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Meine Herren,
after about four years on and off looking for it, I am pleased to announce that I have finally located a Spigot Mortar post that was rumoured to be in my area.
Having searched fruitlessly in the summer for it, I was shown the actual field it was in and couldn't see it because of the huge hedge surrounding the field that was the size of a Grand Naional fence!
So, went back t'other day having dropped someone off, managed to stand on the roadsign (Blackleach Lane) and looked over; lo and behold, there it was! A Spigot Mortar post!
We were told of it's existance by a member of the North West Lancs MVT who has a garage at Catford, near Inskip, about eight miles from where I live. His late father told him about it and it was common knowledge in the area apparently that the Home Guard manned the Spigot Mortar post; I think they were the Catford Home Guard, all are sadly dead now.
Anyway, in a great state of excitement (!), I hurried to the house adjacent to the field, knocked and middle aged middle class gent answered, explained my wierd interest in his concrete in his field. Did he know what it was? A machine gun post from the war he was told by people who he bought the field from.I corrected him, toldhim to look it up on internet, and whilst he did that, I leaped and squelched across his muddy field to said concrete...
having got tehre, spattered in mud ( I hadn't planned to go that day, so no wellies on ) I ascertained it was what I suspected... I was told when we were at Goathland by an NVT member who had seen it that the steel plintle was missing and it wan't up to much...not so. All tehre, just no concrete defensive surround, merely the concrete post and steel plinte.
Something else; I thought it was situated to cover the little service bridge that went over the Lancaster Canal. Not so; if it was, the pre-war cottages in the distance would have to have been demolished for it to have a clear line of fire and of any chance of hitting anything coming off the bridge at all! It does however, have a clear line of fire down the road; that's what it was for. And according to the MVT chap who told me about it, there was another Spigot Mortar post covering another road but this was destroyed when the M55 motorway was built in 1974. I will try and attach a photograph of it...Try being the word!
Let's see if I can follow Herr Brown's instructions...
E:\SpigotMortarpost,BlackleachLane,Catford,23.12.12.JPG
after about four years on and off looking for it, I am pleased to announce that I have finally located a Spigot Mortar post that was rumoured to be in my area.
Having searched fruitlessly in the summer for it, I was shown the actual field it was in and couldn't see it because of the huge hedge surrounding the field that was the size of a Grand Naional fence!
So, went back t'other day having dropped someone off, managed to stand on the roadsign (Blackleach Lane) and looked over; lo and behold, there it was! A Spigot Mortar post!
We were told of it's existance by a member of the North West Lancs MVT who has a garage at Catford, near Inskip, about eight miles from where I live. His late father told him about it and it was common knowledge in the area apparently that the Home Guard manned the Spigot Mortar post; I think they were the Catford Home Guard, all are sadly dead now.
Anyway, in a great state of excitement (!), I hurried to the house adjacent to the field, knocked and middle aged middle class gent answered, explained my wierd interest in his concrete in his field. Did he know what it was? A machine gun post from the war he was told by people who he bought the field from.I corrected him, toldhim to look it up on internet, and whilst he did that, I leaped and squelched across his muddy field to said concrete...
having got tehre, spattered in mud ( I hadn't planned to go that day, so no wellies on ) I ascertained it was what I suspected... I was told when we were at Goathland by an NVT member who had seen it that the steel plintle was missing and it wan't up to much...not so. All tehre, just no concrete defensive surround, merely the concrete post and steel plinte.
Something else; I thought it was situated to cover the little service bridge that went over the Lancaster Canal. Not so; if it was, the pre-war cottages in the distance would have to have been demolished for it to have a clear line of fire and of any chance of hitting anything coming off the bridge at all! It does however, have a clear line of fire down the road; that's what it was for. And according to the MVT chap who told me about it, there was another Spigot Mortar post covering another road but this was destroyed when the M55 motorway was built in 1974. I will try and attach a photograph of it...Try being the word!
Let's see if I can follow Herr Brown's instructions...
E:\SpigotMortarpost,BlackleachLane,Catford,23.12.12.JPG
