Pillbox P305 Catheugh Plantation from the south side, obscured by trees planted since the warPillbox P306 Weldon Bridge from the former A697, looking south-eastPillbox P319 Bickerton from a minor road, looking eastPillbox P320 Bickerton from across the River Coquet, looking southWell-preserved interior of Pillbox on the Coquet Stop Line – note graffito over the doorway, daubed in the same whitewash as the P-ID numbers: 'Heil Hitler'
The Coquet Stop Line, which ran from Amble in Northumberland up the valley of the River Coquet, formed part of the defences constructed to meet the threat of a Nazi invasion during the Second World War. It was intended to slow the advance of the German army from the north to give time for a field army to assemble on the Tyne Stop Line around 30 miles to the south.
The Coquet Stop Line was made up of a string of pillboxes, with a consistent shape that has been referred to as the "Coquet line type" or more accurately "Lozenge" type, and is only found in the North East and parts of Yorkshire. They tend to have open ground in front, often the river or its floodplain, while to the rear, where the entrance is, efforts were made to provide cover for a retreating force.
A few of these pillboxes have been lost: one on the approach to Felton village and another on the west side of the A1 at West Moor have gone. The remains of a sandbag pillbox on the north side of Amble Harbour lie opposite a large concrete block that was built for a harbour chain. There is a brick "lozenge" near the football pitch in Warkworth, though this is more likely part of the "Coastal Crust".
Other pillboxes in the area
There are several other pillboxes on the Coquet, although these were probably not built as part of the Stop Line. One sandbag "beehive" type pillbox is in a garden just behind the Cross Keys public house in Thropton. It covers the west approach to the Wreigh Burn road bridge. It was built by the 250th Field Company of Royal Engineers. They built many sandbag pillboxes in the area between July and September 1940 but the concrete pillboxes were put out to local tender.
There is another pillbox near Morwick on the west side of the east coast main line. It is rectangular, half brick and half concrete, and was probably built to defend the railway viaduct or to protect the soldiers who would have been ordered to blow up the viaduct in the event of an invasion. The viaduct would have had to be kept open as long as possible to allow rolling stock to be moved.
A unique pillbox can be found by the road from Amble to Warkworth at Gloster Hill. This is a stone-fronted pillbox in the shape of an old cottage (similar to one at Hemscott Hill, Cresswell). It has a stone and concrete front and the rest is made up of sandbags.
The pillboxes at Brainshaugh and West Thirston may not be part of the Coquet Stop Line, as their identification numbers are out of sequence with the others. They may have formed an inland stop line running north to south. The pillboxes at Hazon, Brainshaugh, Morwick, West Thirston, Earsdon, Longhirst, Bothal Barns and East Moor (and possibly Eshott) form a line with the pillboxes approximately two miles apart.
There is a further modified lozenge pillbox in Rothbury. It is a standard "lozenge" except for an alteration to the porch and door, which were built on the left hand side as opposed to the rear. The pillbox is well hidden on the south side of the river. It is almost opposite the Whitton road bridge and was sited to defend the bridge. The front three embrasures are just above ground level, with left and right one having been letterboxed[clarification needed]. The pillbox has no identification number so it may not be part of the stop line. It is at grid reference NU0560 0160.
Locations of pillboxes
The following pillboxes have been firmly identified as part of the Coquet Stop Line. They are listed from east to west. The listing of a pillbox here does not imply any right to visit the sites, which are almost all on private land.
The Taunton Stop Line was a World War II defensive line in southwest England. It was designed "to stop an enemy's advance from the west and in particular a rapid advance supported by armoured fighting vehicles which may have broken through the forward defences."
The GHQ Line was a defence line built in the United Kingdom during World War II to contain an expected German invasion.
The Siegfried Line, known in German as the Westwall, was a German defensive line built during the 1930s opposite the French Maginot Line. It stretched more than 630 km (390 mi) from Kleve on the border with the Netherlands, along the western border of Nazi Germany, to the town of Weil am Rhein on the border with Switzerland. The line featured more than 18,000 bunkers, tunnels and tank traps.
Amble is a town on the North Sea coast of Northumberland, England, at the mouth of the River Coquet; Coquet Island is visible from its beaches and harbour. In 2011, it had a population of 6,025.
The River Coquet runs through the county of Northumberland, England, discharging into the North Sea on the east coast at Amble. It rises in the Cheviot Hills on the border between England and Scotland, and follows a winding course across the landscape ("Coquetdale"). The upper reaches are bordered by the Otterburn Ranges military training ground, and are crossed by a number of bridges built in the 20th century. It passes a number of small villages and hamlets, and feeds one of the lakes created by extraction of gravel that form the Caistron Nature Reserve, before reaching the town of Rothbury, where it is crossed by a grade II listed bridge. Below the town is Thrum Mill, the restoration of which was featured on Channel 4 television.
