Site of Second World War Pillbox, Cloes Lane, Clacton-on-Sea (EHER 21253)

Site of Second World War Pillbox, now destroyed.

WWII Defence of Clacton survey. Contemporary record state, ‘ O.S. No. 306 – 2 pillboxes, weapon pit … Coppins Hall Farm …’. Field O.S. No. 306 lay to the W of Cloes Lane, north of Coppins Hall. A local resident who erected the shuttering of pillboxes during World War Two recalls working on a pillbox in Cloes Lane. It stood ‘quite near where the Catholic School is today’. This would have been on the east boundary of Field O.S. No 306. <1> <2> The school stands on the west side of a bend in Cloes Lane. A study of 1946 aerial photographs shows this entire area west of the road to have been completely open with just one spot not visible. Two or three trees on the bend, where the school now is, hide the ground from view. From here, there would have been a wide field of fire to the west in addition to coverage of the approach along Cloes Lane from the north. This, then, appears to be the likely site of the pillbox. It has not been possible to track down the location of the second pillbox mentioned in the wartime record. <3>