Thursday 19 December 2019

Some Welsh Pillboxes


These are some of the pillboxes I have come across while in Wales.  I had not gone out intentionally to find them but for the fact I kept a caravan in Built Wells so thought I'd see what was round there defence wise. What I found surprised me. I checked out the Defence of Britain site and saw there were some defences left.


 This one an Allen Williams Turret can be found by the War memorial though it's not it's original position and and I doubt was from the area it was restored by the local cadet force .





Outside town and over near the golf course you can see this pillbox.






 Looking at the embrasures which are larger that the ones I have normally  seen








Entrance is down the steps
Inside you find tree tables which show it was a Vickers Machine Gun Position.







The view out of an embrasure















and a shot of it from the outside looking in








Not something that is easy to spot and does flood a times. Not sure who to ask now as it is a small holding but is worth visiting





 This pillbox I came across while looking at an old dismantled railway on GE. It would have over looked a railway bridge at Natmel



 Entrance was beside the railway line.




Going inside this corrugated iron shuttering is coming away and nearly took my scalp off.














The ricochet wall was odd in that it was raised.









This is not something I have seen before































Some relics still remain like the wood shelf in front of the embrasure.

 Looking from the top of the pillbox towards the River Wye   where the railway used to cross on the left of the photo.
The last one is overlooking a bridge on the Elan Reservoir. The area looks to have been cleared at the time and I took the photo from the opposite side of the bridge. I have never been in this one as it was not that accessible to get to. There are more pillboxes to be found it Wales and I will post more when I come across them.

8 comments:

  1. Really interesting post. I have seen the pill boxes that are scattered around our coastline, but I have never seen them inland. I have never really thought about it before, just assumed they were built to protect the coast from invasion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You might want to check some of my older blogs then. There are a whole load along the Thames and Kennet which I have visited and mapped.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never heard the term Pillbox before (maybe because I grew up in Canada?) but I was surprised how bright it was inside the first set of photos in this post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mmm not all ov them are. May be you should look at a few of my older posts where I tracked them down along the River Thames and Sulham Valley

      Delete
  4. You've captured such fascinating glimpses of history here, Bill. Wow! It's simply amazing, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our country is certanly rich in history it's just finding it though people don't appreciate it.

      Delete
  5. Thought you might like to know I was thinking about you today...

    http://effectivelyhuman.blogspot.com/2013/05/celebrating-fabulous-bloggers-and-more.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't know what to say other than thanks very much.

      Delete