Cotswold Canals Trust,

Bell House, Wallbridge Lock, Stroud Gloucestershire, GL5 3JS, Tel: 01453 752 568

Registered Charity no.: 0269721

Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, HP5 1NZ

Registered in England no.: 01

Plans are underway to create a permanent historical  exhibition in the gun turret of the old pillbox, now known as the Gatehouse, that stands guard on the canal at Bond’s Mill.

The CCT are to engage with the Stonehouse History Group, The Museum in the Park, the Glos. Wildlife trust and other local groups and schools.  They aim to produce and promote study packs concerning all aspects of the canal - from wildlife to industrial uses as well as the World War II studies inspired by the Gatehouse pillbox.

It is also hoped that walks and talks along the canalside will be facilitated.

The Pillbox was built as part of a natioinal wartime  defence program of ‘stop lines’ which fortified ‘natural’ barriers to slow down enemy advances across the country. Stop line Green was built in 1940 to protect Bristol and the Port of Avon; its northern end included  this and 15 other pillboxes along the Stroudwater Navigation Canal.

The pill box is of an unusual design, having the gun turret on the roof, enabling it to fire over adjacent buildings as well as having some anti-aircraft capability.  Two factories were under it’s protection - Sperry's Gyroscope  and Hoffman Manufacturing.  These were ‘shadow’ factories of bigger, more centrally based concerns, intended to produce wartime munitions in the comparative safety of the countryside.

However, documents discovered soon after the war showed that the Germans had indeed planned an air strike on Stonehouse, and the Sperry factory in particular, in  the February  of 1943.  This  would have been devastating  for the whole area if it had taken place, but at that point Germany was having a hard time on the Russian front and happily for us the raid was cancelled.

After the war the pillbox was adapted to be a gatehouse for Bonds Mill and it contains the controls to operate the adjacent bridge across the canal.  In 1994 the bridge was replaced with a composite plastic lift bridge - the first in the world for vehicular traffic. A number of modifications  have since been made to The Gatehouse, and it now functions as office space.

We hope to have details of when the exhibition will open, in the next edition of ECN.