| Abstract: |
The building recording comprised a Level 2 survey, as defined in Understanding Historic Buildings: A guide to good recording practice (2016).
Due to safety concerns, it was not possible for a Heritage Specialist to attend the site. Photographs and measurements were therefore carried out by the on-site team following appropriate safety precautions.
The recording comprised a survey, drawn record, photographic record and a written record.
Measured drawings were produced by the BMMJV onsite team. The drawings were checked for accuracy by the Heritage Specialist.
The record includes photographs taken both externally and internally as required, using a digital SLR camera. The photographic record is sufficiently thorough and detailed to illustrate all significant phases, structures, important structural relationships, and individual items of interest.
A written record was produced comprising: the precise location of all buildings recorded; note on any statutory or non-statutory designations of the building; the date of the record; and a summary of the building’s type or purpose, historically and at present, its materials and possible date(s), in so far as these are apparent from an external and internal inspection. Exterior: The pillbox comprised of a single storey, east west aligned rectangular concrete structure, comprising two square chambers. The western chamber was unroofed and the eastern
chamber had a flat roof and three embrasures located on the northern, eastern and western sides. The pillbox was constructed out of concrete, with no indication that it was built in more than one phase. The unroofed chamber had been infilled with soil, which had been partly removed, revealing the top of a door opening between the chambers. There was no external doorway, with access probably made with the use of a concrete lip/step, which was located around the western, northern and southern sides of the unroofed chamber. Pillbox was in generally good repair aside from minor cracking around the top of the roofed chamber, possibly reflecting a separate concrete pour for the roof, some staining from the removed post 1980s brick façade and a small amount of damage to the northern embrasure. Based on the layout of the pillbox and its similarity in layout to the known pillboxes located along the Haven, the pillbox has been identified as a Type FW3/23 pillbox.
Interior: Three embrasures, all flared inwards, fitted with internal wooden frame, covered in a mesh and blocked with a metal plate. A surviving red metal blast door, hung from a rail secured to the wall, remains intact within the roofed chamber and covers the doorway out into the unroofed chamber. The door had perforations, possibly indicating that the door was intended for another function but was an emergency incorporation into the pillbox. Some water and soil egress has occurred from the infilled open roofed chamber. The remains of wooden/metal frames were observed within the roofed chamber. Their function was unclear, but probably the remains of furniture rather than machine gun fittings.
The significance of the building was considered to derive from its historic interest relating to early World War II defences that were thrown up rapidly across the country due to the perceived threat of invasion. The pillbox contained a rare example of a surviving (sliding) blast door. However, this was unlikely to be a representative example, as the rapid construction of such pillboxes meant that local available materials would have been used to fit out the pillbox. |
