Forum Topic

Pillbox / WW2 fortification on Emanuel Avenue

Dear allI know this is super-geeky and somewhat of "a niche interest" but am a proud member of the Pillbox Appreciation Society. Anyway - I recently spotted what I think is a former pillbox site on the corner of the passage between Emanuel Avenue and Friar Way. It looks like an ordinary  brick wall, and has an electricity substation behind it. But close inspection reveals it  has three concrete embrasures for firing weapons - presumably at Germans running up an down the street.Excitingly - when I shared my finding with the Society - my fellow pillbox fans say this may be an "unlisted" civil defence site, meaning that its not marked on any current records.Anyway  - before deciding to register it  - I wondered if anyone in Acton, knows anything about it or remembers it? All stories / info gratefully received!

Richard Grange ● 1732d22 Comments

We had three cinemas in Acton - the Odeon, The Globe/Gaumont (on site of the Oaks) and Granada (on site of the Arch Climbing Wall). The church was on the corner of Spencer Road and Churchfield Road.

Maria Pettit ● 1685d

Yes, it's fascinating... an Odeon cinema where Morrisons now is and a church on the corner of Myrtle and Churchfield (then called Churchfield Road West). Who knew...

Judi Rose ● 1686d

Oh gosh! The map is fascinating. Thank you so much for posting. I could spend ages looking at this. Tennis courts on Acacia road! Lots of other interesting things that are now gone eg. public loos in Springfield Gardens where children now ( and others)have to go in the bushes. Factories and shops where lots of blocks of flats have now been built.

Mrs.Kyria- Josephine Sewell ● 1688d

It's shown here on this 1954 map.https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=20&lat=51.51633&lon=-0.26186&layers=173&b=1

Vin Miles ● 1689d

The slots were no longer visible but the patches of rendering over them made it possible to spot where they are underneath.)However, my other half walks past it most days and says they have now been completely plastered over. So now it's just a curved wall at the end of the passageway. Good that Richard spotted its intriguing history before it became undetectable.

Judi Rose ● 1689d

Thanks so much for this thread. I live near the ex Wall's factory and as a result my house is shown in the picture from Britain From Above the year it was built. Hasn't changed much aside from the addition of garages and removal of a shed — I always thought there must have been a shed in the corner of the garden and there it was in the photo. Afraid I know nothing about the "pillbox" and in fact walk past it most days and had never  even noticed the slots. I would quite rightly be refused membership of the Pillbox Appreciation Society :)

Tania Bapuji ● 1689d

Hi Judi, Basic information comes from the census which can be found on a number of websites like FindMyPast or Ancestry. One needs a subscription. But I have found old editions of the Acton Gazette the most rewarding. These can be found on subscription site https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/and found this source particularly useful last year when I was researching Acton pubscheers Bob

Bob Surtees ● 1691d

Thank Bob, that's great research and info. How did you track down the occupants?

Judi Rose ● 1700d

Re the Cottage off Woodhurst Road, it was in place in 1890s as can be seen from this map on the NLS sitehttps://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17&lat=51.51208&lon=-0.26911&layers=168&right=OSAPIBut it was not there earlier on an 1874 OS map that I have seen, so probably dates from around late 1880s when Cumberland Road was under construction. It was close to The Lodge and not too far from Springfield House but as far as I can tell but not part of the grounds of either of those properties. In 1891 it was occupied by William Arthur Board, who was a solicitor with premises in King Street .By 1901 it was in possession of Edward Alfred Barton who was there till his death in late 1920s. It passed to the Spiritualists in 1929.  Always been curious but never been close, never sure whether one can accessBob

Bob Surtees ● 1705d

We did the same. Brilliant. Thanks again Richard. On the same walk we came across The Cottage on Woodhurst Road (now home of the Acton Spiritualist Centre) and wonder if anybody knows the history of the house and grounds. Was it perhaps a part of one of the old "grand houses" of Acton? Looking at the pic on Google maps it has an in interesting gable, unlike anything else in the immediate area.Any ideas?

Judi Rose ● 1707d

This is brilliant. Thank you for posting this message, Richard Grange. We went up to see it last night, amazing. I'm ashamed to say I have been cycling past this fortification for 27 years and never noticed it ! Needed you to point it out. If anyone following this post is not a member of Acton History group, please do consider joining. www.actonhistory.co.uk

Mrs.Kyria- Josephine Sewell ● 1708d

I love the BritainfromAbove archive - thanks so much for the recommendation.There are actually two photos of the Wall's factory - one from 1930s and one from 1946. So you can actually see a before and after of when the Pillbox was built.There are so many brilliant searchable online archives now for local history-anoraks like me. Try this, if you want to find out who from Acton was transported to Australia for their crimes.https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/History.jspOr this if you want to know about anything reported about Acton since the 18th centuryhttps://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/Would like to know if there are other recommendations!

Richard Grange ● 1725d

And apparently in 1968, the bones of a woolly mammoth were discoved under Myrtle and Chaucer Road. Who knew...

Judi Rose ● 1728d

The Britain from Above site was fascinating and led me to another interesting site that fellow local urban history enthusiasts might enjoy called Layers of London. Nothing on the Walls factory or pillbox that I could find, but lots of other interesting things, especially the origins of the various pubs of Acton, many of them now estate agents.  I learned that pubs were for public coroner's inquests, like one for murder at the Rocket (the inquest, not the murder.)https://www.layersoflondon.org

JA Rose ● 1728d

Maybe it was an early LTN installation before ANPR was invented? Were Julia Bell's ancestors involved with the council in those days?

Tony Bailey ● 1729d

Hi RichardThanks so much for this and the photo. I had heard that factories sometimes independently built their own defences and maybe this was an example. In this case, its proximity to the Westway might also have been a factor.I am pretty much 100 percent sure now it was a fortification. The thing that has swung it for me is the double lining of bricks inside the wall (for additional protection. But also the siting of the three concrete loopholes for firing weapons. If you walk towards them from any direction in the streets around, they point directly at you. It is quite disconcerting.I am also wondering from your photo whether there was a fortification on the north east corner of the site, albeit now disappeared. There looks to be a similar type of wall there, and the logic of having a defensive position there as well would make sense.Anyway - thanks again for your contribution to this detectives story. And any further information will be gratefully received.

Richard Grange ● 1731d

It's on the site of what used to be the Walls factory, I found this photo from 1947 on the Britain from Above website, it's worth registering as you can then zoom in on the photo.  It looks like Walls used the area to store all their scrap but it does also look like an enclosed building in that corner too and I may be wanting to see them but I could swear there are slits/loopholes in it.....https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw005402

Richard Wells ● 1731d

    😂

Rosco White ● 1732d

You must be over the moon Rosco!

Keith Iddon ● 1732d

I share your excitement, modern/ish history is so much more interesting.  👌

Rosco White ● 1732d

I share your excitement, modern/ish history is so much more interesting.  👌

Rosco White ● 1732d

I share your excitement, modern/ish history is so much more interesting.  👌

Rosco White ● 1732d