Godwin Gun Battery East Riding of Yorkshre

[Haselsh1]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49079522212_7b97f0c059_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hLZo3Q)Godwin Gun Battery Remains (https://flic.kr/p/2hLZo3Q) by Shaun Haselden (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156648964@N02/), on Flickr


https://live.staticflickr.com/1934/31726474558_6efd08399c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Qkyty3)Godwin Gun Battery Kilnsea (https://flic.kr/p/Qkyty3) by Shaun Haselden (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156648964@N02/), on Flickr


https://live.staticflickr.com/1965/31726466698_fb4264229c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Qkyrdw)Godwin Gun Battery Kilnsea (https://flic.kr/p/Qkyrdw) by Shaun Haselden (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156648964@N02/), on Flickr

The old concrete remains of Godwin Gun Battery on a beach in the East Riding of Yorkshire/ Photographs taken around 2007 - 2008 using Kodak Elitechrome EBX 100 film scanned using an Epson V700. Camera was a Nikon F5 with a Tamron 17mm wide angle.

[struth]

Great pics Shaun. very dramatic, as was both its life and ending alas, collapsing

[Lawrence001]

Beautiful photos. Just out of interest who was it built to defend us against?

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[struth]

Germans in ww1 initially I think.

[Lawrence001]

Typical shabby Nazi (well, German) trick, going round the side [emoji38]

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[Haselsh1]

There were two huge gun emplacements built close to each other, one on Spurn Point and this one a few miles north at Kilnsea. They were built to protect the Humber ports primarily Hull. Looking at Hull and Grimsby today one would wonder why they bothered. The destruction of the fishing industry in the 70's finished off their prominence in society and left them in a state similar to that of the UK's mining villages and towns. Sadly, politics played a major part in all of those decisions.

The Holderness Coast in Yorkshire is littered with WWII concrete remains most of which are scattered all over the beaches as this is the fastest eroding coastline in Europe which is leaving wreckage as it recedes. Great for me as a photographer.

[Landloper]

...They were built to protect the Humber ports primarily Hull. Looking at Hull and Grimsby today one would wonder why they bothered...'

Hull took substantial damage from the Luftwaffe during WW2, with something like 80-90% of the city's housing being damaged in air raids. Of those damaged I don't know how many were rendered uninhabitable, but around half the population of Hull were made homeless by German raiders during the war years. There must be a fair part of the place that had to be rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s.

[Lawrence001]

After I made my last post (which was referring to invasion) it occurred to me that there were a few naval bombardments of ports in WW1 I think, so at that time we weren't necessarily only protecting ourselves against landings. Improvements in air power by WW2 had pretty much rendered unprotected naval bombardments obsolete.

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[Lawrence001]

Actually not just ports but attacks on merchant ships and fishing fleets so batteries along the coast allowed them to seek shelter from roving German naval forces.

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[Haselsh1]

Mainly due to my photographing these places I know that a huge portion of the east coast of the UK is littered with small gun emplacements often known as pillboxes. The then government were so paranoid about the possibility of invasion by gliders and paratroopers that hundreds of the concrete bunkers were built so that UK home based units could just mow them down as they landed. They are really obvious on the flat coastal plains of Eats Anglia, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire with each area having it's own unique design.

Here's a Yorkshire one:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49078547031_4ca8a36d80_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hLUoan)WWII Pillbox Holderness Coast (https://flic.kr/p/2hLUoan) by Shaun Haselden (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156648964@N02/), on Flickr

An elongated hexagon with side entrance and door shelter. Lincolnshire ones tended to be a concrete rectangle of two chambers each end with a machine gun post in the centre open chamber.

Love this history from a photography point of view.

[Tim]

Wow Shaun, just wow

:thumbsup:

[Haselsh1]

Wow Shaun, just wow

:thumbsup:

Thanks Tim.

[JRead]

Hello Shaun,

Great images I really like the way you've guided our eyes with the afterwork.
I think the Pill Box one is very good as well, I like the reflection of it in the puddle.

Cheers - J