Recent Military Heritage

Anti-invasion

A Second World pillbox at Pawlett (Somerset), one of the defence areas where defence provision survives largely unaltered from that of 1940. (Photo: Roger J C Thomas). Anti-invasion defences are mostly those defence structures put in place to contain an expected invasion early in 1940-41. The whole country was defended to some extent, and many of these sites still survive. Initially these surviving sites were recorded as part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Defence of Britain Project . This project used volunteers to identify and record surviving structures across the UK. The results of this study can be consulted and searched online while the Project's final report can be at downloaded from the Britarch website.

Following completion of the Defence of Britain Project in 2002, and using the records it generated, English Heritage undertook a study of 'defence areas': those areas of England where the defence structures remain within a landscape largely unchanged since the defences were first put in place, typically in 1940-1. These places have particular relevance for understanding the logic of defence and its impact upon the pre-War landscape. This project is now complete, and the report is available at Historic Environment Record offices, and at the National Monuments Record. A book describing this project and its results is now available from the CBA Bookshop.