WW2 Pillbox Bunkers in Everton (Near Lymington)
Earlier this week I had an hour to kill as my son was in an after-school club in Lymington. I thought it was a great opportunity to look for some World War 2 heritage in the area so decided to take a 5-minute drive into the village of Everton.
I had heard there could possibly up to four Second World War pillboxes (or bunkers) in the area… all within about half of mile of each other.
On the day it was absolutely bucketing it down with rain. Not to be put off I pulled into a small lane and started walking towards the first location I had on GPS.
The first pillbox location was meant to be in a field on a main road. Soaking wet, I climbed up an embankment, squeezed through wet bushes, but had no luck in finding it all. I suspect my GPS co-ordinates might have been wrong, so will be going back soon – when I do, I will update this post.
Still not deterred, I drove half a mile down the road to the next location. I had to park up a small layby outside a house and cross a busy road to get into a small dirt track were the next two Everton pillboxes were meant to be.
I immediately saw the first one, and just had to walk through a ditch and some more wet bushes to get to it. You can see the full video of the Everton and Lymington World War 2 bunker in the video below – with the photos of my find lower down the page.
Note: I have also since learnt, that this pillbox could have been a Home Guard section post.
Photos of the Home Guard section post
As I approached the bunker, I could see an old bed outside, plus what looked like socks jammed into one of the gun slits – I assume to keep the cold out. It did make me think that someone was living in there, so I did the decent thing and called out a few times.
There was no reply, so I continued to explore the outside of the WW2 pillbox, taking photos as I went… before entering.
Inside the pillbox there were 8 to 9-gun slits, 5 of which pointed away from the road, but instead into a field. I am not sure why the majority of those gun slits pointed that way, and not towards the road.
As with any heritage like this, I left only my footprints.
There was a larger gun slit position too, I assume for a larger piece of weaponry, e.g. a machine gun.
Finding the additional pillboxes
I then went to locate the second pillbox in this location, but soon discovered that it was entirely covered in brambles and thick foliage. It was virtually impossible to see, so I decided to see if I could get a better view by walking along a fence by the field of cows.
Unfortunately, when the cows saw me, they started to run towards me. Whilst I wasn’t in their field, I didn’t want to cause them any distress, so decided to leave.
That means there are still 3 pillboxes I’ve yet to discover and document in the Everton area. Come back to this post in the next few weeks, as I intend to complete the mission when the weather gets a bit better.
