A little bit of concrete

[jonney]

I found myself with a couple of hours to kill earlier today so I though what better was to spend it than by finding some nice bits of concrete. Now this is not going to be one of my long reports so you can all breath easy lol. Following on from my epic adventure round the Northeast with Munchh last weekend I decided to see if I could find a couple of beehive (sandbag) pillboxes that the DoB had marked up round the Seaham area of County Durham, around the same sort of area as the Stent and the type 22.

First up is Beehive pillbox S0006708 the DoB has this one marked up as being in the woods 100yards away from the actual location and it states that it is in fair condition but I'll let you decide for yourselves if that is right.

Then the second disappointment of the day was pillbox S0006709 again a Beehive pillbox that the DoB states is in fair condition, but all that is left is the footprint of it. It is really hard to photograph as on the pics I took it just looks like a patch of long grass but when you are there you can see the shape and size of the pillbox, you can see what I mean in this photo

I have marked the position on this aerial photo

also on there is this unknown lump of concrete, looks like it could have been an anti tank block

Lastly is a Lozenge pillbox that Cptpies has kindly just added to the overlay for me. It is located between Wingate and Station Town in County Durham and was sited there to cover the area where the railway bridge would have been on the old Sunderland to Stockton Railway line. I had permission to photograph this one because the landowner was gutting the grass on the driveway into her property and said it was okay for me to enter the field.

internals

Sadly the weather changed as I was walking back to the car so rain stopped play but hopefully I will be out and about again very soon.

Well thanks for looking
Jon

 

[RichCooper]

Nice to see you out and about again,Shame about the beehives mate but thats a huge gun in the lozenge lol seems some yetis made it in without permission as well

 

[jonney]

Nice to see you out and about again,Shame about the beehives mate but thats a huge gun in the lozenge lol seems some yetis made it in without permission as well

yeah mate I was surprised about the graffiti given its off the beaten path, a good way from the housing estate and on private land

 

[sennelager66]

Nice lil report there Jon. I was hoping as i scrolled down there were internals and you didn't disappoint. Again pointless graffiti which always makes me wince.

 

[night crawler]

The DOB comments about pillboxes always make me laugh, my favorite is "Existent but condition unknown" There are a couple marked on the map near me but no way are they there. I often wondered if they ever bothered to visit them.
The First beehive looks like it may have sucome to erosion and collapsed the second you did well to find. Nice bit of detective work there.

 

[outkast]

The DOB comments about pillboxes always make me laugh, my favorite is "Existent but condition unknown" There are a couple marked on the map near me but no way are they there. I often wondered if they ever bothered to visit them.
The First beehive looks like it may have sucome to erosion and collapsed the second you did well to find. Nice bit of detective work there.

What you have to remember is the original DOB survey was carried out by volunteers, my friend was one of them, when you read the entry on the database scroll down to the bottom of the page and quite often it will say, "site visit not possible".

The captian has done a great job in trying to update entries but can only do so when people like ourselves visit these sites and let him know any errors in the listing or any corrrections need to be made, thats why it important to let him know what you find if it does not tally with the databse info.

 

[oldscrote]

Good stuff as always Jon, thanks

 

[UrbanX]

Was just about to bin this, but then saw the actual pill box!

 

[UEP-Wales]

Was just about to bin this, but then saw the actual pill box!

Mr UrbanX, are you getting excited about using your Mod Stick?

 

[Munchh]

Was just about to bin this, but then saw the actual pill box!

I can see this section being a steep learning curve for you X.

Your sleeping hours would have been plagued with rabid nightmares of slavering hounds upon you, and your waking hours spent in mortal fear of the dark places had you done so.

You were most wise to avoid this course of action, we will pray for you.

Great stuff Jon. Good to see you keeping your fitness levels up after lagging behind me all last weekend.

 

[jonney]

Was just about to bin this, but then saw the actual pill box!

I wouldn't put a report up if there wasn't something worth reporting on in it

 

[flyboys90]

Interesting report shame about the crap on the walls!great pics.

 

[krela]

To be fair that beehive pillbox is in as good a condition as any other beehive pillbox I've seen. They don't seem to be particularly good at surviving. :S

It is often useful to know what is no longer in a decent condition as it's important for the DoB database and in a lot of cases the information gets passed onto the local councils for their own historic environmental records. I understand that this doesn't necessarily 'fit' with the guidelines for the rest of the site, but they are still a part of the built environment and history of our country.

It's also easy to ignore if you're not interested in it.

Give the mods a break, we're not all experts on everything and there's always a learning curve on these things.

 

[UrbanX]

I wouldn't put a report up if there wasn't something worth reporting on in it

Which in this case there is Thank you for sharing your finds, and I apologise for any offence caused at the thought of pitting it!

 

[snap_happy]

It is often useful to know what is no longer in a decent condition as it's important for the DoB database and in a lot of cases the information gets passed onto the local councils for their own historic environmental records. I understand that this doesn't necessarily 'fit' with the guidelines for the rest of the site, but they are still a part of the built environment and history of our country.
QUOTE]

Here here, thats why sometimes ive posted up photos of stuff thats been removed as its usefull to be able to update the database.

 

[Munchh]

It is often useful to know what is no longer in a decent condition as it's important for the DoB database and in a lot of cases the information gets passed onto the local councils for their own historic environmental records. I understand that this doesn't necessarily 'fit' with the guidelines for the rest of the site, but they are still a part of the built environment and history of our country.
QUOTE]

Here here, thats why sometimes ive posted up photos of stuff thats been removed as its usefull to be able to update the database.

As part of a larger report as Jon has correctly done for context, condition etc. , sure, but not necessarily on their own just to be clear. A single destroyed site should always be reported to the local HER (the Capt will pick it up) and not covered on this forum for me unless particular artefacts such as metalwork, gun mounts and so on are present.

Reporting standards are important, we must all be mindful of that.