RAF Tollerton Bits

Derelict Places

Help Support Derelict Places:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RichCooper

Veteran Member
Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
844
Reaction score
1,524
Location
Doncaster
Visited here hoping for permission to do the pillboxes around the perimeter no chance once we met up with Mr Jobsworth but we managed to do a couple of shelters and boxes on the way out.First up was PILLBOX (TYPE FW3/24): S0000673 this is on the restaurant car park that Mr R Head had no say about and is freely accessable

Description: 29/04/1995 Hexagonal, brick skin inside and out on concrete platform. Concrete lintels and embrasures which are stepped. Y' shaped concrete pillar. [The pillbox has been repaired and is now used as a memorial to WW2, various plaques are attached to the pillbox].

Considering the work thats gone into restoring it its been left to flood and the plaques are getting no care whatsoever


S0000673 by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (1) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (3) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (4) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (6) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (7) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (8) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (10) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000673 (11) by codseeker, on Flickr

Then we managed PILLBOX (TYPE FW3/24): S0000677 Out of sight of the powers

Description: 29/04/1995 Hexagonal pillbox, brick skin inside and out on concrete platform. Concrete lintels and embrasures which are stepped. Y' shaped concrete pillar.


S0000677 by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (1) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (2) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (3) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (4) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (5) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (7) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (8) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (10) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (13) by codseeker, on Flickr


S0000677 (15) by codseeker, on Flickr

Also found a couple of Stanton Shelters first was pretty easy to see :)


Ss1 by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss1 (1) by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss1 (2) by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss1 (4) by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss1 (5) by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss1 (6) by codseeker, on Flickr

Second is in a more "natural" setting


Ss2 by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss2 (1) by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss2 (2) by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss2 (3) by codseeker, on Flickr


Ss2 (4) by codseeker, on Flickr


SS2 (5) by codseeker, on Flickr

Thanks for looking
 
Great stuff mate i hate jobworths secerity people its not like you were doing any harm was there a control tower intact by any chance
 
Great bit or work there on getting them, just how hard are the others to get to. BTW did you as Mr R Head if you could visit the others or was he one of those obnoxious bastards. :)
 
Great bit or work there on getting them, just how hard are the others to get to. BTW did you as Mr R Head if you could visit the others or was he one of those obnoxious bastards. :)

I asked him in my best groveling mode but he was having none of it just plain ignorant really,I'm gonna do a bit of research on the flying club see if I can get permission from higher up then go wave it in his face if I can.Not hopeful but im gonna try.The others are all easy to get at but visable from the tower
 
Perhaps you can answer this one Rich... why on earth would they build a pillbox out of bricks? I saw a video when I was in the TA called something like "Fire and Effect" and it was basically about what does and what doesn't work against small arms fire. I was staggered at how quickly even single 7.62 MM rounds from an SLR damaged a red brick wall effectively going straight through. They then turned a Gimpy (General Purpose Machine Guin) on a double wall of red brick and it was gone in like 3 or 4 bursts. We were told that they'd had a lot of problems in NI from SLR rounds penetrating people's homes through the brickwork too and in terms of the ballistic capabilities I believe the 7.62 was to all intents and purposes the same as the .303" round which was prevalent at the time of construction of your pill boxes - indeed the principle difference between .303 and 7.62 was purely that of cartridge design IE rimmed, vs rimless.

Waddya reckon? :)
 
Perhaps you can answer this one Rich... why on earth would they build a pillbox out of bricks? I saw a video when I was in the TA called something like "Fire and Effect" and it was basically about what does and what doesn't work against small arms fire. I was staggered at how quickly even single 7.62 MM rounds from an SLR damaged a red brick wall effectively going straight through. They then turned a Gimpy (General Purpose Machine Guin) on a double wall of red brick and it was gone in like 3 or 4 bursts. We were told that they'd had a lot of problems in NI from SLR rounds penetrating people's homes through the brickwork too and in terms of the ballistic capabilities I believe the 7.62 was to all intents and purposes the same as the .303" round which was prevalent at the time of construction of your pill boxes - indeed the principle difference between .303 and 7.62 was purely that of cartridge design IE rimmed, vs rimless.

Waddya reckon? :)

They don't build pillboxes out of brick, they use bricks as the shuttering to keep the reinforced CONCRETE in when they pour it... ;)

They also commonly used wood, and less commonly corrugated iron or breeze blocks. It very much depended what was available at the time.
 
Yeah but, no but, right...?

They don't build pillboxes out of brick, they use bricks as the shuttering to keep the reinforced CONCRETE in when they pour it... ;)

They also commonly used wood, and less commonly corrugated iron or breeze blocks. It very much depended what was available at the time.

Yeah I see where you're coming from there Krela, and that makes perfect sense, especially when you can see imprints from the shuttering on many boxes... EXCEPT when you look at picture 16 the red brick construction appears to be both the interior and the exterior with no room for concrete in between.. I would have said from looking at that pic that the entire construction is brick. :question:
 
Yeah I see where you're coming from there Krela, and that makes perfect sense, especially when you can see imprints from the shuttering on many boxes... EXCEPT when you look at picture 16 the red brick construction appears to be both the interior and the exterior with no room for concrete in between.. I would have said from looking at that pic that the entire construction is brick. :question:

I think you're forgetting about the stepping of the embrasures (which make the walls look thinner), if you look closely at the other pictures you'll notice the walls are actually about 1ft or more thick... ;)
 
We did see a couple of type 22s that day that were just brick construction and for some reason had a thicker concrete roof :) Maybe there was a bit of a concrete shortage
 
Pillboxes came in 2 constructions, thin wall and thick wall, the thin wall ones are constructed much the same as your average brick house, 2 brick layers with a small cavity which (should) be filled with concrete.

If they're not filled with concrete you would be better off hiding behind a tree, it would offer more protection!
 
Maybe there was a bit of a concrete shortage

There certainly was, but the shortage of wood for shuttering was worse, that's why you see different shuttering methods even on the same stretch of line. Bricks were what was plentiful at the time, so that is what was predominantly used.
 
There certainly was, but the shortage of wood for shuttering was worse, that's why you see different shuttering methods even on the same stretch of line. Bricks were what was plentiful at the time, so that is what was predominantly used.

Not forgetting that the building of the bulk of the pillboxes on stoplines at least were sub-contracted out to local building firms, most of whom wouldn't have much experience of working with concrete, but many of whom would have been brickies...
 
Not forgetting that the building of the bulk of the pillboxes on stoplines at least were sub-contracted out to local building firms, most of whom wouldn't have much experience of working with concrete, but many of whom would have been brickies...


I was aware that local contractors were used to build most of the stop line pillboxes but I'd never considered that their skill set would influence the materials used. That's a great insight Krela, thanks.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top