Remnants of Home Front Defence from the Last War by John Powell
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'Today, as one walks along the pleasant stretches of Mumbles Hill or relaxes to view the grand sweep of Swansea Bay, Mumbles Roadstead and the Oystermouth scene below, wartime memories of military encampments, concrete pillar boxes, antiaircraft emplacements, minefields, barbed wire and the castellated pattern formed by large concrete blocks facing seawards, (a former anti-tank barrier in case of invasion), become happily blurred.'
'The Mumbles: Past and Present.' by Norman Lewis Thomas,Latest discovery posted by Stephen Evans, January 2023
Removing the scars of War from a South Wales Beauty Spot
Pneumatic drills are used to break up the concrete gun emplacements at Tutt Head, Mumbles, near Swansea. In the background is beautiful Limeslade Bay.
Photo: posted by Stephen Evans, January 2023,Hand Drawn Wartime Plan
of Tutt Head
They are probably demolishing the items marked PB, on the map below
The map Includes- Personnel Bunkers (BP) , Accommodation for a dozen WRNS (Signals Wrens), War Accommodation for Royal Artillery personnel who also served on the Lighthouse Island, Port War Signal Station (Peacetime Coastguard Station).
On 3rd September 1939, when the war finally arrived, villagers received it with mixed emotions. There was fear, truculence and bewilderment, but not much surprise. When children returned to school after the summer holidays, they had to learn Air Raid Drill and there were air raid warnings given by siren when enemy aircraft were sighted. Policemen and Air raid Wardens used to wear tin helmets and they enforced a ‘black out‘. This meant that anyone showing a chink of light through his or her curtains could be fined.
Mumbles Headland
There were posters and adverts telling them not to waste food, and not to talk as ‘Careless talk costs lives’ and ‘Walls have ears.’
Sixty years on, I often walk in the locality and am able to recall some of the remnants from the war which were everyday sights during my childhood, but which have mostly been cleared away and now remain only in my mind’s eye.
Many of these, I innocently played around as a young boy and years later, enthusiastically investigated as a discovering teenager, stimulated by walks and discussions with my Father and others who remembered the time when the defences were constructed and ‘occupied’.
ARP Warden with an ARP badge and whistle
Windows were covered with sticky tape in case a bomb blast smashed them. Air raid shelters were built, sometimes in the gardens and sometimes in fields or in the streets and everybody had to carry a gas mask in case of air attack.
People were exhorted to ‘Dug for Victory‘ by growing vegetables and allotments were set up everywhere. Compulsory food rationing was introduced with the issue of ration books, which enabled food to be distributed fairly. When they went into a shop they had to give a coupon as well as money and if they travelled for any reason they had to give their landlady or relative their relevant book to buy their food.
Air-raid Shelters at Norton
Castle Acre - air-raid shelters, dark and damp
Along with friends I used to play amongst these structures, but they were knocked down around 1950.
Bunker or Pillbox
The Mumbles Train passes under the bridge at Blackpill and the bunker alongside, c1950s
Blackpill – there was a pillbox next to the bridge carrying the LMS over the Mumbles Railway and the Mumbles Road on the shore and another on the seaward side of what is now the green area with a ‘Welcome to Mumbles’ sign.
Worth a look -
The Gower Stop Line > (From The Clyne Valley Community Project)
Lists the sites of many of the bunkers in the area, including the one at Blackpill and this one in the Clyne Valley.
One of several Bunkers in Clyne Valley, is now above the public footpath from Blackpill to Killay and The Station Inn. The footpath was the site of the LMS Railway line, from Victoria Station to Crew and beyond.
At Blackpill there was a pill-box near the garage, one of several along the shoreline.
As a war baby, I often walk in the locality and recall some of the remnants from the last war, which were everyday sights during my childhood, but which have mostly been cleared away and now remain only in my mind’s eye.
Anti-tank Blocks
This picture shows the Mumbles Train at West Cross, but you can also see, in the foreground, some of the anti-tank blocks, which extended intermittently along the shore, from Blackpill to Norton.
More - Wartime Anti-Tank Blocks >
with aerial photos -
Another carved tree found at Parc Le Breos
The nursing staff examine the bomb crater at Swansea General Hospital.
