Monument record 4079/1 - Chester's Second World War Ground Defences

<1> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R & Morris M 19/12/2011 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

This monument appears to form part of a coherent and distinctive defensive system around the city of Chester possibly dating from the earlier period of the Second World War. The monument comprises defended points sited in proximity to several of the arterial roads into the city, of which at least six defence posts and two spigot mortar emplacements survive. Elements from two roadblocks also survive, although it is doubtful that they are entirely insitu. These sites are located in the rural periphery between 2km and 7km from the city centre.

The six defence posts have a square 6 inch/150mm thick concrete roof on brick pillars. They have a very low profile and seem to have open sides, rather than embrasures. They have an internal wall, presumably as protection for the rear of the structure where the entrance steps are located. There are similarities in both the construction and size with the Dover Quad pillbox (see 2). The spigot mortar emplacements include the thimble; the concrete mounting block.

The system does not appear to have been closely associated with other sites in the Chester area connected with the war effort; such Dale Barracks, Poulton Airfield and the fuel depot near Chester Zoo. One of the six defence posts is located 1km south-east of Saighton Camp, but this is likely to be coincidence. Neither do these features relate to the nearby Bromborough Pool defence area, which was built to defend the Birkenhead and Port Sunlight from enemy airborne troops landing at Hooton airfield (circa twelve kilometres to the north of Chester).

The only known true pillbox in the immediate vicinity of Chester is a type 24 sited beside the Dee estuary at Saltney (CHER 4079/1/5). This is the easternmost of a line of type 24 pillboxes built along the New Cut of the Dee estuary (most of which are in Wales). Of the circa eleven arterial routes into Chester, defensive features survive adjacent to seven of them. It is likely that other elements of the system have been destroyed, whilst others may yet be discovered.

There is no known documentation relating to these features and it is not known who was responsible for their construction (though most of the defence posts are visible on Luftwaffe aerial photographs taken on the 4th September 1940 (see 3)). However, spigot mortars were a Home Guard weapon, and given the simplicity of the defence posts, it is likely that the system was associated with the local Home Guard rather than the army. From 1907 Chester was home to the British Army’s Western Command HQ, which co-ordinated and controlled the army in the counties of Cumberland, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Cheshire, Gloucestershire and the Isle of Man. It is therefore reasonable to assume that at least part of the intention of this defensive ring was to protect Western Command HQ, the city and its population.

This monument represents the most recent expression of a long tradition of defensive works around Chester, commencing with the Roman fortress through to the Saxon Burgh, the Medieval city walls and the extensive Civil War defences, each of which reflected in their sighting, design and construction, the perceived military threats of the day.

<2> GeoInformation Group, 1940, Luftwaffe Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SCH5167.

<3> Osborne, M, 2008, Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland, p.176-180 (Book). SCH7504.