A Walk In The Valley

Hi all;
Decided to take a short walk along the Sulham Valley in the week to take advantage of the autumn sunshine !! The valley lies between Pangbourne and Theale approx 7 miles to the west of Reading and is a WWII relic hunters dreamland.!!! The three and a half mile route was one great zig zagged anti tank trench and although there are no traces of this today there are over 20 pillboxes,5 or 6 pillbox bases that were either blown up or never completed,cylinders and even an anti tank rail !!!The following pics are just a little taster of the more photogenic structures on the route !!!
First up is this bricked up type 22 at the Pangbourne end and next to it a sluice and drain from the infilled anti tank trench.


Next is this heavilly shelled type 28a,litterally blown to bits just after the war apparantly for target practice.
- a few of the larger anti tank pillboxes in this area show signs of being shelled but this is the worst-


Along side this lies another sluice/drain from the ditch.

The next pillbox is an unusual one,apparantly it was converted into an infantry style box from a type 28a,but i personally feel that it was built this way.It was intended to be one of a pair at this location but the other was never completed and now only the base remains.


Another interesting thing in this area is that a lot of the boxes carried their ID Nos but some form of renumbering system obviously occured and either the original number has been crudely ammended or both numbers are shown-this is from the infantry box.


Further along are another couple of anti tank emplacements both are the larger double embrasure type and are now in a rather more tranquil setting than could have been the case in 1940.!!


And to finish up with a humble type 24 suffering from one hell of a bad hair day !!!

If youre ever in the area this is a great explore.!!!!!

Great stuff there Fluffy. The first pillbox looks more like a type 24 than a type 22. I must get myself down that way sometime soon

Lol, last Pill Box looks like it's grown an afro

Great pics fluffy. First one is definitely a Type 24. I'd love to see that antitank rail they are very rare.

Great stuff Fluff! Its really interesting to see that one that has been blown up for target practice. Wouldn't have wanted to be inside one when it came down around your ears!

Thanks for the invite to come along , loose my phone number did you

My Dear Mr Crawler;
There are times in life when one must act on impulse-and i'm not talking about perfume here !!!-On opening my bedroom curtains that morning the sun was shining the birds were singing and everything in the world was sparkling !!! Oh goody thought i,could be time to take some pillbox photies being as how i am not working until MIDNITE !! Now who can i go with,well,um,no-one actually because being (Nearly)normal they are all at work..........
Most of the time driving freight trains is a pain in the arse but ever so occasionally it has it's moments !!!
Yours sincerely
Fluffy (Mr)
PS Of course the box in phot 1 is a type 24 (Sorry 'bout dat ) and i will defo go back when the foliage has gone to get some piccies of the anti tank vertical rail !!!!! oh and the cylinders !!
PPS I'm orf to the Isle Of Wight next Mon for a week so if you aint doing owt and you fancy exploring the fair isle ,let me know !!!

If only, if only but my wife is conserned with where I go now, nice shots though. Now I know whatto look for when I finally get round top going there.

Great pics of the type 28.Never seen a double embrasure one-so thanks