'Purdown Percy' HAA Battery, Bristol, May '11

[The Archivist]

During the Second World War the City of Bristol suffered heavy casualties from German bombing raids, becoming the fifth most heavily bombed city in Britain. Between 24 November 1940 and 11 April 1941 there were six major bombing raids during which 1299 people were killed and 1303 were seriously injured; 89,080 buildings were damaged including 81,830 houses which were completely destroyed.

Purdown was just one of several Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries surrounding Bristol designed to shoot down enemy aircraft before they could drop their deadly payload. Local legend held that the hill was home to a supergun nicknamed Purdown Percy which could be heard across Fishponds, Kingswood and much of Bristol. In fact there was no supergun, just a group of standard 3.7" HAA guns which fired salvoes that echoed in the valley below and gave the impression of a very large gun. There was also a 40mm Bofors gun on site which fired inciendiary shells to intercept German flares.

The site is now in the shadow of the massive Purdown Telecoms Tower and is very overgrown. The City Council have also made things extra-fun by fencing off each component of the site individually: unfortunately some compounds were inaccessible, including (what appear from satellite imagery to be) the command bunker and the outlying Bofors site to the north-east.

Gun pit

Underground magazine

Purdown BT Tower, built in 1970 as a point-to-point microwave relay

Cossham Hospital Tower in the distance

A forest of cranes working on the new Southmead Hospital

Thanks for reading,
A.

 

[penance]

Nice report mate.
Was deffinately only 3.7's there, the bofors is to the east and badly overgrown now.

 

[dangerous dave]

walked this with my grandfather back when i was about 7 or 8 thanks for posting this

 

[oldscrote]

Interesting post,thanks.The Bristol gun defended area was co-ordinated from a central bunker at Lansdown up by Bath racecourse.

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/l/lansdown/

Would this AA site have been run from there?

 

[penance]

I believe Bristol Ack Ack command HQ was at Burwalls house.

 

[The Archivist]

Visited here again the other day equipped with boots and heavy duty clothing to brave the brambles and managed to get into the obs/command bunker and to the aforementioned Bofors site. It's also worth mentioning that during the War there were barracks (Purdown Camp) to the west whose outline is partly preserved in the compound fence of the Purdown Repeater Station.

Best exterior pic of the bunker I could get. There is a trench around the outside with what appears to be an open-air observation post leading off of it

Entrance lobby

Westward view interior

Eastward view interior

Outlying Bofors gun site

G-NDAA, the Great Western Air Ambulance, flying low over the hill and into Southmead. Earlier the same day the Western Counties Police helicopter had been called to to area for a suspect search.

Thanks for reading.

 

[tumbles]

Nice, there are some well preserved HAA sites in Bristol. Particularly over the south of the river

 

[penance]

Outlying Bofors gun site



Thanks for reading.[/QUOTE]

Not sure what that is, think it is part of the post war additions but its not the bofors emplacement.
The bofors emplacement is a couple of hundred yards away from the main site next to a foot path, circular and with ammo lockers still intact (no doors tho). Either that or it has substantialy deteriorated in the last couple of years?

 

[The Archivist]

Not sure what that is, think it is part of the post war additions but its not the bofors emplacement.
The bofors emplacement is a couple of hundred yards away from the main site next to a foot path, circular and with ammo lockers still intact (no doors tho). Either that or it has substantialy deteriorated in the last couple of years?

I'm fairly sure they're one and the same. Aerial imagery clearly shows a ring of ammo lockers which are also visible on the ground.

I could be wrong about this, of course, but it seems to fit the bill. The site is now heavily vandalised and overgrown and there are blocks strewn across the field, which may explain the difference in appearance.

 

[penance]

Well i never, yes that is it.
Was in much better condition only a few years ago. Shame but the bofors emplacement is outside of the scheduled monument defined area. The main site is privately owned and the council insisted they put fencing up to protect it, seems they only make other do it but not themselves.

The 2 squareish emplacements that are to the right side of the image you posted are also 3.7's but a later type of emplacement.

 

[jonney]

the 2 squarish emplacements could be roughly the same as the ones at blyth that I did the other day I have them marked up as static 40mm bofors gun emplacements but I was corrected on that by cptpies and they are 1943 3.7's

 

[krela]

the 2 squarish emplacements could be roughly the same as the ones at blyth that I did the other day I have them marked up as static 40mm bofors gun emplacements but I was corrected on that by cptpies and they are 1943 3.7's

Yes they are.