Bournemouth At War / TOWN DEFENCES Traditional Cache

Bournemouth has a great history. I have documented many famous people, major events and occurrences in previous geocaching series highlighting the history of Bournemouth. This series focuses on many of the key incidents and stories in the town when Bournemouth was at war. A complete list of all the caches in this series are bookmarked.

1940 was the first full year of WWII. Whilst much of the start of the war was about getting ready for what was to come, and to keep the community of Bournemouth safe, 1940 started coming under attack half way through the year.



Pillboxes and Dragon’s Teeth were built to strengthen the town’s defences. The position of this cache is metres away from one of a few pillboxes that remain today, although could easily be missed by passers by due to the foliage that has taken over and the inaccessibility to the pillbox, which is the other side of the chain linked fence, under the railway viaduct at the side of Gordon Road.

Possibly the best known pillbox was at Cemetery Junction. This had a wooden peaked roof and was painted to look like a summer house. It survived for many years, losing its roof, and was demolished when road improvements were made. Another pillbox in Southbourne Road by the railway bridge was also camouflaged as a summer house, whilst the “shops” at either end of Iford Bridge were in fact defence posts. But perhaps the cleverest piece of disguise was in Bournemouth Central Station. The pillbox was camouflaged to look like a well known high street bookstall, with books and magazines painted on it.

The “Dragon’s Teeth” were concrete cubes made of reinforced concrete with a pyramid top. Most of them have been removed but examples can still be found. Nearby to this cache, on the other side of the road, just past the bridge, is possibly the finest example of Dragon’s Teeth still in position today.