Ixworth WW2 Defences

On my way up to Birmingham to meet up with my brother for our annual Somme March Trip, I stopped off at Ixworth, at the kind invitation of Steve Wilson, to view the remaining village WW2 defences. Steve has done an incredible amount of research on the Home Guard at Ixworth, you can see this on http://www.ixworthvillage.co.uk.

As Steve has told the story of the Ixworth Home Guard better than I can, this Post will just be some images of the remaining defences, of which I was extremely fortunate to be shown by Steve.

Above: Spigot mortar in a private garden, found by the owner with his lawn mower while cutting the rather overgrown grass having just moved into the house!!

Above: Spigot mortar on the High Street, now incorporated into a front garden flower bed.

Above: The most complete surviving Spigot mortar position in the village, again in private grounds. Although the most complete, not the most surprising survival which is next up:

Above: Top - a Spigot mortar hidden by a single skin blocked hole in the wall which could easily be knocked out. An observation hole looks down the street (would of obviously been easy to look through with the weapon-pit in place, although this has been infilled). An incredible surviving example of how it would have been attempted to hide these weapons in a built up environment.  Bottom image shows a loopholed wall in the same garden as the mortar (loopholes now infilled).

Above: Last three images show some of the concrete road block cylinders that can still be seen in the village. The bottom two are of a smaller size to the top image, while the middle cylinder has been made into a roller by adding links for a tractor three-point linkage.

I am extremely grateful to Steve for showing me around and to those landowners who gave permission to inspect the remaining defences on their property.

Next series of posts will be some of the highlights of the Somme trip.