More information : The Defence of Britain Database on line catalogue records a pillbox (ID S008352) in woodland to the east side of the former RAF Biggin Hill airfield, TQ 423 607. The pillbox was visited on 07-JUL-1997 and again on 28-SEP-1999 by a Defence of Britain project recorder, who described the pillbox as a "hexagonal machine-gun pillbox, which still has a few fittings for the machine guns". The recorder remarks that "the pillbox has a tree growing through the centre of it and (extraordinarily) appears to have been built around this tree, which grows from the earth floor and penetrates the concrete roof slabs". At the time that the record was accessed the web page included photographs of both the exterior and interior of the pillbox, on which the tree is clearly visible. The pillbox is said to have been built between 1940 and 1941. (1)
OS 1:10000 sheet TQ 46 SW does not depict the pillbox, but the reference to a wooded area to the east of the airfield correlates with the NGR supplied in source 1 above, it is labelled "Sow Wood". The pillbox is represented at roughly TQ 423 607 on the OS Landranger Number 177 1:50000 map for East London. (2-3) |