Save our pillbox campaign in Devizes pays off (From This Is Wiltshire)

Save our pillbox campaign in Devizes pays off

7:00am Friday 16th July 2010

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The last Second World War pillbox in Devizes has been designated a listed building.

Devizes historian John Girvan heard this week that his 14-month campaign to get the building by the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath at Rotherstone listed had been successful.

A letter from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport told him the Secretary of State had given it Grade II status.

Mr Girvan said: “So many pillboxes are disappearing, a pillbox in London Road was demolished because it wasn’t listed. These were part of our strategic defences.

“I lived in Rotherstone when I was a boy and I and other children used to play in the pillbox.”

Mr Girvan first wrote to English Heritage and sent information and photos about the structure. He enquired several times about the progress and was told it was being considered.

The letter he received from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the shell-proof pillbox was built in late 1940 or early 1941. It is a hexagonal type 22, flat-roofed building forming part of the GHQ anti-tank stop line at the canal.

The pillbox, made from breeze block and reinforced concrete, is believed to have been built by local builders W E Chivers and was constructed to provide protection for a nearby bridge and attack from the north and west.

Reasons for its listing include that it is in good condition and forms an integral part of a crucial defensive stop line.

Pillboxes were built all over Britain during the war to defend against an anticipated German invasion.

The website Pillboxesuk .co.uk estimates that fewer than 6,000 of them remain out of 28,000.

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