Well the weather hasn't been too kind this week with snow and torrential rain but I was determined to get out and about so even though the sky was cloudy I grabbed my chance. As the title suggests these are a few more pillboxes from me. These ones are again from Northumberland and are the start of me tying up a few loose ends and clearing the stragglers from the todo list.
First up we have the couple from a small village (blink when your driving through and you'll miss half of it) of Bothal. I'll start with pillbox S0013378 a type FW3/24 all be it a modified version as the rear has been extended and the door is in the wrong place. There are no internals of this pillbox because the farmer uses it as storage and asked me not to photograph inside. It used to have a corrugated iron false roof as camouflage as you can see in the next photo taken back in 1980 (By Alan Fenwick not me) but sadly this has long gone
What it looks like now
notice the block in the right of the embrasure, I have seen this a few times round Northumberland now (usually on the middle embrasure of the long wall in lozenges). They are shaped to fit the contours of the embrasure corners and were used to block part of the line of fire. The only explanation I can come up with for the use of these is that they would stop the gun needing as much space to move side to side giving more space to the embrasure next to it. Any other theories are always welcome
Next up is loophole/embrasure wall S0013377 again this has changed over the years. A few years ago it had a concrete canopy behind the wall but now this has been turned into a shed and the loophole itself has been turned into a letterbox, it's just a hole in the wall now
And finally from Bothal we have this little beauty, pillbox S0013380 a bee hive sandbag type covering the bridge and the old saw mill
entrance
The roof sheets are starting to collapse
The only internals are through the embrasures as I am too big to squeeze inside this one lol
Moving swiftly on we have a fine example of a type FW3/22 pillbox at Longhirst Middle Moor
This step was a first for me I've never seen one like it before
internals
this one floods a bit
And lastly we have a Lozenge pillbox at Earsdon
pillbox number P408
internals
Well that's all folks
Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed this little tour
Cheers Jon
First up we have the couple from a small village (blink when your driving through and you'll miss half of it) of Bothal. I'll start with pillbox S0013378 a type FW3/24 all be it a modified version as the rear has been extended and the door is in the wrong place. There are no internals of this pillbox because the farmer uses it as storage and asked me not to photograph inside. It used to have a corrugated iron false roof as camouflage as you can see in the next photo taken back in 1980 (By Alan Fenwick not me) but sadly this has long gone
What it looks like now
notice the block in the right of the embrasure, I have seen this a few times round Northumberland now (usually on the middle embrasure of the long wall in lozenges). They are shaped to fit the contours of the embrasure corners and were used to block part of the line of fire. The only explanation I can come up with for the use of these is that they would stop the gun needing as much space to move side to side giving more space to the embrasure next to it. Any other theories are always welcome
Next up is loophole/embrasure wall S0013377 again this has changed over the years. A few years ago it had a concrete canopy behind the wall but now this has been turned into a shed and the loophole itself has been turned into a letterbox, it's just a hole in the wall now
And finally from Bothal we have this little beauty, pillbox S0013380 a bee hive sandbag type covering the bridge and the old saw mill
entrance
The roof sheets are starting to collapse
The only internals are through the embrasures as I am too big to squeeze inside this one lol
Moving swiftly on we have a fine example of a type FW3/22 pillbox at Longhirst Middle Moor
This step was a first for me I've never seen one like it before
internals
this one floods a bit
And lastly we have a Lozenge pillbox at Earsdon
pillbox number P408
internals
Well that's all folks
Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed this little tour
Cheers Jon