Decades have passed, but even now, a Westfield pillbox is keeping local children safe. Local resident, George Williams, read with interest our story on a different Westfield pillbox recently, and told the The Journal about having lived with the WWII structure in his back garden for nearly sixty years.

George estimates that the pillbox would have been erected around 1943, during the Second World War. Many pillboxes were put up in this area to protect local industry, including printworks, Clark’s shoe factory and the railway.

The structure is roughly eighteen inches deep into the ground, with a small,

concealed doorway, while the walls are 42 inches of thick concrete, built to survive tank impact.

Mr Williams described a canopy, which extended out of the front by several feet, but was removed around 1946, as the location of the pillbox was blocking access to the back of the row of miners’ cottages on Westfield Terrace.

He and his wife bought the land from Wimpy in 1959, and the pillbox was listed as part of the property.

George admits that he has begun to use the pillbox less in recent years; mainly due to its inconvenient entrance, but he has found many uses for it during his time, setting up a workbench inside. He has also been known to use it as a potato store, as the structure is frost-proof. George sealed over the windows of the box, saying: “It’s as warm in here in winter as in the summer!”

Mr Williams has allowed the pillbox, which is located directly between the back of his house and his garden, to become overgrown by wild flowers and ivy, which helps decorate the structure and makes it look less imposing. In the winter, when the

flowers have died off, George trims off the foliage, leaving the pillbox looking like “a wicker basket.”

Due to the location of the pillbox, there is only about seven feet between the wall and George’s house, and it acts as traffic control for vehicles attempting to reach the back of the cottages, slowing cars down and enabling children to play safely.

A proud owner of the pillbox, George said: “Although the war was a little before my time, for the people who did go through it, local pillboxes are a good reminder of how life was like.”