Several WWII defensive structures are visible at the crossing over the Stour at Pluck's Gutter on 1940s vertical aerial photographs [1-2].

Two circuits of barbed wire were used to construct a perimeter around the buildings (ferry house and public house) and bridge at Pluck's Gutter. Four pillboxes were built south of the river within the inner circuit; one on either side of the road (both Type 24) and one on either side of the bridge (both Type 22). The eastern roadside pillbox also had a short stretch of slit trench dug to its southern side. A further gun emplacement, defined by a circular embankment, was constructed 9m NNW of the western riverside pillbox. A temporary bridge was constructed over the river, also within the inner circuit, 90m east of the bridge. This was served by specially constructed roads branching off the main road, both appear to be under construction on photographs taken in September 1941 [1]. A roadblock was constructed 85m north of the outer circuit. An embanked slit-trench was sited 80m to the SE of the roadblock. Many of the defensive structures were removed soon after the end of the war; the bridge had been removed by April 1946 and the barbed wire encirclements also appear in the process of removal at this date [3] and most of the pillboxes by the 1960s [4]. None of the features are visible on modern aerial photography [5].

There were no prior records of any WWII features at or near this point and it possible that this complex of features functioned as an anti-invasion nodal point. Records of reminiscences from a local Home Guard member indicate that it was to be a main point of defence in the event of an invasion [6].

A transcription of the features recorded from aerial photography exists within a GIS layer held by this HER [7].

<5> Google Earth (Graphic material). SWX15704.

<6> BBC, 2003-2006, WW2 People's War, Article ID: A2605880 (Digital archive). SWX15708.

<7> Wessex Archaeology, 2009-10, South-East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - Aerial Photographic Transcriptions (Digital archive). SWX15705.

<7> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report (Unpublished document). SKE25955.

<7> Cornwall Council Historic Environment Projects and Gloucestershire County Council, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Components 1&2: Results of NMP Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE25954.