Trow Rock Pillboxes - South Shields (pic heavy)

Mrs. Jonney and myself had the dog out for a walk along the beach at South Shields by Trow Rock so I could get some photo's of the replica gun that is mounted on the top of the rocks a brief history of which is as follows...

Replica Gun Trow Rocks
A Disappearing Gun on Trow Point was first placed there in 1887 when the army were experimenting with coastal defences. The gun was forced down into the pit for re-loading by the recoil after the gun fired, so affording protection to the crew and obscuring the gun from direct enemy fire. The structure was sunk deeply into the ground to accommodate the water upon which the platform rose and fell, actuated by air pressure pumps.Trials of platform took place on 15th and 16th December 1887. It was found that the raising and lowering of the platform was too slow and the system was abandoned in favour of the quicker and cheaper Elswick hydro-pneumatic mounting. The replica gun was installed in 1997.

and whilst there I took some photo's of the pillboxes as well (none of which are on the DoB so cptpies I'll email you there locations)

None of these pillboxes follow your typical type designs as you will see anyway on with the photo's

the first pillbox is upside down at the bottom of the cliffs. This is the only embrasure





couldn't gain entry as this was the door



this is a shot taken through the embrasure but I've left it upside down to show the water lying in the corner as it fills everytime the tide comes in



at the back of this pillbox was some bits of broken pillbox which I thought belonged to this box



but on further investigation the actually belonged to a smashed pillbox the remnants of which lie about 20 foot away







The next pillbox is on top of the cliffs but for how long







and there was a similar pillbox on the other side of the rocks



this was the embrasure



possible pillbox remains but for now I'll say it's an unknown wall



There were also the mounts for two ??? (any idea's, there was a costal battery about 1/4 mile further round the coast and a HAA battery about 2 miles away so I'm thinking searchlight)





this is the platform the mounts were on note the concrete sand bags



and finally what I'd gone to photograph the replica gun













Thanks for making it this far. Hope you enjoyed

Cheers Jon

Good work, do like the gun at the end.

night crawler said:

Good work, do like the gun at the end.

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Cheers mate the pillboxes were tiny 2 man things but the gun, even though a replica, is a nice feature

some nice different pillbox there, and a lovely gun at the end

Cheers Motley

Nice tour that. Got stuck into seeing the pillbox remains and forgot about the gun till it came up at the end. Cherry on the cake. Cheers, Jonney. Nice one.

Nice write up, like the Gun, I was expecting to see a older one

Good find Jonney, Looked like you had a facinating explore.
Well Done.

nice little find there loving the gun shame someone had to tag in . thanks for posting

thanks - spent a lot of time round there when i was a nipper.

Vaguely remember a couple of bits of rail sticking out of the cliff. Probably gone now.

muppet said:

nice little find there loving the gun shame someone had to tag in . thanks for posting

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you should have seen it before they cleaned it up, every inch of it was tagged

borntobemild said:

thanks - spent a lot of time round there when i was a nipper.

Vaguely remember a couple of bits of rail sticking out of the cliff. Probably gone now.

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There was a quarry at the back of this so the rails might have been something to do with that but saying that the erosion on the cliffs is terrible with frequent mud slides so a lot of finds have ended up in the sea and are long gone sadly

Ive just remembered this has been on the TV, a few months back either the news or the one show did abit about it, and did like a history on the emplacement and the sort, if i remember correct it was after they had done the gun up hence why they did the piece on it, wonder if its online anywhere

Motley said:

Ive just remembered this has been on the TV, a few months back either the news or the one show did abit about it, and did like a history on the emplacement and the sort, if i remember correct it was after they had done the gun up hence why they did the piece on it, wonder if its online anywhere

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think this might be it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7773896.stm

Thanks for the pics and story about the gun. I've never even heard of that one before...