Well I thought I would head North again and try and get a few pillboxes from between Warkworth and Alnmouth in Northumberland done. Well what a mixed bag of pillboxes they turned out to be. This is once again very pic heavy so I'll say sorry now. I will start with one of my personal favorites, a one karltrowitz did back in March, the camouflaged pillbox S0002877 at Gloster Hill, Amble
internals
sandbag steps
Next up I moved on to Warkorth it's self and pillbox S0013364 a brick built Lozenge and even though the DoB placemark was spot on it was still a bitch to find as mother nature has all but reclaimed this one
it's in there somewhere
internals
view of mother nature from one of the embrasures
Now for another type of pillbox. This time a beehive type, it is on the DoB but has no number and the placemark is on the wrong side of the road albeit only 30 foot from where it should be. Again it took a while to find this due to nature taking over
its there honest
internals
the roof was starting to sag and disintegrate
On the way to the next one I stopped to photograph these
and this strange piece of scrap on the beach (any ideas)
Right now we have pillbox S0007204 the DoB has this marked as an anti tank gun emplacement. There are two placemarks for this emplacement
The bricks are where the door should have been
internals taken through embrasure as there was no way inside. In the next photo it looks as if there could have been an extra room, possibly a magazine, behind the doorway
the holdfast (note the water in the bottom)
very patriotic caravan lol
moving swiftly on I headed just up the road to Alnmouth to get the pillboxes I missed last time. The next two can only be reached at very low tide because they are on an island in the river estuary
First up is the lozenge pillbox on top of church hill island. The DoB has this one as being removed although only the roof can be seen as it's been back filled
would take some digging out
Also on the island and marked on the DoB as an anti tank gun emplacement is the following photos although I wasn't convinced about it so after some investigation I found the following in a document
6.4 Mortuary Chapel and Curate’s Concrete House
A wall (HER 5731) was built around the base of Church Hill to stop erosion. A mortuary
chapel (HER 5445), built by public subscription, was constructed close to this wall in 1870. It
has a Norman style doorway and, now weathered, looks convincingly early (Pevsner 1992,
130). The roof of the chapel was deliberately removed by the National Trust in recent times to
deter squatters. A demolished structure a little to the south of the mortuary chapel, which
looks like the remains of a World War II pillbox, is in fact a concrete house, built for the curate
of Alnmouth church in the second half of the nineteenth century, presumably at the same time
as the houses of concrete construction along Lovaine Terrace.
I have photos of the chapel as well and will post them in the religious section in due course. Sorry about posting this in the ww2 forum but its just to show that it isn't a pillbox as has been reported in the past
And last but not least we have something that isn't on the DoB, a defended building. I wasn't going to bother with it because it just looked like an old ruined barn or farm building but curiosity got the better of me and I had to go take a look. Boy was I pleased I did. most of the 20 embrasures (7 on each of the long sides and 3 on each of the gables)
note the bricked up embrasure
the only whole embrasure
Well that's all folks, hope you made it to the end and enjoyed a look at some more of our Northumbrian goodies
Cheers Jon
internals
sandbag steps
Next up I moved on to Warkorth it's self and pillbox S0013364 a brick built Lozenge and even though the DoB placemark was spot on it was still a bitch to find as mother nature has all but reclaimed this one
it's in there somewhere
internals
view of mother nature from one of the embrasures
Now for another type of pillbox. This time a beehive type, it is on the DoB but has no number and the placemark is on the wrong side of the road albeit only 30 foot from where it should be. Again it took a while to find this due to nature taking over
its there honest
internals
the roof was starting to sag and disintegrate
On the way to the next one I stopped to photograph these
and this strange piece of scrap on the beach (any ideas)
Right now we have pillbox S0007204 the DoB has this marked as an anti tank gun emplacement. There are two placemarks for this emplacement
The bricks are where the door should have been
internals taken through embrasure as there was no way inside. In the next photo it looks as if there could have been an extra room, possibly a magazine, behind the doorway
the holdfast (note the water in the bottom)
very patriotic caravan lol
moving swiftly on I headed just up the road to Alnmouth to get the pillboxes I missed last time. The next two can only be reached at very low tide because they are on an island in the river estuary
First up is the lozenge pillbox on top of church hill island. The DoB has this one as being removed although only the roof can be seen as it's been back filled
would take some digging out
Also on the island and marked on the DoB as an anti tank gun emplacement is the following photos although I wasn't convinced about it so after some investigation I found the following in a document
6.4 Mortuary Chapel and Curate’s Concrete House
A wall (HER 5731) was built around the base of Church Hill to stop erosion. A mortuary
chapel (HER 5445), built by public subscription, was constructed close to this wall in 1870. It
has a Norman style doorway and, now weathered, looks convincingly early (Pevsner 1992,
130). The roof of the chapel was deliberately removed by the National Trust in recent times to
deter squatters. A demolished structure a little to the south of the mortuary chapel, which
looks like the remains of a World War II pillbox, is in fact a concrete house, built for the curate
of Alnmouth church in the second half of the nineteenth century, presumably at the same time
as the houses of concrete construction along Lovaine Terrace.
I have photos of the chapel as well and will post them in the religious section in due course. Sorry about posting this in the ww2 forum but its just to show that it isn't a pillbox as has been reported in the past
And last but not least we have something that isn't on the DoB, a defended building. I wasn't going to bother with it because it just looked like an old ruined barn or farm building but curiosity got the better of me and I had to go take a look. Boy was I pleased I did. most of the 20 embrasures (7 on each of the long sides and 3 on each of the gables)
note the bricked up embrasure
the only whole embrasure
Well that's all folks, hope you made it to the end and enjoyed a look at some more of our Northumbrian goodies
Cheers Jon