Underhill Park
Underhill park - An aerial view of the Fire-service emergency reservoir opposite Mumbles Baptist Church and on the lower right of the photo.
Oystermouth Schoolchildren in Underhill Park, 1952
Photo: Jeff Wastell
Jeff says: 'I only remember Carl Smith, who is on the right side of the photo, with the white hat and myself on left side, in the second row, fourth in, kneeling.'
Alan Davies remembered:a swimming gala held in the static water tank on VE Day.
Behind the hedge, there was static water tank, constructed during the war inside Underhill Park, near The Bapist Church, for the Auxiliary Fire Service.Fire Service.
Underhill park - The U.S. Army built three Huts at the park in 1943, which were used for a kitchen, dining room & showers. They were used postwar as changing rooms by the football, rugby and cricket clubs. The hut on left was basically unaltered, at least on the outside and later demolished. The right hand hut was replaced on the original base.
What was the middle hut in the photo below, was at the time still in use by Mumbles Rugby Club, after being substantially refurbished in 2007, thanks to a grant from Mumbles Community Council.
More: The Yanks in Mumbles from 1943 >
In November 1943, the 428th ECB arrived at Swansea and transfered to from the train to a fleet of double-deck buses. The buses carried the unit six miles to a small resort village with a quaint name Mumbles. The Companies were scattered at different locations around this village; Headquarters and a portion of "B" Company at Summerland, "A" Company at Newton, other elements of "B" at Singleton Park, and "C" Company at Caswell Bay Hotel.
During the first week of December, the entire Battalion moved to a new camp on the outskirts of Swansea Camp Manselton.
An extract from : Travels of the American 348th Engineer Combat Battalion: >
New Changing Rooms completed at Underhill Park
Full details of this development can be found at GO Underhill. Website - https://go-underhill.com
Go Underhill is a major plan by the community in the Mumbles area to transform Underhill Park, developing facilities which are fit for the modern day.
Coastal Guns of Mumbles Head >
were mounted in hardened shelters, and a house used as a ‘mess’ which features in a separate story on the website, entitled Mumbles Hill House
Anti-Aircraft gun emplacements, ruins of which, are still partly visible and shown below.
Control Bunker or Post
Upgraded 3.7 inch Gun Emplacement, 1944
In 1962, John Powell is shown sitting on the wall of a 3.7 inch Anti Aircraft emplacement, which was one of four constructed in 1940
Co-editors of 'A History of Mumbles'
Carol Powell (nee Symmons) age 19
The soldiers of the Royal Artillery manned an examination battery of two Quick Firing 4.7-inch guns, situated on the Fort adjacent to the lighthouse.
The two searchlight emplacements on Mumbles Lighthouse Island were positioned in front and lower down of the quick firing guns, so that they could sweep the surface of the water. The searchlight mechanism and lens were set within the building, behind a metal shield made up of a number of sliding steel shutters, and were powered by electricity generated in the engine room.
One of the searchlight emplacements, before Mumbles Lighthouse and Fort
The second Searchlight emplacement
Mumbles lighthouse and Fort - In addition to several hardened shelters, there were a clutch of buildings, variously used for defence and one or two of which still remain.
The inside of the engine house, which held the generators which powered the searchlights
Tutt Head - Magazine & huts, later used as housing, during the late forties and early fifties There were also two searchlight emplacements on Tutt, but these have been demolished and only the bases remain.
Other things I recall — taking a ration book with me, when I went to buy sweets, but I was just as surprised to recall that it seemed natural to do so, as I had not known any other way.
It has also taken many years for me to realise the stresses and strains, which must have been imposed on people—shortages, restrictions and no NHS, although because of the war, the State controlled every aspect of their lives.
My father used to enjoy taking us for a picnic on the outer reaches of Fairwood Airport before it was fenced and developed. He said this was where he served, but I did not realise that he was probably remembering his service there for a time in late 1943, when he was an RAF Aircraft fitter.
Langland Bay Headland – There were Gun emplacements, lookouts and, for several summers, a visiting D.U.K.W. (called a 'Duck') an amphibious truck, which gave us rides around the bay.
More: American DUKW Operation in Mumbles and Gower >
Newton Village Hall, Mumbles
Dedicated to the American Military who lived and trained in Mumbles, Caswell and surrounding areas