Warkworth is a village in Northumberland, England. It is probably best known for its well-preserved medieval castle, church and hermitage. The population of Warkworth was 1,493 in 2001, increasing to 1,574 at the 2011 Census. The village is situated in a loop of the River Coquet, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Northumberland coast and lies on the main A1068 road. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Newcastle, and about 40 miles (64 km) south of the Scottish border. An ancient bridge of two arches crosses the river at Warkworth, with a fortified gateway on the road mounting to the castle, the site of which is surrounded on three sides by the river.
The Outer London Defence Ring was a defensive ring built around London during the early part of the Second World War. It was intended as a defence against a German invasion, and was part of a national network of similar "Stop Lines".
Guyzance, historically Guizance, is a small village or hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Acklington, in Northumberland, England. It is located on the River Coquet, roughly 6 miles south of Alnwick and around 3 miles west of Amble. Guyzance is one of only two places in Great Britain with a -zance ending; the other is Penzance in Cornwall. The similar names are co-incidence, however. In 1951 the parish had a population of 128.
Acklington is a small village in Northumberland, England. It is situated to the south-west of Amble, inland from the North Sea coast. It is served by Acklington railway station. The name is Anglo-Saxon Old English 'farmstead of Eadlac's people'.
Dragon's teeth are square-pyramidal fortifications of reinforced concrete first used during the Second World War to impede the movement of tanks and mechanised infantry. The idea was to slow down and channel tanks into killing zones where they could easily be disposed of by anti-tank weapons.
British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War entailed a large-scale division of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The British Army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in France, and 1.5 million men were enrolled as part-time soldiers in the Home Guard. The rapid construction of field fortifications transformed much of the United Kingdom, especially southern England, into a prepared battlefield. Sea Lion was never taken beyond the preliminary assembly of forces. Today, little remains of Britain's anti-invasion preparations, although reinforced concrete structures such as pillboxes and anti-tank cubes can still be commonly found, particularly in the coastal counties.
British hardened field defences of World War II were small fortified structures constructed as a part of British anti-invasion preparations. They were popularly known as pillboxes, a reference to their shape.
The fortifications of London are extensive and mostly well maintained, though many of the City of London's fortifications and defences were dismantled in the 17th and 18th century. Many of those that remain are tourist attractions, most notably the Tower of London.
The Ringwood West Line was a World War II defensive line in England, running south from the GHQ Line near Frome to the coast.
The York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (YN&BR) was an English railway company formed in 1847 by the amalgamation of the York and Newcastle Railway and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway. Both companies were part of the group of business interests controlled by George Hudson, the so-called Railway King. In collaboration with the York and North Midland Railway and other lines he controlled, he planned that the YN&BR would form the major part of a continuous railway between London and Edinburgh. At this stage the London terminal was Euston Square and the route was through Normanton. This was the genesis of the East Coast Main Line, but much remained to be done before the present-day route was formed, and the London terminus was altered to King's Cross.
The Ruck machine gun post or Ruck pillbox is a type of hardened field fortification built in Britain during the invasion crisis of 1940–1941. It was designed by James Ruck and was made from prefabricated concrete sections and paving slabs, sandbags and rammed earth. The Ruck machine gun post was relatively widely used in Lincolnshire and along the east coast of England, but is now extremely rare with just a handful of extant examples. Today, just five Ruck machine gun post sites are recorded in the Defence of Britain database.
The Norcon pillbox is a type of hardened field fortification built in Britain during the invasion crisis of 1940–1941. It was a small circular pillbox named after the company that manufactured it as a private commercial venture.
A pillbox is a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard-post, often camouflaged, normally equipped with loopholes through which defenders can fire weapons. It is in effect a trench firing step, hardened to protect against small-arms fire and grenades, and raised to improve the field of fire.
The Tyne Stop Line, which ran from the Rede Valley in Northumberland to Newcastle upon Tyne, formed part of the defences constructed to meet the threat of a Nazi invasion during World War II. Part of a network of such features, the Tyne Stop Line formed what would have been the principal defensive front for North East England against any attack coming from the north.
Cripps Corner is a village in the civil parish of Ewhurst and the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and on a southern ridge of the valley of the River Rother which flows through Bodiam, 2.5 miles (4 km) to the north of Cripps Corner.
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