WWII Pill Boxes | Stop Line 5
Summary
After Dunkirk (4 June 1940) there was an obvious and urgent requirement to put the country into a state of defence as quickly as possible, and the result was the construction of stop lines.
Stop lines are usually broken down into three categories:
- Coastal fortifications
- The G.H.Q. Line
- Secondary Stop Lines
Secondary Stop Line pillboxes on the Staffordshire landscape were part of Stop Line 5, a network of defensive emplacements that were placed at strategic points along the rivers, overlooking bridges and shallows where enemy forces may have attempted to cross the rivers.
Type 24 Pillbox, is the main design used throughout Britain during WWII, and most were built in 1940. Type 24 was designed to house a garrison of seven, consisting of five light machine guns and two riflemen. There are more than 1724 pillboxes still in existence in the UK today, with 73 of them being in the Staffordshire area.
Stop Line 5 pillboxes are constructed of reinforced concrete, poured into a wooden frame over a steel cage (you can see the wood grain from the wooden grain in many pillboxes if you look closely). A reinforced metal mesh was places into the outside edge of the 12 inch thick walls to give added protection against bullets. Stop line 5 Pillboxes can been seen in locations from Tamworth to Rocester and in between.
The windows, ‘Loopholes’, are flared, allowing for gunners to have a wide filed of fire, whiles the small gap gave the greatest amount of protection from incoming fire. Inside the pillbox there was a Y shaped blast wall, to protect against incoming bullets and grenades.
Many pillboxes remain in good condition today: their extremely strong construction has stood the test of time and the British weather. Although, left uncared for and prone to vandalism.
The Transforming the Trent Valley team has set about helping to conserve these mini fortresses’. Pillboxes have been given a series of sustainable conversions to repurpose the structures: for bats and birds adding interpretations boards to some in the public domain to help better understand their important history and relevance to the local area. You can find more information on the Repurposing and Converting WWII Pillboxes on the Transforming the Trent Valley website here and here.
Locations of Pillboxes on Stop Line 5
East Staffordshire Pillboxes can be seen at:
- 3. Tucklesholme Nature Reserve
- 6. next to disused railway line south of the River Dove at Marston/Rolleston
- 14. on the River Dove at Marchington
- 17. on the River Dove at Marchington
- 21. on the River Dove between Hilton and Rolleston-on-Dove
- 44. Located on the River Dove north-east of Uttoxeter.
- 45. on the River Trent at Branston Leas Nature Reserve
You can find a map of all Stop Line 5 pillboxes at the bottom of the page here
Want to learn more…
Information Transforming the Trent Valley
Photos © 2022 Transforming the Trent Valley (Steven Cheshire).
© 2022 Geography.org.uk (Mike Searle).
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