Two First World War Pillboxes on Bradfield Common

Two pillboxes constructed between 1916 and 1918.  

MATERIALS: concrete block walls with concrete roof slab on steel beams and steel door and gun loop shutters. 

PLAN: circular with one entrance to a single internal space.  

INTERIOR: the northern pillbox is a single open-plan space with un-rendered blockwork walls and roof painted white. The gun loops all have steel frames and one retains the central sliding shutter section with a ring for securing it. The doors have a bolt on the inside attached to them. There are two holes in the roof which might have held ventilation pipes.  

EXTERIOR: the pillbox to the north of Common Road is situated close to the road. The pillbox is circular with concrete block walls roughly pointed and topped by blocks with curved outer faces set around the roof slab. The roof slab is a single piece of cast concrete. There are five gun loops set roughly equally around the pillbox with one close to the a low, narrow doorway facing south which has its original steel double doors with a bolt and hasp attached to the outside. 

The pillbox to the south of Common Road it largely hidden in vegetation but from a recent photograph appears to be similar in construction and detail to the northern pillbox.