Pair of Second World War Pillboxes, Stokesley Road

Two Second World War pillboxes, Type 23, constructed in 1940.

MATERIALS: reinforced concrete.

PLAN: rectangular-plan.

EXTERIOR: not inspected (information from other sources). The two pillboxes are situated approximately 335m apart, to either side of Stokesley Road. The northern example is aligned north-east to south-west, while the southern pillbox is aligned north-west to south-east; this allowed for interlocking fields of sustained machine gun fire across Stokesley Road and towards the two T-junctions on Middleton Road. The pillboxes are identical semi-sunken, 4.34 x 2.13m rectangular-plan structures, with 38cm thick walls and a 15cm thick reinforced concrete roof over the front chamber. The front wall has a single, wide gun embrasure raised just above ground-level, and the two side walls, each have a similar embrasure that is off-set towards the front wall; the rear wall is blind.

INTERIOR: not inspected (information from other sources). Each pillbox is divided into two chambers, accessed by climbing over the rear wall into an open, 1.37m square and deep chamber, which has a concrete floor with a slender concrete post for mounting a light anti-aircraft machine-gun (LAAMG). Four concrete steps descend against the left-hand side wall, to a low narrow door that allows access into a 1.83m square chamber, with a flat concrete ceiling, and wide embrasures in the front and side walls. The walls were shuttered using timber planks that have left vertical witness marks. A concrete shelf, with a rear lip that spans the width of the chamber against the front wall, would have allowed the occupants to fire a tripod mounted machine-gun through any of the three embrasures. The southern pillbox is partially infilled.