{"id":5381,"date":"2015-03-08T17:10:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T17:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/?page_id=135"},"modified":"2025-09-27T13:13:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T12:13:36","slug":"kettlebury-hill-assault-training-observation-bunker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/kettlebury-hill-assault-training-observation-bunker\/","title":{"rendered":"Kettlebury Hill Assault Training Observation Bunker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kettlebury Hill and its Concrete Bunker Ngr SU880404
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Kettlebury Hill, Assault Training Observation Pillbox<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not far from the D-Day training wall at Hankley\u00a0Common\u00a0is an unusual\u00a0rectangular\u00a0blockhouse set on the edge of Kettlebury Hill, this once had a clear commanding view across the open common below but over time the view has been\u00a0obscured by tree growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The structure is quite impressive and almost Germanic in appearance, constructed by concrete being shuttered it has a smooth finish and appears very different to normal\u00a0wartime defences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally the exterior\u00a0is in good condition however there is some damage around its sole observation port\u00a0which was fitted with a slotted steel plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rear of bunker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Low entrance protected by L shaped wall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sole observation slit showing steel plate and spalling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The interior is very cramped but accessible through the low protected entrance wall, due to subsidence soil has covered steps that lead down and into the entrance. Once inside there is a central baffle wall and passing this you find yourself in the small main part with forward facing loophole which has suffered with spalling as if hit by ordnance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View looking south east down from Kettlebury Hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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????????????????????????????<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Defence of Britain Database suggests the box was probably \u201cexperimental\u201d or used for a mortar observation point, it was possibly even used in\u00a0conjunction\u00a0with the nearby “Atlantic Wall”\u00a0during\u00a0pre D-Day assault practise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Denton 2004<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kettlebury Hill and its Concrete Bunker Ngr SU880404 Not far from the D-Day training wall at Hankley\u00a0Common\u00a0is an unusual\u00a0rectangular\u00a0blockhouse set on the edge of Kettlebury Hill, this once had a clear commanding view across the open common below but over time the view has been\u00a0obscured by tree growth. The structure is quite impressive and almost Germanic in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[110,208,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-5381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-bunker","9":"tag-kettlebury","10":"tag-observation","11":"czr-hentry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk\/gazetteersubsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}