Silent Sentinel

[Denis]

Type 24 , Part of the airfield defences of what was RAF Station Hunsdon, long since  abandoned... but happily used as forts and dens by the local schoolkids for years ...

[Clicker]

Bit of war time history there Denis....

[Ryewolf]

Nicely captured Denis. There used to be an old pill box near Mellor (near Blackburn) that we used to see as kids travelling to Southport, which has long since gone....

[johntwo]

Quite a lot still exist because (I suspect) they were so solidly built that removing them is a problem.  Interesting shot Denis.

[Denis]

They are also listed buildings John, a local farmer filled his with wood, soaked it in petrol and set fire to it in an attempt at splitting the reinforced 20 inch thick concrete on an old Home Guard pillbox that overlooked the old A11. He hoped his D4 Caterpillar would be able to break it up, he got prosecuted and had to pay for repairs at it was listed

[johntwo]

Well I didn't know that.  Not the sort of building I would have expected to be listed.

[Denis]

John,

They are classed as Scheduled Monuments, heres a link to Historic Englands paper on Hunsdon airfield

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1020748

[Clicker]

That's really interesting Denis ... Thanks for that...

 

[Kobione]

Interesting to see these remains Denis, obviously very well built!

[loki]

pretty sure i raided that place in ghost recon breakpoint.  very cool find!

[Denis]

On 22/03/2020 at 15:00, loki said:

pretty sure i raided that place in ghost recon breakpoint.  very cool find!

Sorry Loki, not sure what a ghost recon breakpoint is  <scratches head ? >

Every airfield built in Great Britain up to late 1942 had extensive airfield defences built, an inner ring of about 9 of these, like the one shown, with their embrasures (gunports) facing in towards the active airfield. These were to deal with paratroops or assault gliders as the German forces were adept at doing to capture airfields. And, an outer ring with the guns facing outward. These supplemented by one man rifle pits or maching gun posts and lots of barbed wire.

*Edit, just found out ghost recon is a computer game