Former Second World War Civil Defence Building

This former Second World War civil defence building, likely a fire watchers' post or air raid shelter, was constructed to serve the nearby brickworks. It is made of brick with a reinforced-concrete slab roof.

The building has a circular plan and features a segmental blast wall on the north side. It is semi-sunken below the surrounding ground level and is embanked with earth. On the north side, there are two baffled doorways, one likely serving as an entrance and the other as an emergency exit, both protected by the segmental blast wall supported by angled buttresses. The walls are mostly blind, with only two horizontal observation slits located just below the roof line on the south-east and south-west sides. The reinforced concrete roof shows slight scarring around its edge.

Inside, the space is divided into two semi-circular compartments by a brick wall that supports the roof. The west side of this wall has a smoke-blackened niche, probably used for a candle holder. At the south end of the wall, there is a round-headed emergency exit that allowed movement between the two compartments if one entrance became blocked. This exit would have originally been surrounded by weakly-bonded brickwork designed to be easily broken down, although this brickwork is now missing. Dark inclined witness marks on the walls beside the doorways suggest that the shelter was equipped with roll-down anti-gas curtains.