EVEN to this day, pillboxes are not marked on maps. The Home Guard didn’t need planning permission when they put them up in the Second World War, and the locations obviously had to be kept secret from the Nazis, so it is only local knowledge that locates them.

Memories 472 tried to tap into this local knowledge, although this article will self-destruct the second you have read it to prevent this valuable information falling into enemy hands.

There are at least four surviving pillboxes which guard strategically important entrances to Darlington.

The Northern Echo: One of the pillboxes that are situated on either side of Blackwell Bridge on the south of DarlingtonOne of the pillboxes that are situated on either side of Blackwell Bridge on the south of Darlington

There are boxes on either side of Blackwell Bridge, both on the southern bank of the Tees.

The downstream one is on a low-lying loop of the river as it flows towards the village of Stapleton. This is a prefabricated pillbox.

“It looks like it required a lot more assembly that your typical flat-pack furniture,” says a visitor. “The prefab panels effectively act as the formwork, which is infilled with massive amounts of concrete.”

Some inside walls have a rippled effect which suggests that the concrete was originally cast against a sheet of corrugated iron.

The upstream box is beneath Blackwell village. It is made of concrete blocks, and it hasn’t aged very well.

Presumably, these two boxes were to defend Blackwell Bridge, although neither of them is especially well sited for this purpose – you can’t see the bridge from the downstream box.

This stretch of the river had a third pillbox on it: we’ve received reports that there was one a little to the south of Broken Scar, although the last of its broken concrete remains were removed a few years ago.

The Northern Echo: A traditional North-East lozenge-shaped box still guarding Blands Corner in BlackwellA traditional North-East lozenge-shaped box still guarding Blands Corner in Blackwell

Just up from Blackwell Bridge is a third surviving pillbox. It is at Blands Corner on the A167, guarding the road from Northallerton. It is shaped like a lozenge, which was a design of pillbox only found in the North-East.

The Northern Echo: The Glebe Road box guards the main line. Picture courtesy of Hugh MortimerThe Glebe Road box guards the main line. Picture courtesy of Hugh Mortimer

The fourth survivor is also a lozenge: it is at the end of Glebe Road where a farmtrack takes walkers to Skerningham. It is next to the East Coast Main Line, which it was presumably guarding.

The Northern Echo: An evocative painting by John Young showing the Glebe Road pillbox, in Darlington, in the snowAn evocative painting by John Young showing the Glebe Road pillbox, in Darlington, in the snow

“I remember my dad once saying that as a Home Guard he and his group occasionally kept watch there,” says John Young. “He often said that their main contribution to the war effort was to capture the White Horse Hotel on cold nights - I think he was joking.”

Other pillboxes have not survived. People have dredged their memorybanks to suggest there was a box where Salters Lane North crossed the mainline, and until 1995, there was another on the Stockton & Darlington Railway trackbed at the back of the Red Hall estate.

The Northern Echo: The much visited remains of a pillbox lie on Cattersty Sands with Skinningrove jetty and cliffs in the background on the east Cleveland coast. The pillbox was originally built on the clifftop, looking out to sea, to guard the Skinningrove steelworks. Coastal erosion, though, has caused it to slide down to the beach over the last 80 yearsThe much visited remains of a pillbox lie on Cattersty Sands with Skinningrove jetty and cliffs in the background on the east Cleveland coast. The pillbox was originally built on the clifftop, looking out to sea, to guard the Skinningrove steelworks. Coastal erosion, though, has caused it to slide down to the beach over the last 80 years

There was another on the Black Path at Faverdale; another beside the Middlesbrough railway line behind Firth Moor; another beside the mainline on the Stivvies’ site off Wylam Avenue in Springfield (this was the HQ and shooting range of the Home Guard); and there may even have been one at Low Coniscliffe guarding the Merrybent railway bridge.

Are there any more pillboxes that you can tell us about from anywhere?

ONE night during the war, the brave boys of Darlington Home Guard were on manoeuvres in the Burtree Lane area. They were edgy – there was an alert on.

Suddenly, something moved in the darkness. A shot rang out; something fell. An enemy? An invader? A spy? A double-agent? No. A cow.

AN anonymous correspondent draws our attention to a pillbox built into the East Coast Main Line railway embankment at Dalton-on-Tees.

The box is to the north-east of Croft aerodrome (now the race circuit) and is accessible from a footpath.

“A large part of the box is brick-built, and is below ground,” says our informant. “Concrete steps lead to a passageway, off which there’s a small room and two fairly large rooms, none of which have any light holes.

“The second room leads up some steps to a cast concrete chamber, with its own access by a rung-ladder and a manhole from above. The concrete chamber is only partly below ground, and has 360 degree views, through a narrow slot.

“The narrowness of the slot restricts the view, and it doesn’t look much use for shooting out of either - I stand just over 6ft, and I still had to crane to see out of the slot. There must have been something inside to stand on.”

This is a fascinating box. We’d love more information about it. Could it be there was once something on top of it?