Second World War pillbox, west bank of River Stour, Middleton Hall (EHER 20073)

Standard Type 27 pillbox on the west bank of the River Stour. An extant brick and concrete hexagonal pillbox.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: 1997. Field visit. In light woodland on the west bank of the River Stour is an hexagonal, brick and concrete pillbox measuring approximately 22 feet 9 inches across. It has small loopholes and a central anti-aircraft machine-gun well complete with mounting pedestal and steel top fittings. Most of the pillboxes along the River Stour have two steel rails across the roof, bent into the roof at each end to suspend the rails 3 or 4 inches above the surface. It is thought that these acted as guide rails for two halves of a well cover which could be pushed back. In the case of this pillbox, unusually, the two rails are in fact split in the middle i.e. they are bent into the roof at each end and in the middle. There is a low anti-flooding wall around the entrance although this has not, in fact, prevented the pillbox becoming partly flooded. One photo of site. <1>