Summary

Pillbox (destroyed)

Full description

Contemporary record state, ‘ O.S. No. 306 – 2 pillboxes, weapon pit … Coppins Hall Farm …’. Field O.S. No. 306 lay to the W of Cloes Lane, N of Coppins Hall.

A local resident who erected the shuttering of pillboxes during World War Two recalls working on a pillbox in Cloes Lane. It stood ‘quite near where the Catholic School is today’. This would have been on the E boundary of Field O.S. No 306. <1> <2>

The school stands on the W side of a bend in Cloes Lane. A study of 1946 aerial photographs shows this entire area W of the road to have been completely open with just one spot not visible. Two or three trees on the bend, where the school now is, hide the ground from view. From here, there would have been a wide field of fire to the W in addition to coverage of the approach along Cloes Lane from the N. This, then, appears to be the likely site of the pillbox.

It has not been possible to track down the location of the second pillbox mentioned in the wartime record.

<1> unknown, 1968, War Time Contraventions 1968, Clacton (LIST). SEX31436.

<2> Crabb, C, 1995, no title, June 1995 (CORRESPONDENCE). SEX67935.

Monument Types

• PILLBOX (WWII, Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Associated Events

• WWII Defences of Clacton - Fred Nash visits July 2007 (Ref: Nash TEN Jul 2007)

Sources and further reading

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