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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• PILLBOX (CANTILEVERED) (World War II - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Full description

1. A pillbox on Wilson's Road was reported.
2. Identified as a FC Construction Pillbox Air Ministry Type 303/41, which was built from 1941. These pillboxes were designed to defend airfield sites, and occur mostly in the East of England. The design provided 360 degree visibility, but also would have made the occupants vulnerable to incoming fire.

This pillbox on Wilson's Road (number 461) is one of ten cantilevered examples at the former RAF Oakington, and is one of two which defended the western approach to the airbase. The pillboxes were assessed by English Heritage for listing, as there were concerns that they were in danger of demolition. The associated pillboxes are numbered 443 to 446, 449, 454, 462, 439 and 461 (after the gazetteer of structures at RAF Oakington by Paul Francis of the Airfield Research Group (2005)). An application to list the buildings on the former RAF station in 2011 was not successful, and many of the buildings have been demolished. The pillboxes themselves have in some cases been altered, and in the case of number 46, courses of the curtain wall have been removed to ground level and the rail is no longer in-situ.

RAF Oakington was an expansion period aerodrome constructed in 1939 and placed under Bomber Command during World War II. From 1950 it was part of Training Command before being transferred to the army in 1975 and then used as an immigration reception centre between 1999 and 2010. The watch tower and some of the airfield defence structures such as the battle headquarters, command posts and later ROC post were demolished by the army. The cantilevered pillboxes were designed as a private venture by F.C Construction Co. Ltd. of Derby, one of the main designers and contractors of reinforced concrete in the midlands. The company designed a pillbox of circular design with 360 degrees field of view and a disc-shaped roof. A total of 61 were recorded nationwide under the Monuments Protection Programme, at least nine of which have been destroyed. Ten were built at RAF Oakington in 1941, when the hard runways were laid. Designed to be covered by earthworks to prevent detection from the air and ground, five of the pillboxes (nos 443 to 446 and 462) protected both the railway line between Cambridge and St Ives (now the Cambridge guided busway) and the airfield. No. 449 defended the southern dispersals, part of the runway and the now demolished battle headquarters and nos.454 and 455 protected a command post which is no longer extant. Nos. 439 and 461 lie outside of the airbase. Six of the pillboxes remain intact (nos. 439, 443, 444, 445, 449 and 455), although no. 445 is entirely overgrown. Nos. 446, 454, 461 and 462 have been altered. The pillbox was constructed from reinforced concrete and London Brick Company Phorpres bricks. The plan is circular and partially subterranean, as the structure was designed to be covered with earthworks to prevent detection from the ground and air. The pillbox is approximately 5.5m in diameter and has a reinforced concrete, disc-shaped roof supported at its centre by a substantial, brick, cruciform-shaped, anti-ricochet wall. Around the perimeter the top courses of the brick and concrete composite, subterranean curtain wall have been removed to ground level. No internal fittings remain (2). The Selection Guide on Military Structures (English Heritage, April 2011) states that pillboxes were strong-points, generally of reinforced concrete, placed at strategic locations, such as at river crossings, or along coastal and inland anti-invasion ‘stop lines’ which were intended to slow down the progress of an attacking force. Some were designed for machine guns; others, more unusually, housed artillery. Thousands were built in the early stages of the Second World War: 28,000 are thought to have been erected, and a recent survey calculated that some 6,500 survive. Considerable discretion should be used in the selection of pillboxes for designation , particular attention being justified for those which directly illustrate their intended function as part of a key defensive line or nodal point. Where fittings survive, or the pillbox has internal signage, or painted aids to aircraft recognition, or wall art, the case for designation will be strengthened. Claims to special interest for pillboxes include rarity of type; group relationship with other defence structures; survival; and their built form. Those pillboxes which have been either listed or scheduled are often rare types or have group value with other defensive buildings or structures. The two-storey pillbox and fire posts at Steeton, Keighley, for example are listed as an unusual variant of the Type 24, protecting a Royal Ordnance Factory. It is acknowledged that unlike the more standard forms of pillbox which are commonplace, by contrast, the cantievered or Oakington pillboxes are rare with only fifty-two remaining. This type is innovative in its design, allowing unrestricted 360 degree observation, and is sophisticated in the use of a concrete, cantilevered roof which required considerable effort in construction. The Wilson's Road pillbox is one of ten other cantilevered pillboxes which form part of the defensive circuit round the former RAF Oakington and has considerable group value with them. This group is the largest surviving in the country, hence the type being known as 'Oakington Pillboxes' colloquially, which adds to their interest. However, the pillbox at Wilson's Road, no. 461, has suffered much loss of historic fabric and has no internal fittings remaining. The rarity of the pillbox type in general, and significance of the group at Oakington, did not compensate for the loss of the curtain wall down to ground floor level and the lack of internal fittings. From a national perspective, it did not meet the criteria for listing

SW Cambridgeshire project 2014 (NHPP), 2016, Next Perspectives PGA Imagery TL3965 17-OCT-2008 (Geospatial data). SCB63385.

<1> Duthie, P., 2007, Photograph of pillbox on Wilson's Road (Photograph). SCB20651.

<2> Foot, W., 12/12/2007, Email from William Foot (Unpublished document). SCB20652.

<3> English Heritage, English Heritage Listing File (Unpublished document). SCB61991.

Sources and further reading

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