Forum Topic

Chiswick and district WW2 defences.

Earlier this year I read a book, 'Culver Cliff and the Isle of Wight at War' that described the defences put along the coastline in some detail. Gun enplacements, radar stations pill boxes etc.This resulted in me walking in the area with a fresh pair of eyes noticing what still remains there.Today I was cycling under Barnes railway bridge and noticed for the first time a pill box set besides the line.They may not be as glamourous as a squadron of Spitfires but they are an important but neglected part of our history. The men that had to man them were very unlikely to survive an attack.Getting to the point I am wondering if anyone knows of other WW2 defences still remaining in the area.

Adrian Irving ● 2377d21 Comments

Years ago I read somewhere that the invasion defenses, the tunnels, pill boxes,tank traps and communications networks etc. that we built across the UK during WW2 were part of the biggest construction project that Europe had ever seen, bigger that the Atlantic Wall and whatever other schemes there have been during our long history.

Keith Iddon ● 2377d

Radio 4 this morning did a terrific montage of the BBC archive from VE day both in London and the Channel Islands a week later..  Worth a listen..42

Stuart Kerr ● 2377d

It’s a bit late now, but the used to be a pill box on the road bridge over Thames Road . It was demolished when they carried out extensive bridge works  some years ago, I wonder if there is still one on the other side of the river?

Bernard Allen ● 2376d

I have just realised it was Kew Railway Bridge.Too early in the morning, body awake but brain still in bed!

Adrian Irving ● 2376d

"used to be a pill box on the road bridge over Thames Road"If you meant the railway bridge, the pill box is still there. This view dates from July 2019: https://goo.gl/maps/iScM2abStcy1W7Du5.There's also a gun emplacement on the river upstream of Chiswick Pier on the edge of Dukes Meadows, with a good view down the river towards Hammersmith.  Photo by Uy Hoang at https://goo.gl/maps/PT6wm3rEBJREnFh17.

Richard Jennings ● 2376d

https://images.app.goo.gl/2D3R4tniTNZVNhB37An air-raid siren was located on top of a 30 foot post on the A316 near the junction with Edensor Road. It really did alert us local across Chiswick. I recall that therr was one of those blue Police Boxes next to it. On hearing the siren we would dive under Mum and Dad's Morrison Shelter in their bedroom or.... cross the road to a neighbours back garden and huddle in her Anderson Shelter and hope the bombs wouldn't fall near us...which on one night they did. 12 horses killed at the local United Dairies depot and 3/4 houses flattered in Wolseley Gardens and 5 residents killed. February 1944 was tough!

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

War damage can still seen on Kew Bridge. Shrapnel damage/marks from a small bomb that landed.Just to the left of the King Edward VII plaque.

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

Thank's chaps, all good stuff.Jim glad you survived those terrible years.The gun implacement at Dukes Meadows, off course!I always thought it was to do with the shipyard that was on or near there.There is a bigish lump of concrete just before the Barnes Rail Bridge which could be a mount for Spigot Mortar.Jim, do you remember where the public shelters where? I wonder if they were dug on the Greens.

Adrian Irving ● 2376d

Steve Alan on LBC mentioned Kew Bridge damage on his show last week

John Martin ● 2376d

I do remember the brick/concrete garage type structure on Thames Road outside the entrance to the Recreation Ground ...but in those days outside the rear entrance of RJ Parks the packers (wooden crates mainly).  The shelter was still there many years after the War.

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

Similar to the Thames Road shelter was one in the rear playground of Strand on the Green School. Never went in there!

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

There was a semi underground shelter on the Sports Field of Chiswick Grammar School... which in later years was used as an armory for the School's CCF Brigade.It was demolished in recent years.

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

I remember a few years back something about a map that showed all the sites where bombs dropped in London during WW2. Remember looking at it for Chiswick.Probably a bit of research could resurrect it.

Jeffrey Cope ● 2376d

There is beautiful thin blue book at Chiswick Reference Library Jeffrey...listing all the bombs..large and small that landed in Chiswick.It was produced by the local Civil Defence Organisation..and there are indexes too.I was able to confirm that that big bang in Wolseley Gardens was true and not my imagination. Heck I was lucky. They missed me!

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

Jim... Any memories of VE Day?

Stuart Kerr ● 2376d

I was resident in Stamford Brook from 1947 and later was told that debris from Chiswick Polytechnic landed locally when it was bombed by a V1 / V2 bomb during the war. Is this possible?

Jeffrey Cope ● 2376d

Relics of WW2  are the letters EWS painted on brick walls. EWS meant Emergency Water Supply and if you Google IMAGES... EWS Boston Manor you'll see a picture I took in recent times.There was a clear example in Hammersmith on the red wall of the old site of St Pauls SchoolWe also used to see barrage balloons high over the sky..towards Wormwood Scrums.

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

Hi Stuart. Yes I recall VE Day etc. There were street parties aplenty with flags and bunting galore. Wolseley Gardens had 2 such parties and I somehow went to the Whitehall Park Road one too. My Dad took me to the Victora Embankment to see the VE Parade..which included a Russian contingent.

Jim Lawes ● 2376d

Jeffrey, www.bombsite.org  shows a map indicating were bombs landed in the Blitz.It shows a HE bomb landing in Vaughan Ave which is, as you may know, near Stamford Brook.The map may be a bit iffy as it shows a bomb landing in Netheravon Road near the High Road.I am fairly sure that is not the case but I do know one landed in British Grove. It was a bomb sight well into the 1950's. This is not recorded on the map. May be the same bomb just misrecorded.

Adrian Irving ● 2376d

You can see a map showing bomb damage on one of the maps by Turnham Green Tube, under the railway bridge.

Lucy Chambers ● 2375d

he pillboxes were constructed as part of a number of 'stop-lines' which were built to slow a German airborne or armoured invasion force in June 1940. London had four defence lines - Wikipedia has an article about the Outer London Defence ring: The London Inner Keep, London Stop Line Inner (Line C), London Stop Line Central (Line B) and London Stop Line Outer (Line A)  The Pillbox Study Group  http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/uk-defence-locations/ has a map of the UK's 1940 stop-lines and a reference to a War Office file at the PRO in Kew.

David McLoughlin ● 2374d