PILLBOX AT NZ 3517552073

This pillbox, constructed of reinforced concrete between 1940 and 1941, is one of a pair located on a former inland stop-line. The pillbox consists of an elongated hexagonal plan with a main front and a rear front, featuring a flat roof. It is a single-storey structure, partially set below ground level.

The elongated front has a central machine gun embrasure flanked by single rifle embrasures, with a further single machine gun embrasure to each chamfered side. The rear front features a protected doorway, with two rifle embrasures to one side and one to the other, plus a rifle and machine gun embrasure on each chamfered side.

Internally, a thick, detached concrete wall is centrally positioned to prevent ricocheting bullets. Beneath each machine gun embrasure is a roughly square hole, which formerly held a machine gun mount.

A second pillbox is located approximately 0.9km to the north, and both are situated on a former anti-invasion stop line. These stop lines, used from May 1940 to February 1942, were intended to slow down a potential invasion of Britain from occupied France and consisted of defensive features such as pillboxes, ditches, and barbed wire. While the War Office issued standard pillbox designs, local soldiers often built variations reflecting local needs and preferences. This pillbox, situated on a stop line protecting the western hinterland of Sunderland, was originally located on a former enclosure boundary.

The pillbox is designated at Grade II for its rarity as a north-eastern example, its group value and defensive context with the adjacent pillbox, its representation of wartime anti-invasion strategies near an industrial town, and its well-preserved condition, which clearly illustrates its original purpose.