Site of Second World War pillbox, by war memorial, Great Oakley (EHER 21428)

The site of a Second World War pillbox, now destroyed. It was camouflaged by a surrounding wooden building in the town square by the war memorial according to very clear local memory. The siting is inexplicable.

A number of wartime local residents of Great Oakley have referred to a small building having been erected in the town square, next to the war memorial, during World War Two. This is variously reported to have been either a pillbox or possibly an ARP shelter. All agree that it was camouflaged with paintwork to represent a shop, café or, notably, an Eastern National bus waiting room. Nothing can be seen on an aerial photograph taken in May 1946 and it was probably demolished by that date. <1> <2> The position, surrounded by houses with no field of fire, augers against it being a pillbox, but, being central, supports the possibility of it having been an ARP hut. However a very clear local memory has recorded , in September 2012, "I can assure you without any doubt whatsoever that on the Plain during the Second World War there was a full-size concrete pillbox which was disguised as an Eastern National waiting room cum office. If you stood outside what was Hayward's draper's shop, facing the road, it was to the right of the war memorial, opposite what was at that time Udall's sweet shop. The pillbox was inside a fairly substantial wooden building, with a flat roof and a slight overhang, or canopy, at the front (facing the road) with slatted wooden bench seating beneath it. My memory tells me it was painted Eastern National green, had the Eastern National logo on it and had dummy windows and doors painted on it which looked realistic from a distance. The actual entrance was a small door on the memorial side of the building which you had to crouch down to get through and this was secured by a Yale-type lock. Once inside, there was another secured door to the actual pillbox. I am not certain now if there were hinged flaps which could be let down from inside to allow the firing positions in the bunker to be used, or whether there were simply holes cut in the sides of the building and covered by gauze which would have given a view of the street and could have been fired through. By the end of the war the building was in a bit of a state and was insecure. I well remember crouching down to go inside and hiding there during Hide and Seek. I remember that it was full of litter. This fact may support the possibility that there were gauze-covered holes (see above) because if the gauze had been poked out it would have been easy to shove litter through from the outside. There wasn't much room between the walls and the pillbox and you had to squeeze around inside. I don't recall ever going inside the actual pillbox so the lock on that might have survived." <3> Based mainly on this very detailed report, the structure is here recorded as having been a camouflaged pillbox, although the siting is inexplicable.