Often while walking alongside the Thames you come across many of these Second World War built concrete guard posts-popularly known as Pill Boxes, but yesterday between Lechlade-on-Thames and Radcot, they literally seemed to be everywhere. I think I came across about 7 or even 8 just in that short 8 mile stretch.
The narrow slots in the concrete are of course gun slots through which to fire weapons. Thinking, however, about their supposed role in the second World war, it was so Dad’s Army it was untrue. They were supposed to be manned by the Home Guard, who for the most part were too old to fight, and which as everyone knows didn’t actually have enough guns in the first place to even train with, ( My Great Granddad served in the home guard and would typically use a broom to mimic a gun ), so the prospect of actually placing a gun inside each of these concrete bunkers was never going to happen. Still they stand today silhouetted magnificently against the skyline as a silent tribute to a different time.
colliding fragments 