Second World War pillbox, Stoney Lane, Brightlingsea (EHER 21336)

Second World War hexagonal pillbox with a central anti-aircraft machine-gun well and an entrance on the east face remains extant on Stoney Lane.

Contemporary records state, “(i) Triple dannert wire, Large weapon trench. (ii) Triple dannert wire, Weapon trench. (iii) Pillbox. 3 fields S. & E. of Red Barn – O.S. Nos. 192, 215 & one arable field. Map ref. 538363.” (Mil. Ed.) <1> “Red Barn”, a farm, stood at NGR TM 0915 1752, north of Red Barn Road, and the three fields referred to must have been those in the area north of Robinson Road and south of Stoney Lane. This latter is a gravelled track which runs east to Marsh Farm. Aerial photographs from 1946 show the entire area as wide open with few hedges. It appears likely that in 1940 this was seen as a vulnerable area in the defence of Brightlingsea. Enemy forces could use tracks from what is now the B1027 Thorrington to Clacton Road to bypass the only made-up, B1029, route to the town. Or perhaps more likely, paratroopers or gliders could use the wide open fields as a landing area to take the town in the rear. The 1946 aerial photographs show a single pillbox, very clearly, immediately south of Stoney Lane. <2> It is seen as a hexagonal type with a central anti-aircraft machine-gun well and an entrance on the east face. Site visit October, 2009 Visited in October 2009 with members of Clacton VCH Group, the pillbox still stands, exactly as it did in 1946. However, it is clear that the surrounding vista is now somewhat different. Stoney Lane now runs along a high ridge with the ground on each side at least 20 feet below it, much more in places. There are lakes with wildfowl on them. Ordnance Survey maps show that the entire area north and south of Stoney Lane has been extensively quarried and then redesigned but at a much lower level than previously. The pillbox, just a few feet from the track, now overlooks open ground to the south from a much greater height than it could have done during World War Two. It survives in fine condition. It is of a pattern seen in many places along the Eastern Command Line, north of Colchester, but not in this area. It is 19” 3” wide, measured across opposite faces, with the low entrance, as seen on the 1946 aerial photograph, on the east side. It is built of brick with 18-inch thick walls with a pre-formed concrete loophole set into the brickwork in each of the faces. Each loophole has steel corner pieces set into it to leave a cross-shaped firing aperture. In the centre of the pillbox is the anti-aircraft machine-gun well with a central concrete “drum” pillar. On top of this are the remains of a concrete post. This would once have held the steel fittings for mounting, probably, a WWI Lewis gun. Around the walls of the well, ventilation holes lead into the pillbox. The well is accessed via an open entrance in the side, directly from the interior of the pillbox. It is a poignant part of social history that one of the members of Clacton VCH Group recording this pillbox is the son of a builder who worked constructing it. Mr Albert “Bert” Kennell was a local builder and bricklayer from Holland-on-Sea. On the 2nd of September 1940 he wrote in his diary, “Had my last day of labouring on beach and start work bricklaying at Brightlingsea for same firm, C. Chaston & Co” (of Clacton-on-Sea). The following day, “Have started making brick pillboxes in the fields outside Brightlingsea”. In letters to his wife, who had evacuated to Hendon, he wrote that they were building pillboxes in bricks as they were short of cement. This was a mile out of Brightlingsea, in a remote area near “a farmhouse which was bombed a week or two ago”. The farmhouse was Marsh Farm which had been bombed on 9 August. On 12 September he wrote in his diary, “I have finished my job at Brightlingsea and start again at St Osyth Beach ….” <3> <4> Sixty-nine years later, his son, local historian Roger Kennell, was part of the team recording his father’s pillbox. Sixteen photos of site. <5>