tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post5372550393815121935..comments2024-03-25T15:10:13.792+00:00Comments on English Buildings: Ilminster, SomersetPhilip Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-88526956240150216582019-04-14T15:17:49.628+01:002019-04-14T15:17:49.628+01:00Interesting to reconsider these structures in the ...Interesting to reconsider these structures in the context of contemporary events (as your piece allows us to do); also to see this one, in the context of your blog, set alongside another polygonal gatehouse intended for more benign use, both now decomissioned or repurposed and melding into the landscape. Joe Treasurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452665782271458318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-14985856772139708952019-04-01T14:32:57.154+01:002019-04-01T14:32:57.154+01:00Hear!Hear! My brother and I also used to play in a...Hear!Hear! My brother and I also used to play in a local pill-box, until the floor became flooded and the debris dumped in it became too bulky. I believe that that one was to protect Birmingham Airport, but the growth of tall trees around it made it less formidable. One locally here used prodigal amounts of concrete and cheap brick - it must have been a boom time for the concrete and cheap brick suppliers, even if they didn't get paid straight away.There must be a big hole somewhere where they found all the sand and stuff needed, all at once, for the emergency. Please, no more wars if we can help it! Joseph Biddulph (Publisher)https://www.blogger.com/profile/08655472675410890012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-43417074621238303952019-04-01T11:58:01.637+01:002019-04-01T11:58:01.637+01:00I have to say the slots for firing from the pill b...I have to say the slots for firing from the pill box look rather small. I have read in the past that many of these structures were probably more dangerous to their intended users as they were to the enemy due to poor design and construction. As you say they were fortunately never put to the test and are now part of the nations military heritage extending back to iron-age hillforts. <br /><br />Even as a child in the 1960s WWII was present either as films on TV or as comic books set in WWII. Even mainstream comics had characters such as Capitan Hurricane still fighting the war.<br />Is it any wonder that some of the older generations look back nostalgically to the WWII as it was what they grew up with even if they were to young to experience it first hand.Stephen Barkernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-19119038751258580722019-04-01T07:49:00.713+01:002019-04-01T07:49:00.713+01:00Us kids used to play in the pillboxes along the Th...Us kids used to play in the pillboxes along the Thames south of Oxford in the 1950s, though we never stayed inside long because of the smell. <br />It is tempting to regard them as precursors to Brutalism but they were rarely even visible, being merged into hillsides or hedgerows or even disguised as summer houses or fisherman’s huts. There is a fascinating article on the subject here: http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/defence-articles/pillbox-camouflage/.<br />Chris Partridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14883064324795042491noreply@blogger.com