WW1 Pillboxes.

I made the best of this mornings sunshine to make a mad dash for the North of my beloved county. These WW1 Pillboxes are at Smallburgh near North Walsham and Sea Palling respectively. these Pillboxes were built at the end of the 19th century right through until about 1916. They are circular or Hexagonal in design.

Nice pics, good to see some early pillboxes.
Am I right in saying that the British built similarly-shaped blockhouses during the Boer War?

Hi Mate yes these are along the same construction as the Early Boer War Blockhouses.

Cheers mate.

No problem. It does not seem possible that they are nearly 100 years old but they are.

It is amazing to see these much older ones. Great to see them...cool shapes too.
Good stuff, norwich.

Thanks Foxy. I knew you wouldnt let me down. I could not believe the age of them but I did a quick check on a Military Website shall we say and they are all Bona Fide WW1. They are the only 2 of their kind in Norfolk.

Poor deluded fools. In their naivety, the designers clearly had no concept of the sort of damage a heavy machine gun would inflict on breeze block and brick huts.

Ye wouldn't catch me trying to hide from enemy fire in one of those things.

No I know they certainly were not the best built Boxes at all.

Just to throw another into the mix, the building in the picture below is the only remaining structure from the RFC WW1 airfield on Port Meadow, Oxford. It's not a defensive pillbox but an observation building for air-to-surface gunnery, and it served itself as an air-to-surface gunnery target. It sits in a seasonal watercourse that floods in winter, on the eastern edge of the area that formed the RFC airfield.





It's a poured concrete in corrugated iron construction and the walls are not very thick.

Typical WW1 construction then Batroy. The walls inside those Pillboxes were very thin and I would not have fancied my chances in one of those if it came under fire. It honestly makes me wonder exactly what the builders were thinking when they constructed them.

They are in great condition considering their age. The lack of vandalism is nice to see. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Jonney. Thanks for the interest. The reason they were in such good condition is because they were in the middle of nowhere. Since I shot these two I have found another two just south of North Walsham. I will take pics very soon.

I am looking into the search light sites round the north of county durham and have found a few pillboxes that are not on the DOB but have not photographed them yet. Again most of them are in the middle of nowhere and are in great condition (all in farmers fields). Went to get some pisc at the weekend but one had sheepdog trials going on around it and the others had livestock in the fields. I am going to have to see the farmers. I will post the pics on here when I get them. Look forward to seeing your next photo's.

Cheers Jon

Hi again Jonney. Funnily enough one of the other ones was slap bang in the middle of a field and the other was on a grass bank right by the side of the road. I want to get right inside this time and see what the construction is like.

The ones I'm finding are all type 22's and 3 of them are in the middle of field boundry fences. I beleive they were used to protect the iron and steel works at Consett. There has to be more that I haven't found yet as I found a reference to a search light site that was on the opposite side of the valley to the one I have just found. More investigation is needed I think...

Cheers Jon

Most of these world war one type stretch from the cast at Sea Palling across norfolk usually protecting waterways such as rivers or canals. Although the one in the field I havent got a clue about.

theres a few around here of the brick type

Is that one Hexagonal or circular?

Black Shuck said:

Most of these world war one type stretch from the cast at Sea Palling across norfolk usually protecting waterways such as rivers or canals. Although the one in the field I havent got a clue about.

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The pillbox in the field; was there any heavy industry or armament factories within about 6 or 7 miles of this as it could possibly be a searchlight site or then again it may just be on a stop line.

Cheers Jon