Thursday, 19 November 2020

Look What's Just Appeared...........

 .......................... Just half a mile from home! A Pill Box



 Something that was built to protect us from invasion through World War I or II  has been hidden for years beneath ivy and brambles. I've walked, cycled and driven past it umpteen times since living here but had no idea that what looked like a bit of overgrown hedge was hiding this little bit of history.




 You can imagine what a surprise it was to see it for the first time. I couldn't believe what I was seeing but someone has done lots of hedge, ivy and bramble cutting and  had a big bonfire to burn everything.

Wonder what will happen to it?


Back Tomorrow
Sue

 

 

45 comments:

  1. Gran Design project? Perhaps Captain Mainwaring about?! x

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    1. Barns are always being turned into house in Suffolk but think this is a bit small for a Grand Design!

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  2. Wow - what a discovery! I wonder if the person who discovered it was as surprised as you.
    xx

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    1. Yes the farmer would have known, they know every inch of their land usually.

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  3. Hopefully nothing will happen to it.

    I commented on your post yesterday.

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    1. Please be assured that every farmer knows exactly what is in every corner of every field on his land. We have masses of these pill boxes in East Anglia and many are left to get overgrown with brambles until the WW2 enthusiasts of Pill Boxes come along and expose them. I bet it was no mystery to the locals.

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    2. Yes the farmer would have known it was there I think they've taken down the big hedge that was on the field side of the ditch to clean the ditch out as it floods on this bit of road easily.There were several pill boxes out near the coast but not so many remain inland.This one is on a very high bit with views all ways across open fields. It's even got a machine gun fixing still inside so I reckon its been hidden for years.

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    3. I see it is a typical Suffolk Square having looked at the lengthy and helpful Wiki page on WW2 Pillboxes.

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  4. theres loads hidden in out of the way corners around our bit of the world plus a mile over the fields we have a disused airfield

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    1. Disused airfield not far from here too. I expect this was protection

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  5. We have a secret bunker, built for a group of men to hide in if the Germans ever invaded. A bit like the Home Guard, they were ordinary blokes who'd not been called up for the Army (the scoutmaster etc) Sadly our local council did nothing to maintain the site. It wasn't "secret" postwar, and they filled the entrance with concrete. It's now a real mess, which is rather sad IMHO. These brave men knew that IF the worst happened and they went there to live in hiding, and carry out night time sabotage, their life expectancy would be just two weeks. I wonder what happened to the soldiers who were on duty in your pillbox.

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    1. Sad that the council did nothing to protect the site - lets hope it's never needed.

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  6. How exciting! I wonder if the person who cut away the hedge, ivy and brambles knew it was there? Or knew something was there? Or didn't know anything was there and were surprised by their find?

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    1. I expect it was cleared by the farmer and I'm sure they would have known it was there

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  7. My goodness! I suppose it was a massive mound of brambles and other vegetation then? Someone must have had an idea it was there, maybe from a recent forage into WWII archives?

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    1. There was a big hedge all along the ditch top and then this mound of ivy brambles just looking like an overgrown corner by the field entrance

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  8. Unusual to see one without a roof.

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  9. Your shadow helps the photograph no end Sue. Thanks for your good wishes over the weeks. It is good to be back.

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    1. How lovely to hear from you. Hope you are resting and healing - sending you more ((hugs)) from Suffolk

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  10. Well if I was around and still a child, it would have been turned into a den within days of it being freed from the vegetation. Pill boxes, derelict buildings, half sunken boats ... we had a lot of dens back in the day :-)

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    1. I was lucky to live in a builders yard so we had all the sheds as well as fields all round to play in.
      From the look of this pill box I think it's been hidden ever since the 1940s

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  11. What a great find, so much of our history is lost. Shame its not protected in some way.

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    1. There are lots around Suffolk especially where we used to live near the coast

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  12. Remember finding one in the woods when we played as young children and daring each other to go inside it.

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    1. This has got a very narrow entrance and lots of mud all round so I didn't squeeze in!

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  13. Perhaps someone wanting to downsize could make it into a nice little bungalow! Only joking!
    Margaret P

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  14. I can imagine your shock the first time you drove past and saw that sitting there!

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    1. I hadn't been that way for a week and was on my bike and screeched to a halt thinking How? Where? When?!

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  15. I wondered if it was a possible new home project too! x

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  16. So here's a dumb question: who or what would be in the pill box?

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  17. I've played inside a few as a child. I think they're protected. If you drive through Great Oakley there is one in the front garden of a house there.

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  18. How exciting to have that suddenly appear from the brambles! It is also interesting that it remained hidden from view for such a long time. There is so much history attached to buildings like that, I hope it is preserved.

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  19. Loads of them up and down our coast, the bombers used to jettison what bombs they had left before crossing the North Sea.

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  20. Good grief - quite a large piece to be hidden behind a hedge and undergrowth. Very like the one just as you drive into Lampeter.

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  21. We have several round here. I walked past an overgrown one for years without a clue it was there. Arilx

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  22. How interesting! I hope it will not be destroyed. Important reminders from history.

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  23. Wow, what an interesting piece of history.

    God bless.

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  24. I wonder if the people cutting the brush back had any clue it was there?

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  25. Someone will try to do a TV project with it - in that series Tiny House!

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  26. What an amazing find so much history

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  27. That is an intriguing "little" find.

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