Wwii Pillbox

Second World War Pillbox, Dunster

A Second World War pillbox of no recognised type, built in late 1940 or early 1941 as part of the Somerset Coast defensive line and the Blue Anchor Bay defended locality.

The pillbox is constructed of brick, concrete and stone, with integral camouflage designed to disguise it as a cottage. It features a pitched slate roof with barge boards and stone facing. The building is octagonal in plan, with its entrance positioned in the southern wall and facing north overall.

The structure is shell-proof and equipped with seven steel-shuttered fire-resistant embrasures. Each embrasure has a concrete table beneath the loop with a wide slot to hold a weapon. The interior incorporates a central ricochet wall with unusual deflected cross walls for additional protection.

After the British defeat at Dunkirk in May 1940, the prospect of imminent invasion prompted General Sir Edmund Ironside, Commander-in-Chief Home Forces, to develop an anti-invasion plan centred on a series of static defence lines. These were largely in place by the end of 1940. The Somerset coast was protected by coastal batteries, anti-tank blocks and girders, gun emplacements, cones, section posts and slit trenches, supplemented by large numbers of pillboxes. The Blue Anchor Bay defended locality contained at least twelve pillboxes, an infantry section post, an anti-tank girder and various obstacles.

This pillbox retains its original camouflage, which may have been designed by the theatre designer Oliver Messel (1904-1978) or his successor, the artist Julian Trevelyn, both of whom worked at Headquarters VIII in Taunton at the time. The steel shutters are of an uncommon type. The pillbox forms an integral part of a nationally important defensive landscape and is designated for its rarity as a hybrid type, its historic interest, its uncommon fittings, and its group value within the wider defensive scheme.