Sussex Military Research Projects
'Pillbox Corner'
Project ID: SMR1053
Location: Winchelsea, East Sussex
Project date: 2022
Periods:
Partners:
Description: On a bend in the Winchelsea - Rye road stands a Second World War pillbox. Known locally as Pillbox Corner, the structure is on private land. The interior was filled with compacted soil that had built up over 80 years; in June 2022, our team of volunteers set out to clean it out.
The pillbox was designed for the Vickers machine gun, concrete tables being built under each of the embrasures. From the photos you can see that only one embrasure is still open, facing out across the River Brede and Camber Castle. The blocking up of the other loopholes was probably done not too long after construction for safety reasons and to focus the fire from the pillbox in a particular direction. One of the tables had been removed at some point; we were later to find the footings of the brick legs under all the soil.
The soil. We hadn't bargained for how compacted 80 years' supply of cow pat and sheep dung on the floor had become. Reinforcements arrived in the shape of picks and mattocks and progress began to be made through the rock-hard layers.
Even with the maximum number of volunteers able to work in the confined space, we were unable to clear the entire floor on our first visit, but rolling back half of the space was nevertheless a great achievement for our intrepid team!
A second visit in July 2023 saw the team finish cleaning off the floor - and removing the fresh build-up since our first attempt. Having learned the most efficient technique of crowbarring up the muck and carting it out the door in wheelbarrows, the task was swiftly completed.
A Vickers gun was set up in the open embrasure in order to get an idea of the arc of fire. We determined that the ground to the front was deemed the most important task for the gun, and this is confirmed by wartime documents.
A measured survey was undertaken in order to record the pillbox for posterity.
Please note that this pillbox is on private land and permission to visit must be sought from the landowner.
