Military Archaeology

jtstatham · **Joined:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:49 pm **Posts:** 47

I thought I'd start a new thread with the hope that we can get something going re the military artefacts/structures of the Fylde area. However, to begin with, I thought I'd share this structure from Winchelsea Beach with you. It's an observation tower from 1940, situated just behind the shingle bank that serves a s a sea wall here. The tower itself is on another shingle bank (at right angles to the sea wall) and is in the back garden of some friends. If you go to the observation deck you can see why they built it here...it commands the whole beach up to Dungeness. Pity any poor Germans who tried to land here because they would have been slaughtered...little did they all know what they had missed. It also has a pill-box in the basement and, no doubt, was part of a defended locality. The tower must have been for artillery observation.

wyrearchaeology · **Posted:** Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:06 pm

Terry,

Hope you don't mind but I've shrunk your image down a bit so that it'll fit on my computer screen. (I have to have it set to quite a low resolution because, even with my reading specs, I can't see what I'm doing half the time. I used to have perfect 20/20 vision as well. That's what too many late nights reading Terry Pratchett and Charles Schulz books in bed does for you!)

Off the top of my head I know of three WWII installations locally. There's a pill box in Rossall Wood (now full of broken beer bottles and empty syringes), another at the far end of the Woodland Gardens in Blackpool (at the back of Stanley Park) and a set of tank traps outside the Nautical College in Fleetwood. When I get the chance -- correction...if I get the chance -- I'll take some photographs for you.

jtstatham · **Joined:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:49 pm **Posts:** 47

Brian,

No problem, realised as soon as I uploaded it that it was too BIG, but have deleted my shrinking software, so it was going to be a few hours before I could get back to it...now I don't need to do it...cheers. Photos would be good. I know of the Pill-Box opposite the Cala Gran...just up from Parr's Farm and also the "dragons teeth" just before the Nautical College of Fleetwood Road, both of which you mentioned. There used to be a large concrete base on the sea wall by the yachting pool, almost opposite the sea cadet base. I understood it was a gun platform from the 2nd WW, but seem to remember it being demolished some time back. That whole stretch of the lower prom was fortified and camouflaged during the war and was a restricted area...not sure if it was for coastal defence or related to anti-aircraft defence of Barrow. The other things that come to mind, and I'm not sure if they are still there are the mock submarine conning tower on Cockerham Sands and the mock up of an aircraft on stilts...I understand it was a bombing practice range during the war...also while I'm thinking there was also an observation tower along the Cockerham Road after Pilling, but before Cockerham. Didn't know about the Stanley Park one though.

And as an afterthought, a piece of Victorian military architecture in Fleetwood. Some of the houses on Shakespeare Road still retain, as a boundary wall part of the old wall to the Barracks. Memory tells me some even have loop holes in them, but this could be a case of recovered [incorrect] memory...anyone got any pics of this structure?

wyrearchaeology · **Posted:** Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:16 am

Terry,

I think the mock-up aircraft used for bombing practice is long since gone. I did see a photograph of it a couple of years ago that somebody had brought into the museum. Can't remember who it was now though.

John Shorrocks and Neil Thompson (both now, unfortunately, no longer with us) were actually compiling a complete list of military installations around the Fylde and Wyre, if memory serves. I wonder if their investigations are still on record somewhere.

There are a couple of MOD marks still left in Fleetwood. One's carved into the wall of the North Euston, from the time when it was an officers' barracks, and another's on a garden wall I believe opposite the Kings (or the Queens...can't remember which) near Rossall Point, stemming from when it was used as Hutments for Wilfred Owen's mob.

jtstatham · **Joined:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:49 pm **Posts:** 47

The Hutments...a 19th Century map of The Hutments and its immediate area...orientate yourself with The Queens Hotel, The Cemetery and Poulton Road. Note that Beach Road was then known as Cemetery Lane. See also the Clay Pit to the left of The Queens Hotel...near to where a Roman coin was found in 1974 (in Leighton Avenue).Apologies about the picture size, Brian. I now realise how to re-size, but am unable to edit this one [on this forum] down to size...or delete it so that I can upload a smaller version.

wyrearchaeology · **Posted:** Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:45 am

Terry,

Cheers for that. Map shrunk and adjusted to fit.

The placement of the huts certainly explains the MOD mark in the garden wall on that corner.

frankjsmith · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:53 pm

Quote:

The other things that come to mind, and I'm not sure if they are still there are the mock submarine conning tower on Cockerham Sands and the mock up of an aircraft on stilts...I understand it was a bombing practice range during the war...also while I'm thinking there was also an observation tower along the Cockerham Road after Pilling, but before Cockerham.

Have a look here for starters-
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/lait/site/Swo ... 0DK689.htm

wyrearchaeology · **Posted:** Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:02 pm

Frank,

I've met that chap...the one who's in charge of the air crash archaeology (or whatever the term is)...at least I think he's in charge. He was on Time Team being interviewed when they dug up the WWII plane that came down on Freckleton Marsh. Can't remember his name now, but he has the next display cabinet down from Wyre Archaeology's in the museum. He's a thoroughly decent and fascinating bloke.

jtstatham · **Joined:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:49 pm **Posts:** 47

Thanks for that Brian, much appreciated...further food for thought...sounds like the observation tower is still there on the Cockerham Road then.

frankjsmith · **Posted:** Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:43 pm

Brian,
I'm sure you mean Russell Brown, he is a good egg and an authority on anything wartime round here.

wyrearchaeology · **Posted:** Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:55 am

Frank,

I think you might be right. The name Russell rings a bell. Youngish chap, always wears a bomber jacket. Looks every bit the WWII pilot.

jtstatham · **Joined:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:49 pm **Posts:** 47

This link is worth a visit for military site info:-

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/archive ... N=73347940

I haven't had chance to have a detailed look at it, but it does have some Fylde details and is worth a look.

frankjsmith · **Posted:** Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:08 pm

Terry,
There is a pill box on Blackpool road opposite Wyvale garden center near Peel corner, and there are some tank traps by the side of the road from Moss Side to Lytham. A very unusual pill box is this one on the railway bridge over Devonshire road in Blackpool.

Photo thanks to Russell Brown.

Does anyone know if there are any 'emergency water supply' signs still in existance?
They were about three foot high letters EWS painted on walls. There were still a few about in the sixties.

jtstatham · **Joined:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:49 pm **Posts:** 47

Cheers, Frank. I've been under that bridge on Devonsire Road many times and never noticed the pillbox. The Germans would have got a hell of a shock if they'd approached this one without their hands up. Very cleverly disguised though.

jtstatham · **Joined:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:49 pm **Posts:** 47

I take it the 3 loop holes to the right were just that, loop holes? I know its unlikely, but does anyone have any pictures of these structures being built?

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Military Archaeology

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