Camel Island pillbox, South Shields, Tyne and Wear

Hi folks just a quick one from me this time and a bit of an oddity. I found this one by accident the other day (although it is on the DoB) and I seem to think that half of it is missing as it just doesn't make any sense to me at all. it is halfway down a cliff face overlooking Camel Island or Velvet bay as it is sometimes know in South Shields and has no embrasures to speak of and never has by the looks of it, only 2 very small vent holes approx 4 inches square. There are the remains of steps leading down to it and internally it is only about 8 foot by 6 foot. On the front edge there are what looks like the marks left by the roof of another structure or a platform and in the rocks below there were pieces of concrete but they looked too new to be ww2. It looks to me to be a shelter for maybe a searchlight or a larger gun emplacement but I just don't know. I would be grateful for any comments or theories you may have to shed some light on this one... on with the pics

This side of the pillbox looks out to sea



This is why I think there was another building or platform attached to it



internals





the vent holes one either side





steps to nowhere well to a slight drop of about 40 foot







you can see just how small the vent holes are in this photo



remains of wood used in the roof



Well I hope someone out there can shed some light on this one because its another one of them puzzlers.

Thanks for looking, I also had a look at a ww2 supply depot and a ww1 sound mirror which I will post up as soon as I get the photos sorted out

Cheers Jon

Might have been a generator for a searchlight?

night crawler said:

Might have been a generator for a searchlight?

Click to expand...

It's possible mate but it would have had to be a small one because of the internal layout and there were no signs of mountings. If you look at the third photo the wall on the right internally extends about 4 foot into the pillbox and the space behind that is only about 3 to 4 foot by about 8 foot. I thought there might have been a platform with a searchlight mounting attached to it. If you can remember the post I did on trow rock and the searchlight mountings on that one well this pillbox is about a mile further south along the coast from them and there used to be a costal battery in-between them (sadly long gone)

It may be that this was originally completely buried, supported by the steps leading down to it. That would suggest it was a crew shelter or comms bunker for something else, possibly the Coast battery.

I also have a question, Does every pill box has an empty can of fosters in it?

Every single on I have visited has one :S

cptpies said:

It may be that this was originally completely buried, supported by the steps leading down to it. That would suggest it was a crew shelter or comms bunker for something else, possibly the Coast battery.

Click to expand...

Think that's more likely the case mate coastal erosion is bad round there because of it's exposed location plus the battery wasn't that far from it

PaulPowers said:

I also have a question, Does every pill box has an empty can of fosters in it?

Every single on I have visited has one :S

Click to expand...

The ones in my area always seem to have empty fertilizer bags in them.

Nice find Jonney. Unusual.

Cheers foxy, I must admit most of the boxes round this way have either beer cans or drug paraphernalia strewn about them...oh the youth of today lol