Spigot Mortar Emplacement
With the threat of invasion from the Germans in the 1930s, construction of organised defence mechanisms was needed. Chelmsford helped play its part and became recognised as an important town due to it's location and the road network across the River Chelmer, it was also essential to defending north east London from enemy attack.
Chelmsford formed part of the G.H.Qs anti tank line, there are lots of gun posts and infantry strong points dotted along the waterways, road and rail lines around the city.
Here is a recently cleared and fine example of spigot mortar emplacement, there were 2 within 100 meters of each other but I believe the second one is under the car park now. These were normally built fully sunk into the ground, this one is only partly sunk, providing a better range for firing.
The Blacker Bombard or Spigot Mortar were anti-tank weapons their rate of fire was 6-12 rounds per minute, these were intended for the home guards in case of invasion. Interestingly enough a lot were issued but only a very few if any saw action. Spigot mortars didn't have barrels, they had steel rods 'spigots' fixed to a baseplate. The bomb had a propellant charge in the tail. Once the bomb was pushed onto the spigot, the propellant charge kicked in blowing the bomb into the sky.
In order to claim this as a find please email me the answers to the questions below, please don't post these in your log.
1. What does the pedestal structure use?
2. What shape is the pit and what would it have been used for?
3. Why was the Spigot Mortar encampment only partially sunk and not fully sunk?
4. How many layers of bricks are visible today?
5. Although not a requirement it would be nice to see pictures of you visit, without giving anything away.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.