The Pillbox's Progress

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   Text © Copyright May 2020, Anne Burgess; licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Licence.
Images also under a similar Creative Commons Licence.


The shore at Spey Bay is one of the largest shingle systems in Britain, and one of the most dynamic, being continually re-shaped by the sea.

During the Second World War, a line of defences was built along the low-lying shore of the North Sea to enable any attempts at invasion to be repelled. Since then, the movements of the shingle have dramatically altered the line, in some places destroying it altogether and in others piling up shingle high enough to cut off any sight of the sea from the line.

One particular pill box, just west of Kingston, is sited where the action of the waves has been at its most intense, and the progress of changes in the shingle can be easily seen relative to the pill box.

Geograph contributors have been sporadically photographing it since 2007.

10 October 2007 NJ3265 : Encroaching Shingle by Anne Burgess NJ3265 : Vanishing Defences by Anne Burgess
The entrance and one window of the pill box are partly obstructed by shingle.

25 January 2010 NJ3265 : Vanishing Defences by Anne Burgess
No great change since 2007.

18 January 2013 NJ3265 : Dynamic Shingle by Anne Burgess NJ3265 : Defences no more? by Anne Burgess
The shingle has engulfed the entrance and window.

11 February 2014 NJ3265 : Almost Gone! by Anne Burgess
The tank traps west of the pill box have almost completely disappeared beneath the shingle.

19 January 2015 NJ3265 : Still Just Visible by Anne Burgess NJ3265 : Last Corner by Anne Burgess
Not a lot of change since 2014.

1 May 2017 NJ3265 : Top of a Pill Box by Anne Burgess
About a foot of the top of the pill box has re-emerged.

20 September 2019 NJ3265 : Pillbox near Kingston by Alan Murray-Rust
The window opposite to the one seen in 2007 and 2010 has reappeared.

6 May 2020 NJ3265 : Reappearing Pill Box by Anne Burgess
The top couple of feet of the pill box have reappeared above the shingle.
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