About a year ago I noticed some interesting structures in a patch of scrub woodland which was being partly cleared. A closer investigation revealed a couple of semi-buried air raid shelters and a brick tower which presumably used to house a water tank or something. This year, with the ground quite clear and before the undergrowth began to smother everything I decided to have a closer look.
During WW2 there were 3 airfields on the Blackdown Hills at Dunkeswell, Smeatharpe and Culmhead and a number of encampments housing RAF and USAF personnel. This site was apparently attached to Culmhead and a visit to the Dunkeswell Airfield Heritage Museum revealed that this particular site housed sergeants and officer accommodation.
Looking around the site, there are 5 air raid shelters of the Stanton type, consisting of concrete sections covered by about a foot or more of earth. One end has a roof hatch presumably for emergency escape, the other has brickwork encasing the stairs down to the shelter. Apparently internal height was about 7 feet and the shelters are about 20feet long and 6 feet wide internally. As all the shelters had about 3 feet of water inside I dodn't attempt to enter them, also, according to a friend of the owner (who suggested I visit the museum), some of them are unsafe.
Four of the shelters are parallel to the adhacent road and the fifth perpendicular, the fifth one being at the end of the site identified as being for the NCOs. The brick tower which is approximately 20feet high and 5 feet square is roughly equidistant between shelters 5 and 3 (I numbered them from east to west) and apparently housed a water tank and boiler for the ablutions block. Talking to members of the Dunkeswell museum it seems that this part of the site was for officers with the NCOs to the west, no trace remaining of their camp. The remains of an enamelled concrete urinal trough can be found on what would have been the eastern edge of the site. There are no obvious remains of any huts or other structures, although these may be just buried under the woodland.
The atlantikwall.co.uk and southwestairfields.co.uk websites were very useful in finding out info on this site and the staff at Dunkeswell Airfield Heritage Museum were very helpful as well!
Pix: External view of Stanton shelter, flooding in stairwell, view down escape hatch showing flooding, water tower for ablutions block, remains of brickwork on corner of tower, view up inside of tower and externally, the urinal in the woods!
During WW2 there were 3 airfields on the Blackdown Hills at Dunkeswell, Smeatharpe and Culmhead and a number of encampments housing RAF and USAF personnel. This site was apparently attached to Culmhead and a visit to the Dunkeswell Airfield Heritage Museum revealed that this particular site housed sergeants and officer accommodation.
Looking around the site, there are 5 air raid shelters of the Stanton type, consisting of concrete sections covered by about a foot or more of earth. One end has a roof hatch presumably for emergency escape, the other has brickwork encasing the stairs down to the shelter. Apparently internal height was about 7 feet and the shelters are about 20feet long and 6 feet wide internally. As all the shelters had about 3 feet of water inside I dodn't attempt to enter them, also, according to a friend of the owner (who suggested I visit the museum), some of them are unsafe.
Four of the shelters are parallel to the adhacent road and the fifth perpendicular, the fifth one being at the end of the site identified as being for the NCOs. The brick tower which is approximately 20feet high and 5 feet square is roughly equidistant between shelters 5 and 3 (I numbered them from east to west) and apparently housed a water tank and boiler for the ablutions block. Talking to members of the Dunkeswell museum it seems that this part of the site was for officers with the NCOs to the west, no trace remaining of their camp. The remains of an enamelled concrete urinal trough can be found on what would have been the eastern edge of the site. There are no obvious remains of any huts or other structures, although these may be just buried under the woodland.
The atlantikwall.co.uk and southwestairfields.co.uk websites were very useful in finding out info on this site and the staff at Dunkeswell Airfield Heritage Museum were very helpful as well!
Pix: External view of Stanton shelter, flooding in stairwell, view down escape hatch showing flooding, water tower for ablutions block, remains of brickwork on corner of tower, view up inside of tower and externally, the urinal in the woods!
