Help identifying a building

Peter, their idea of 'near Prestbury station is somewhat misleading. Pillbox, definitely not. The Ellastone one is S0000137 in the DoB and includes a couple of plan drawings. The Woodford one differs in that the "embrasure" is not as deep, the door access was down steps with a brick wall. I don't recall railway sleepers or anything about the ceiling

Still no nearer a positive ID yet it looks familiar.

Here we go.....internal photo of the building:



Thick timber ceiling, plan of airfield and some significant local landmarks (not to scale) painted on the wall.

Also note that the walls are concrete with rebar but the apperture is brick...was it in fact the same size as the one at Ellastone when originally built?

Thanks tigger.

The timber roof and sunken configuration smack, to me, of a defence post. Not a pillbox per se but a OP and command post. The ready use diagram painted on the wall showing the major points of the airfield would enable a field telephone connected commander to control his forces more easily. A sort of BHQ (was there a separate dedicated BHQ at Woodford.?)

I note that the structure is visible in GE 1945 (rollback) and post-war OS maps so it does appear that it was a WW2 structure.

PETERTHEEATER;88997 wrote:

Thanks tigger.

The timber roof and sunken configuration smack, to me, of a defence post. Not a pillbox per se but a OP and command post. The ready use diagram painted on the wall showing the major points of the airfield would enable a field telephone connected commander to control his forces more easily. A sort of BHQ (was there a separate dedicated BHQ at Woodford.?)

I note that the structure is visible in GE 1945 (rollback) and post-war OS maps so it does appear that it was a WW2 structure.

It was definitely WWII. The diagram plan on the wall shows distances to various points. Deliberately didn't memntion the BHQ idea as it could lead peoples thoughts.

Having taken a look at your BHQ website, I note that there was one at Woodford located adjacent to the hangars.

The location of this structure even with the embrasure being close to ground level still gives an excellent view across the airfield so I still reckon it was a command post of sorts.