The Art of Not Being Seen (2024)

As the fog of war descended over Europe in September 1939, two things became evident; the increasing need for aircraft, and the need to defend the sites where those aircraft were to be produced. One such location was Avro’s Woodford Aerodrome, six miles north of Macclesfield, Cheshire. The facility, closed in 2011, was responsible for the maufacture of more than 4,000 Lancaster bombers as well as vast numbers of Ansons during World War Two, before later producing the Shackleton, Vulcan and Nimrod as well as many other famous types.

The same ingenuity with which Avro created the 504, Anson and Lancaster was applied to the construction of pillboxes to defend the Cheshire airfield should Great Britain have been invaded. ‘Woodford Type’ pillboxes were built of local stone capped with a concrete slab roof. They would be hidden in woodland and beside bridges and roads where invading forces could easily advance past them, and even in garden walls. Their embrasures were often placed at ground level to aid concealment.