
Norwegian Pillboxes at the foot of the Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo. by Ian Sanders
Porto Paglia, South Sardinia A Pillbox Restoration joint venture between A.S.S.Fort Sardinia and “L’Orizzonte” The War 1940-43 And The Coastal Defences In South-West Sardinia. Portopaglia is a well preserved landscape in south-west Sardinia. The location is under the Municipality of Gonnesa. The now restored concrete positions are overlooking the beautiful beach […]
The following information was kindly e-mailed to the PSG by Daniele Grioni in Lombardia (Northern Italy). A Coastal Pillbox for a heavy machine-gun (Type Breda 37) at Capitana ( uartu Sant’Elena) . The stronghold “Domus de Maria” found along the road between Domus de Maria and Teuleda in southern Sardinia. It […]
Association For Historical Studies & Fortifications In Sardinia During summer 2001 a new study group called “A.S.S. Fort Sardegna” has been created in Cagliari. It is a cultural association which aims are to promote, realize and participate in initiatives to study and safeguard wartime (1940-1943) heritage in the Sardinia insula. […]
Hello to everyone in the Pillbox Study Group I am an archaeologist working for the Auckland Regional Council in New Zealand and recently undertook a survey a coastal defence battery (2×6 and 2×9.2 inch guns) in the Whangaparaoa Defence Area, north of Auckland. The approaches to the battery are defended […]
There are relics of fortification along the beaches either side of Napier, New Zealand. Mostly, these were/are pillboxes of presumably New Zealand Ministry of Defence design. In addition, there was a Coastal Defence Artillery Battery on Bluff Hill, overlooking the Port of Napier. A little research showed that 77 Battery […]
Sound mirrors are large acoustic deflectors, used for early warning of approaching aircraft.Unlike the earlier Semi-Spherical sound mirrors of the South Coast of England, this mirror is in the form of a stone built parabolic wall, 225 feet in length. It’s known locally as Il-Widna, Maltese for “the ear”. A […]