Anti-aircraft pillbox at Sinfin Central Business Park

A Second World War pillbox, probably built in the early 1940s, believed to be a very rare variant of a Type 24 pillbox which incorporates three octagonal light wells which would have supported an anti-aircraft battery.

MATERIALS The pillbox is constructed of shuttered reinforced concrete.

PLAN The pillbox is an irregular hexagonal-shaped structure, with three attached and linked octagonal wells thought to have housed light anti-aircraft guns.

EXTERIOR The walls of the pillbox are partially concealed by overburden and vegetation, and the single entrance on the south side of the structure which gave access to both the pillbox and the anti-aircraft wells has been infilled. The pillbox section is sited to the west, with the cluster of what are thought to be octagonal anti-aircraft wells to the east, extending from the long 'rear' facet of the pillbox. The pillbox has angled gun embrasures to each of the five outward-facing facets of the structure, all now covered with sheeting, and there appears to have been some form of metal-framed superstructure, the embedded feet of which can be seen on the roof of the pillbox. The purpose of such a superstructure could have been to support camouflage netting.

INTERIOR No interior inspection was possible as the single doorway to the structure has been blocked with masonry. However, on the evidence of details of other Type 24 pillboxes, it is likely that the structure incorporates interior blast walls and shelves to support weapons being fired through the embrasures.