Bulletproof and shellproof Pillboxes of Regular and Irregular Square or Rectangular Shape - Type 26

Although pillboxes in the group Type 26 follow similar guidelines, each individual pillbox is different.  This diversity can be seen by differences in wall thickness, the amount of rifle loops, the materials used for construction, camouflage and other modifications such as shutters and blast walls. The construction of pillboxes required a casing to allow the concrete to be poured and dried in shape, this process is known as shuttering. When built the concrete may be shuttered with wooden boards, corrugated iron sheets or bricks.  When shuttered with brick the shuttering was often left on the outside of the concrete casing, as it would have been inefficient to remove the mould.  This added an extra layer to the pillboxes created in this way, often making them appear as made from bricks alone.  

The Type 26 is a very simple bulletproof or shellproof pillbox built in a square shape.  Now commonly referred to as the Stent due to the frequent prefabrication of the Type 26 by a building firm of the same name.  Type 26 is a fairly common pillbox, although not as common as the types 22 and 24. Its popularity could be due to the fact that it was easily built from pre-fabricated sections.  The Stent usually had three or more loopholes, three on the main walls and often a fourth guarding the entrance.  Due to its shape the Type 26 could be easily disguised as an ordinary building and fairly often, fake gable-ends would have been added for this effect.  There are several examples of Type 26 pillboxes within Surrey (Historic Environment Record No. 6706) with around 199 left throughout Britain.




Click here to see an interactive map showing the location of pillboxes in Surrey.

Surrey's pillboxes are included in the county's Historic Environment Record (HER), click the link to see more information.

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