Defence of Britain Archive
Council for British Archaeology, 2002. (updated 2006) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000327. How to cite using this DOI
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This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 324
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000327
- How to cite using this DOI
6 sided pillbox, with 7 embrasures and entrance. Slightly domed roof. Covered with large stone pebbles as camouflage.
Thought to have been built by Burgess & Co. of Minehead.
(Source: Field Visit 1995/10/11)
Hexagonal structure plotted from OS 1:2500 sheet. Faces E.
(Source: Map 1972)
Type 24 pillbox with detached blast wall. Exterior surfaces covered with beach pebbles for camouflage. All entrances blocked. Faces NE. Now a feature near the entrance to the car park, with signs fixed to it.
(Source: Field Visit 2003/01/16)
A beach defence pillbox survives in good condition. {1}
In car park with windows and doors sealed. Pebble covered walls and roof. External baffle wall protecting door. {2}
Pillbox type FW3/24. Covered with pebbles which rise to a point on the top of the roof. Two sections of wall cover the entrance; one parallel to and covering the doorway, the other lower, curving from the N side of the door towards the end of the first wall. {4}
A photograph in the Bushell Collection in the Somerset Record Office (DD/S/BS) shows the pillbox newly constructed. The photo is captioned "Pillbox on Porlock Beach 1940" but a site visit confirmed that this pillbox at Dunster is the one shown. Large piles of stones have been heaped up between each embrasure to camouflage the pillbox as a mound of stones. In the rear of the photo another pillbox (presumably PRN 35463, although it seems too close) can be seen with pieces of wooden shuttering protecting the drying concrete roof. {5}
(Source: SMR )
Pillbox seen on oblique air photograph.
(Source: Air Photograph 1958/08/25)
| Type of site | PILLBOX (TYPE FW3/24) |
|---|---|
| Location | At entrance to Dunster Beach within area of car park. |
| Area |
Dunster, Somerset, England |
| Grid reference |
ST 00466 44544
(Scale: 1:2500
, 1972)
|
| Period | WW2 |
| Condition | Good |
| Materials | Reinforced Concrete, Stone Pebbles |
| Recorder | Astell, K.W. (West Somerset Archaeological Society) |
| Defence grouping |
Somerset coast defences - Defences of the Somerset coast line and immediate hinterland. |
| Attached Sheets | (3) - photocopy of photograph and plan: site location plan. |
| Photographs |
(2) - photocopy view and exterior view. |
| DOB site reference: | S0003024 |
| Original Reference | 8421 |
| Reference |
1958/08/25 ST 0044/27 (fr.0240) |
| Event |
Field Visit, On 1995/10/11 Construction, In the period 1940 1941 Field Visit, On 2003/01/16 |
