Pickett Hamilton Pillbox Worthy Down

This pillbox is situated on the wartime Naval airfield of Worthy Down in Southern England. It was constructed sometime in 1940. Approx 240 were built in England but this one is a rare four man counterbalance type of which only 12 were constructed. The Pickett Hamilton pillbox is unique to airfields. They were designed to provide airfield defence whilst allowing for the operational needs of the airfield. Pickett Hamilton pillboxes were ingeniously designed to remain flush with the ground to allow aircraft movement. In the event of attack the pillbox could be raised to provide defensive firepower.

This pillbox has recently been listed Grade II due to be being of the rare counterbalance type.

The shots were taken in August 2010.

External View



External view showing the open access hatches



View of the north side access hatch - lots of spiders and ants down there



Close up of the south side access hatch showing the edge of the internal cylinder



Access steps



Internal view showing the support pillars - there is alot of deep water at the bottom of the pillbox which made access and photography difficult



Further internal view



As can be seen - alot of water - sorry I didn't move the Fosters can



The little mound of earth is just below the south access hatch. Good job its there as it would be even more
trickey to get into the internals without getting your feet wet



View of south west facing loophole



View of north facing loophole



Internal view of the outer cylinder - the edge of the east facing loophole can just be seen on the inner cylinder



Final external view



Thanks for looking.

What a fantastic find! I can see why these have been listed, stuff like this deserves to be protected fo rthe future.
Great pics hydealfred.

Juicy! There's one just like this on the edge of the runway at RAF Kenley - and a fully extended one outsdie the gates of the Connaught Barracks in Dover. Not many left though now. Great photos - thanks for posting.

Well you've earnt your brownie points for this one alf. If I could thank you twice I would. Looks very claustrophobic but I'm jealous as hell. Spiders and ants, bonus!

Never seen one of those before, excellent.

night crawler said:

Never seen one of those before, excellent.

Click to expand...

to true i also have never seen one like that, its great with the hatches at the top

I often wondered if anyone had ever designed something like this during the war..guess this answers that question nice find

Do these seize up totally? I wondered what it might take to raise one that had sat 'wound in' for so long?

Fantastic post. It's great to see inside one of these.

Thank you one and all for your kind comments. The one question I have is "how do you actually get into the inside of the pillbox" as there appears to be no entrance hatch. I saw a similiar one today at Tangmere that is in the museum. The one in the museum has an entrance hatch in top of the inner cylinder. The one I post has no such hatch. So how do you get in the thing The hatches in the shots seem only to allow access to the sump area. The only way I can see in is through the loopholes.

The counter balance type had to be raised to be accessed, the side hatches allowed access to the mechanism I believe, and once raised you just ducked in below the turret. The standard type was entered by the top hatch and then pumped up.

Brilliant find, Hydealfred. I honestly thought the first pic was a crop circle at first glance.
Well done for going down there.