THREAD: Big thanks to our team of volunteers who did an amazing job cleaning the exterior of a pillbox today! It stands on private property and had not previously been recorded. #swwSussex 1/7 
Prior archive research gave us some good leads. A 1940 document told us this was pillbox GL6 on the WX-WZ Stop Line, with 6 Home Guards & 6 rifles. We also had a blank copy of orders, a copy of which would've been in this pillbox in 1940. "THIS POST WILL BE HELD TO THE LAST" 2/7
What the ancient texts did not tell us, however, was that the sacred pillbox had a guardian in feline form. Fortunately, Tiddles only cursed us by growling aggressively for half an hour as we discovered a secret stash of dead pigeons inside. 3/7
It took a few hours, but the thick vegetation began to fall away as the team slashed their way towards the pillbox. 4/7
Although this pillbox did not have a machine gun assigned to it, it was designed for the Bren gun to be mounted on its tripod. 5/7
The brick is red (lower) and brown (upper); see pillbox.org.uk/blog/250548/ for a similar case. A cement wash covers parts as camouflage; brown bricks have black paint traces, so was the wash green? If so, the loopholes were in light colour, not dark! 6/7
We cleared the exterior of vegetation and are very pleased with the result! On our next visit we'll clean the interior and record the pillbox for the local Historic Environment Record (HER). 7/7
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