Vickers post Builth Wells

I have been after this one for a while and even more so after a colleague took some photos of it. Situated on a hillside just outside Builth Wells in a field. Must admit what I fould really surprised me as it was not the normal run of the mill pillbox I am used to. It also gave me a chance to test out my new camera a Canon SX200 IS


Bit of a zoom to get this photo of the box which can be just made out on the hillside


At this point I was wondering if it had been buried.


Panic set in as I wondered where you got inside.


But when I walked round a bit I found it


Now how about that , you could eat you dinner off them and it looks like some one might have.


Out the loophole


Entrance and loophole
Have to admit it's one of the nicest I have come across but in a strage place as it does not seem to be garding any thing in paticular. I may just have to go back and get a few mor photo's with my DSLR.

What a fine example of a vickers machine gun emplacement. It's the cleanest one I've ever seen, the inside looks like it has just been finished. Apparently there were American troops camped in the area just before D Day so this could be why it's there

Beautiful. It's got it all.
Love the position,dug into the side of the hill like that,providing protection and I imagine good arcs of fire.
Nice to see the gun rests.I'd say that the last person in there was the guy who built it !

Apparently there was a POW camp round there as well. Camp 573,Pendre Camp, Builth Wells but I cannot find out where it was so don't know if the pillbox is anthing to do with it or not.

Well I go down there a lot so I'll see what I can find out.
Just looked at the map and Pentrebach is about 6km away so I'll go over there and investigate next time I'm down there.

Ok fount out some more from a guy I know this is what he said

"The camp was at the west end of Builth (http://www.geograph.org.UK/photo/1042255) the area now called Glandwr Parc and Pendre - Not sure if it was a POW or an army camp. There was an Italian pow camp near White House Farm, now occupied by the Telephone exchange and Community Centre. There was a US army camp opposite Pencerrig hotel (A483 north), apparently quite a lot of racial unrest between the US troops (at least according to rumours). The Pendre site was also covered by two gun emplacements, one similar to our pillbox and situated at Daffodil Wood above the Industrial estate and also by a machine gun emplacement, (the gun is now in the war memorial grounds). I hasten to add this was looonnnnggg before my time!!! The Italian POWs could apparently make marvellous toys out of almost any scrap wood or metal - must have been quite a black market. There was also a POW camp at Newbridge - Rhayader end of the village on the northern side".

A great looking one NC -liking the curved entrance

Good position too. Thanks for sharing -good to see one that hasn't been trashed etc.

I heard from a guy who lives in Builth that this was was part of another emplacement that was on the outskirts of the town but was demolished to make way for a housing estate it now resides by the war memorial.


Side view


Front view how you see if from the road side.
Think that is about it for Builth Wells.

Fantastic find & pics night crawler, thanks for posting. It's not everyday you find one of these & in such pristine condition. Good to see a well looked after memorial too!

Good find chief!

Liking the pillbox. Nice use of natural resources at the entrance too. Somebody took pride in their work.

The last one posted is from what I can make out part of an Alan Williams turret
http://s134542708.websitehome.co.uk/pillboxes/html/allan-williams_turret.html