Dummy pillbox is set up for the weekend at the Hellingly Festival of Transport! #swwSussex

The dummy pillbox has been test-built and is now on its way to the Festival of Transport showground at Hellingly for the weekend! #swwSussex

If you used to follow me in the other place, you'll know what this is - watch this space if you don't! #swwSussex

Afternoon at Bodiam Castle, grabbing a few pillbox measurements as part of a project I'm working on. Several people asked what I was doing, so I ended up doing some impromptu guided tours.

Also had a eureka moment that changes what we thought we knew about this pillbox! #swwSussex

I decided to open an impromptu museum to display the exhibit, with appropriate labelling... 4/4

It's an anchor pin for 'Z1 Scaffolding', assembled along low-lying beaches in the UK as an anti-tank obstacle from December 1940. Z1 stretched hundreds of miles at an enormous cost of steel and labour. 3/4

I found this steel pin on the beach near Tower 64 - but what is it? 2/4

Boxing day walk across The Crumbles, Pevensey Bay; then and now views of Martello Tower 64 in 1987 and 2024. #swwSussex 1/4

How was I able to get access? We were filming for 'Architecture the Railways Built' with @mrtimdunn.bsky.social - thanks to all for a fantastic day! Imagine visiting a bucket-list pillbox and having to keep quiet for 11 months until the programme was broadcast... 6/6 [Thread originally posted 2021]

Archive documents show that the pillbox was designed for the Vickers gun; one was mounted here in 1940. I had a feeling there were no gun platforms in the pillbox, so I had brought some buckets and a plank to improvise one! 5/6

Entry from the roof is through a small door at the eastern end. I was surprised to find that the 'two' pillboxes are actually a single structure connected by a tunnel! 4/6

The pillbox is only accessible via the roof, so scaffolding is required. Amazing to finally get close after longfully gazing up from ground level for years! 3/6

Opened in 1938, the station building stands above a railway cutting. It's not immediately obvious that the pillbox actually has four embrasures. I build a 3D model a few years ago to help interpret the layout and siting. 2/6

In 1940 Bishopstone Station had a pillbox built on its roof, cleverly camouflaged into the Art Deco architecture. In December 2020 I was granted access; read my blog for more detail! pillbox.org.uk/blog/251798/ #swwSussex
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I've lost the past year to my mental health and I haven't been active on social media for ages. As part of my rehabilitation, I intend to get out into the landscape and archives, the results of which I will be posting here! 6/6

I'm also one half of Sussex Military Research along with Stewart Angell. SMR promotes the study of Sussex's military history, including archaeological surveys and excavations. More on our website at: www.sussexMR.co.uk 3/6

Back in 2006, I began my 'Defence of East Sussex' project (www.pillbox.org.uk), which examines SWW military activity in the county. ['SWW'=Second World War - I prefer it to 'WW2']. I use archive documents with fieldwork and sometimes 3D models to analyse the militarised landscape. 2/6