Any evidence of WW2 still exist in your town/village

[Flipatron]

I've just finished helping my son with a project on WW2. We decided to investigate the local history and the evidence remaining today. Turns out we have a few bomb craters around our local village (Alsager, Cheshire) which can still be seen. Amazing how much has been lost though, many local people we spoke to told us many stories of old pill boxes, air raid shelters etc, but very little is left now. Just wondering what evidence still remains around the country?

[anonymous-user]

On the playing fields of my old high school (in Cardiff) there were several shallow pits where I'm told there used to be Anderson shelters. Apart from that, not a great deal really.

[jmorgan]

WWII prisoner of war camp. And some unexploded munitions dug up the other day. Used to make the stuff around here. And a bunkers where it was stored. Couple of airfields.

[shouldbworking]

Where I used to live in surrey there was woodland where youd find large amounts of hollows which im told were bomb craters caused by returning bombers whod been unable to find their targets - they were apparently unable to land with the ordanance on board and so tried to drop it over apparently unpopulated areas.

Of course that was told to me by my dad, there may not be a grain of truth in it

[FourWheelDrift]

Did you see Time Team last Sunday, they were investigating the remains of the defences at Shooters Hill built as a line line defence to a German invasion.

Where I am there's nothing visible although a few years back a large amount of D Day munitions were dug up when they were building the new course at Woburn Golf club.

[AlexKP]

I have an old Andersen Shelter in my back garden. Others round here have full bunkers...

[puffpuff]

Flipatron said:

Just wondering what evidence still remains around the country?

Still lots of people around who lived through WW2 - do they count as evidence?

[ali_kat]

Coventry

[buggalugs]

Flipatron said:

I've just finished helping my son with a project on WW2. We decided to investigate the local history and the evidence remaining today. Turns out we have a few bomb craters around our local village (Alsager, Cheshire) which can still be seen. Amazing how much has been lost though, many local people we spoke to told us many stories of old pill boxes, air raid shelters etc, but very little is left now. Just wondering what evidence still remains around the country?

No way, where abouts in Alsager? Near the munutions factory by any chance The Wikipedia entry for the village is quite good BTW allthough no WWII stuff in it last time I read it.

[wooooody]

Near here is Prestwick airport - it still has the fuelling station and taxiways from the WW2 next to the current airport.

There are also a lot of late 1940ies prefabs (now with prorper brick cladding) in the town I grew up in that have Anderson shelters on top of the back gardens are sheds.

Edited by wooooody on Sunday 17th February 17:11

[Racingdude009]

We have a bomb shelter in our village which used to get used by the local kids for shooting up H.

[mouk786]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/36806...

That and the massive Hitler statue I have on my lawn.

[Blib]

We have an old Japanese chap living in the loft of our house. Has done since well before we bought the place. He refuses to come down

Edited by Blib on Sunday 17th February 17:17

[Eric Mc]

There are some pillboxes along the main London-Portsmouth/Southampton line here in Farnborough and Fleet. On of the pillboxes is in our local council allotment. Maybe we were worried about the Germans nicking our cabbages.

[Jimbeaux]

Eric Mc said:

There are some pillboxes along the main London-Portsmouth/Southampton line here in Farnborough and Fleet. On of the pillboxes is in our local council allotment. Maybe we were worried about the Germans nicking our cabbages.

I found a number of overgrown pillboxes while exploring around Essex (sp?)Logical I suppose, seeing the airbases still there.

[interloper]

At the Purley/Tilehurst end of the Oxford Road in Reading there is a Pill box in seemingly good condition. The machine gun slots face onto the road but the rest of the building is on British Rail (or what ever they're called these days) owned land so not much chance of getting inside for a nose around.

For anyone local and interested its about 10 yards passed the Roebuck Inn which is the old hotel next to the Peugeot garage, heading west out towards pangbourne.

[Driller]

In Bath next to the college in the centre there are a couple of buildings with shrapnel/bullet holes marked in the stone facing (at least that's what I heard it is)

[markmullen]

Where I surf at Cayton Bay, about 3 miles South of Scarborough on the East Coast there are a couple of pill boxes on the beach, apparently they used to be higher up on the coast but have slipped down as the coastline has changed shape.

Also going back to World War 1 Scarborough took a fair beating from the Germans including the castle being bombed by warships in the bay.

[glazbagun]

We've still got the concrete mounts for the AA guns near here, but little else. A couple of pillboxes down the coast filed with graffiti. Inverkeithing still has the dock that decommissioned HMS Nelson, Rodney and (I think) Renown, as well as RMS Olympic.

[Simpo Two]

There's some overlay (not sure of the technical term) on Google Earth which shows everything right down to lumps of concrete used as be tank obstacles. Unfortunately I can't remember how I found it!