Sulham Valley Part 2

A promised the Sulham valley part 2 I did this with a guy who is one of my Flickr contacts and has been reading up on the stop lines. He had copy's of maps and photo's form the second WW so knew where to look. We parked yo by the church and proceeded to walk along the bridleway to Theale. A soon as we started we spotted two though one was in a field across a ditch. Still on with the photo's.


Fisrt of all a screen shot of Google earth showing the Sulham valley and all the places on the DOB. Should do one for the first section as well


As you can see it is a Type 28 twin with the loopholes blocked up


Inside with a chair and a brew


This is the base of a type28 , most likely a twin.


View back laongthe footpath to the type 28 twin



Next one along which is on a bend not only are the loopholes blocked so is the entrance which is under the dirt you see piled up.


The loopholes


Next in line a type 22


Looking at the front, the footpath lads past and up to the bridleway


This one is up in Sulham wood


One of the holes in it, gets worse.


View of the loopholes blocked up .
I'll leave it here for tonight and post more when I get a chance tomorrow.

Great stuff NC, looking forward to the rest. Looks like a demo charge has been used on that last one.

Great photos.Just love those twin type 28s.

a few more from the walk.


Next one along which is near a farm.


Odd what you find in them


Bit further along behind a farm house is this lot which believe it or not has two type 28's in it


First one.


And this is looking out of the second towards the first one.


Further along again you come across this one which is near Theale retail park. No across though as you can see.


One of the tow loopholes the rest you can see is getting hidden.


Further on again and well hidden is brambles is this one


Only way in was through one of these loopholes which was a surprise were open.


Even more of a surprise after they gut I was with put his foot in one of these was to find the shuttering still in place.


The damage outside was also inside and a crack ran all the way round the roof line.
I'll leave it there for now as I have to load up more on Flickr and sort them out.

Few more

Base of a type 28


Looks like a twin


Going back along the bridleway another type 22


View through the loophole

On the back by the entrance
Post more later

Great stuff NC. Do those bases show sign that the PB was actually built and then demolished or were they never built?

Very hard to say, both the bases looked like they were started but not finished. It would seem strange to half demolish it especially as the last one is in a similar position on the lane to the base. The first base was very over grown and the second was visible. If you look back to the other thread with the demolished one I could see no sign of any concrete around even small bit's.

Nice one Mr C i'm glad you finally posted this last lot as i have been in suspenders for the past two days.!!! But hang on where are the cylinders and the anti tank rail ???Come on dont keep'em to yourself get em out for the ladz !!! OOH-ER MISSUS !!

Right last lot of photo's


This on ewe spotted when we started the walk. The entrance is blocked up but there is stuff inside.


What looks like a sleeping bag and a chest of draws left inside


Ok how about this the shuttering for the vent left in after 70 years.


Ths is where the Anti Tank ditch ran, you can see a rise in the ground and a line on Google earth.


The old Rails mark the line of a concrete stopper which ends the ditch and stops water from the stream
getting in.


In the next field another pillbox which is bricked up, the entrance faces Sulham brook so a bridge would have been needed to get across to it.

Across the field the ditch ended here with these dragons teeth.


This is looking back across the field along the ditch, again you can see where it went.


Opposite side of the road you can find these in the garden of a house, I spotted them as I walked past. A couple of road blocks in is a cylinder the other a block.


Further up the road you find this lot in a field.


Across the field is this type 28 twin. Looked full of horsey stuff so we never visited it in case we up set some one. Further up the road you come to the last section I did which runs to Pangbourne and joins up with the Thames ones I did. that joins with the Abingdon to Appelton line I have also been along. It's all coming together now.
Well that is the Sulham valley and after all that I think we missed one which I will go and look for. Hope you enjoyed it like I did. If you check my Flickr photo's Where you can find more photo's and some notes when I finished them..

I'm currently reading Ironsides Line and there is a wonderful statistic in there relating to the Sulham valley line. Apparently the concrete poured here amounts to over 5% of the concrete poured for the entire GHQ line :shocked:

I'm here at last NC better late than never. God I love those 28's especially the 2 together. The only 28 I've come across was on a beach and the North Sea had taken it's toll, you couldn't tell it was a type 28 if you didn't know what to look for. It's mainly type 22's and lozenges up here, god to find a decent type 28 would be amazing. Keep up the good work mate