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PILLBOX AT NZ 3517552073

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1392382
Date first listed:: 08-Jan-2008
List Entry Name:: PILLBOX AT NZ 3517552073
Statutory Address:: PILLBOX AT NZ 3517552073

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1392382
Date first listed:: 08-Jan-2008
List Entry Name:: PILLBOX AT NZ 3517552073
Statutory Address 1:: PILLBOX AT NZ 3517552073

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: PILLBOX AT NZ 3517552073

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Sunderland (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: NZ 35175 52073

Reasons for Designation

* It is an example of a type of pillbox which is exclusively north eastern and is rare in a national context * It is situated on a defensive stop-line and has group value with an adjacent pillbox * It illustrates the strategic approach to anti-invasion defences in the hinterland of an important industrial town during the Second World War * It is a well-preserved example of its type whose form clearly illustrates its intended function.

Details

456/0/10004 Pillbox at NZ 3517552073 08-JAN-08

GV II Pillbox, one of a pair on an inland stop-line constructed in 1940-41 of reinforced concrete.

PLAN: an elongated hexagon with a main and rear front and a flat roof.

EXTERIOR: single storey and partly lying below ground level. The elongated front has a central machine gun embrasure flanked by single rifle embrasures with a single machine gun embrasure to each chamfered side. The rear front has a protected doorway with two rifle embrasures to one side and one to the other with a rifle and machine gun embrasure to each chamfered side.

INTERIOR: there is a thick detached concrete wall in a central position within the pillbox intended to prevent ricocheting bullets within the pillbox. Beneath each of the machine gun embrasures, there is a roughly square hole, which formerly contained the mounting for a supportive machines gun mount.

SUNSIDIARY FEATURES: a second pillbox lies c. 0.9km to the north and both examples lie on a former anti-invasion stop line.

HISTORY: from May 1940 to February 1942, inland defence hinged on the use of major anti-tank stop-lines intended to slow down an anticipated invasion from occupied France. Stop lines comprised a variety of defensive features including pillboxes, ditches and barbed wire. Pillboxes were usually built by local soldiers in various defensive locations and aimed to accommodate rifles or light machine guns and although the War Office issued twelve standard pillbox designs, in practice, many unofficial designs arose out of local considerations and preferences. The pillbox at Stony Gate is one of a pair, which survives on a stop line that ringed the city of Sunderland and aimed to protect the town's western hinterland in the event of an east coast invasion. Analysis of old mapping shows that the pillbox was located on a former enclosure boundary, now removed.

SOURCES: I Brown et al 20th Century Defences in Britain 1996; C S Dobinson 1996 Twentieth Century Fortifications in England Anti-invasion defences of WWII. CBA.

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: This Second World War pillbox is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is an example of a type of pillbox which is exclusively north eastern and is rare in a national context * It is situated on a defensive stop-line and has group value with an adjacent pillbox * It illustrates the strategic approach to anti-invasion defences in the hinterland of an important industrial town during the Second World War * It is a well-preserved example of its type whose form clearly illustrates its intended function. NZ3517552073

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 504124
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Brown, I et al, 20th Century Defences in Britain, (1996)
Dobinson, C S, Twentieth Century Fortifications in England, (1996)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.