Western Command Stop Line No 28 Project
In 1940, to protect against an assumed German invasion, a number of 'stop lines' were created on the orders of General Ironside to protect the country. In Herefordshire and Worcestershire these fell under Western Command and had responsibility for slowing the invasion from reaching the industrial heartland of the country around Birmingham and the Black country.
Western Command Stop Line No 28 based around the Teme river was one of 3 stop lines in Worcestershire, the others being structured around the rivers Severn and Avon. This is the smallest of the 3 stretching from Ludlow to where the river joins the Severn in Worcester. The map below shows the (approx) areas of records gathered as part of the defence of Britain project in the late 1990s. Each record includes the DoB reference number.
Its become a bit of an odd hobby investigating various sites and I've started to add them to a Google map in order to track them as I go along.
Most of these sites have long since been removed. Obviously anything weapons based has (or you'd hope so), active manned stop areas like that on the Little Hereford bridge have been cleared. One or two things hang on - I've found several sites of tank cylinders still in existence, a pillbox on a bridge (albeit bricked up) and there are several I need to check out. Pics are attached where possible in the map. I'll keep adding to it as I go along.
So far my own blogs on the subject;
Hunting Worcestershire’s forgotten WWII history
Hunting Worcestershire’s forgotten WWII history - quick follow up
Yet more on Worcestershire's forgotten WWII history
85 year old blocks of concrete in the Worcestershire countryside