EWSHOT DEFENCES, PILLBOX STUDY GROUP

OPERATION CROMWELL: PART

PILLBOX ARCHAEOLOGY

Renovation of the southern Pillbox Defences at

EWSHOT

Hampshire

TIM DENTON

In early 2010 Operation Cromwell continued with a Type 24 emerging from the undergrowth.

A wet cold February day saw a very keen PSG team tackle one of the most overgrown pillboxes to date, this time it was to reveal a bullet proof FW3/24 on MOD land in Ewshot, Hampshire.

Dozens of this design can be found in this immediate area, many hidden from view in hedgerows, behind private residences and in surrounding woodlands, some are un-recorded and do not feature on the Defence of Britain database.

Virtually nothing could be seen of the brick shuttered defence that sits at SU813504, for many years the box had gradually been overcome by nature, totally surrounded by brambles, nettles and Hawthorne growth making entry difficult without getting badly scratched or stung.

The PSG renovation team of the day included myself, Graham Matthews, Mike Hopton, John Bennison, and Tony Clarke; we were also joined and helped during the day by Matthew Bennison, Tim Horne and Tim Burt.

Before starting in earnest it was necessary to get a decent fire going to burn the mountain of branches and brambles that had been piled up a few weeks earlier during work on the adjacent Vickers boxes.

Luckily the wind was blowing in the right direction and with some dry kindling wood the fire was a success from the start. Tony and John took control of the fire which very quickly consumed all that could be placed upon it.

Well insulated against the cold and damp weather we all tackled the undergrowth with great enthusiasm and energy, a system of transporting the cut branches back from the box to be thinned out by billhook and then placed on the roaring fire worked well and kept the immediate area clear and tidy.

Although Graham managed to remove some of the lower branches of the Hawthorne with long handled pruners much of tree had to be removed with my chainsaw.

Time fly’s when doing this sort of work and after a couple of hours we stopped for a rest, several of us crammed into the dry tight internal space of the nearby “Vickers Cafe”.

As usual Graham had brought along his gas stove, utilising a loophole as its base it provided boiling water for hot tea break, after a bite to eat and a chat we were off again leaving the relative shelter of the gun emplacement until we stopped for lunch at 1pm.

During the afternoon we continued working away in the drizzle with relentless cutting of brambles and Hawthorne.

The roof of the type 24 had a covering of ivy and brambles, this was tidied up the following week and the roof was left with its original soil covered roof.

Eventually the pillbox was fully visible, no doubt this was probably the first time it had been seen like this for decades.

During the following weeks along with the help of John, Mike and Tim we finished clearing the pair of adjacent Vickers emplacements and a further type 24, now a unique panorama can be seen with these four very closely knit pillboxes that command Ewshots high ground facing south west.

Work continues on cleaning out the interiors and generally tidying around the immediate area of the defences.

During mid March Mike Hopton and myself set up some original WW2 camouflage netting using the hooks embedded in the pillbox walls, additional pickets were needed to secure the out stretched nets to the surrounding ground. One of the Vickers and also the type 24 received this treatment which gave a very rare opportunity to photograph how the defences could have looked like during the threat of invasion.

For the record we also plan to photograph a Vickers as well as a type 24 fully fitted out internally with period equipment, including using some original and renovated folding wooden tables [type 24] as they would have appeared in 1940.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the task!