It’s getting to that time of year when the stopline defences start to merge back into their surroundings having been wonderfully exposed for the last 4 months or so. The vegetation is reclaiming a part of our WW2 history again. PB hunters know the start of Spring signals an end to the ease with which we’ve been seeking out the undressed concrete relics of a battle never fought.
It probably won’t stop here for me though as I’m just too interested to know more to consider wasting time waiting out the Summer. I imagine that as I continue south at some point I’ll bump into Foxy coming the other way.
I’ve had to divide the TSL into manageable sections in order to avoid ‘just one more’ syndrome which has often seen me trying to find my way out of an area in the dark covered in stinger marks or bramble scratches. This post deals with some of the defences at Perry Street, a small village between Tatworth and Chard Junction station in Somerset. Anyone who knows the TSL will note that I’ve not covered the area from Lower Coombes to here yet. This will follow in a later report as permissions to view may be inevitable.
The defences shown on my GE map shot, as usual, are not all still present but I find showing the missing items allows the viewer to place the area in it’s wartime context. It should also be noted that areas between structures such as Pillboxes, cubes etc were filled in with ditches, scarping, mined areas, barbed wire and sometimes field artillery and infantry units in prepared positions.
Anyway, enough preamble, on with the post.
The GE map shot of the area
Perry Street Lace Mill – where I parked the car
The whole Chard area was once dominated by Lace Mills. During the war production was unsettled with, among other war related items, parachute silk and mosquito nets being manufactured at Mills like this.
Just past the mill heading down Factory Lane towards the Creamery is this solitary AT cube opposite the sewage works. It’s presence probably explained by the roadblock M RD 46 of which there are no other remains. The curvature of the dismantled Chard branch line as it sweeps into Chard Junction to join the main line past the Creamery is to the north, clearly visible on GE.
M 31 – PB, Type 24
In Foxy’s terms of pillboxes assuming faces, I think this one looks like it’s about to cry. Given the condition of the inside it seems rather apt.
This surviving wood shuttering was a nice bonus though.
Just to the south of M 31, an impressive line of AT cubes on the railway embankment near the crook of the field adjacent and leading to a railblock M RL 24 which I haven’t got to yet. It may no longer exist.
Will leave it there for now. Thanks for looking in.
It probably won’t stop here for me though as I’m just too interested to know more to consider wasting time waiting out the Summer. I imagine that as I continue south at some point I’ll bump into Foxy coming the other way.
I’ve had to divide the TSL into manageable sections in order to avoid ‘just one more’ syndrome which has often seen me trying to find my way out of an area in the dark covered in stinger marks or bramble scratches. This post deals with some of the defences at Perry Street, a small village between Tatworth and Chard Junction station in Somerset. Anyone who knows the TSL will note that I’ve not covered the area from Lower Coombes to here yet. This will follow in a later report as permissions to view may be inevitable.
The defences shown on my GE map shot, as usual, are not all still present but I find showing the missing items allows the viewer to place the area in it’s wartime context. It should also be noted that areas between structures such as Pillboxes, cubes etc were filled in with ditches, scarping, mined areas, barbed wire and sometimes field artillery and infantry units in prepared positions.
Anyway, enough preamble, on with the post.
The GE map shot of the area
Perry Street Lace Mill – where I parked the car
The whole Chard area was once dominated by Lace Mills. During the war production was unsettled with, among other war related items, parachute silk and mosquito nets being manufactured at Mills like this.
Just past the mill heading down Factory Lane towards the Creamery is this solitary AT cube opposite the sewage works. It’s presence probably explained by the roadblock M RD 46 of which there are no other remains. The curvature of the dismantled Chard branch line as it sweeps into Chard Junction to join the main line past the Creamery is to the north, clearly visible on GE.
M 31 – PB, Type 24
In Foxy’s terms of pillboxes assuming faces, I think this one looks like it’s about to cry. Given the condition of the inside it seems rather apt.
This surviving wood shuttering was a nice bonus though.
Just to the south of M 31, an impressive line of AT cubes on the railway embankment near the crook of the field adjacent and leading to a railblock M RL 24 which I haven’t got to yet. It may no longer exist.
Will leave it there for now. Thanks for looking in.
