Waverley Gun Emplacement, and a puzzle...

Found this one by accident, as I was actually going to visit Waverley Abbey. This happens to be in the car park of that particular ancient monument, so it was a two for the price of one experience.There are a couple of interesting things about it, most notably the fact that it has these kind of battlements on the top. According to the Defence of Britain base, these were apparently to break up the lines of the emplacement and make it harder to target. However, that leads me to the another enigma, which is that the emplacement faces away from the road, only facing towards the abbey ruins and a riverside path, which seems a bit odd. Anyway a good find and there is a more standard polygonal pillbox next to it, but this is on private land. If anyone could tell me anymore about this sort of thing it would be great! GDZ

This is the view coming from the abbey - you can see the other pillbox as well

This is how it looks from the carpark side


Views from inside the emplacement



Inside the gun emplacement itself, and looking towards the abbey





Some of the embrasures,including one date stamped with metal



And finally the horseshoe grooves in the floor for the gun

the piece of crap in the pillbox is from a film set, dunno what one but it is made from glass fibre and has been here for ages. Also if you go toward the river Wey over the back of the abbey ruins you can see about 30 odd concrete tank blocks stacked neatly in the bushes.
There is also a cave very nearby, 'Ludlam's cave', reputed to be the abode of a witch back in the days of yore? google 'Ludlam's cave' there's a load of stuff if you look further.
Just remembered there is a further smaller cave near the first I believe it was dug by father foote, a monk from the abbey, this is now blocked off as it is on private property and the owner got annoyed with people traipsing across his land!

godzilla73 said:

However, that leads me to the another enigma, which is that the emplacement faces away from the road, only facing towards the abbey ruins and a riverside path, which seems a bit odd.

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The sort of size guns mentioned in the DoB entry would have a maximum range of about 7-8 miles. The design of the emplacement would probably reduce that a fair bit by preventing the barrel being raised very high, but it would probably still have a fairly impressive range. Looking at Google Earth, there's what looks like a redundant rail track to the SE, which may be what it was meant to cover?

You mentioned it's pointing at a riverside track, which presumably means it's pointing at the river. Rivers where used as natural stop lines as the Germans would have to slow thier progress to cross it. There would not be a lot of point covering the road as the whole point of Tanks was they didn't need to use them, and could cross open country

HypoBoy said:

The sort of size guns mentioned in the DoB entry would have a maximum range of about 7-8 miles. The design of the emplacement would probably reduce that a fair bit by preventing the barrel being raised very high, but it would probably still have a fairly impressive range. Looking at Google Earth, there's what looks like a redundant rail track to the SE, which may be what it was meant to cover?

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This is a Type 28 anti tank pillbox with a larger than usual embrasure indicating that it's been built for a 6pdr gun rather than a 2pdr, not a field gun as indicated in the DoB. Its facing SW across the meadow is perfectly consistent with the expected line of advance in this area of the GHQ stop line which trends NW - SE. There is also a row of anti tank pimples along the river bank here which are almost certainly ex situ and probably would have linked the emplacement with the type 24 to its East. The crenelations on the loopholed wall are probably to make it look ornamental as camouflage, they are too regular to achieve a disruptive pattern effect.

Great photo's

I have been to Waverley Abbey quite a few times and have never noticed this before. I will have to go back and take a look as not far from me.

Thanks for all those comments - I don't know much about stop lines etc, but this has made me want to find out a bit more! Just goes to show, you can learn a lot from all the good folks on DP!!

mexico75 said:

You mentioned it's pointing at a riverside track, which presumably means it's pointing at the river. Rivers where used as natural stop lines as the Germans would have to slow thier progress to cross it. There would not be a lot of point covering the road as the whole point of Tanks was they didn't need to use them, and could cross open country

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Oh dear - don't I look a bit of a thickie!

Nice one Godzilla, It's the first time I've seen a loophole wall behind a type 28