Show on mapThe area around Runswick has a number of wartime defences, as the break in the surrounding cliffs would have made a potential invasion point.
The pillbox is now on the beach due to erosion around its base.
 
There are a number of anti-tank cubes in the immediate vicinity next to the sailing club, which was once the area of a minefield.
 
My father Lt John B Sanderson built these beach defences in 1941 with his platoon of the Loyal Regiment. In 1940 my father had been posted on the cliffs of Dover where are use blown off his feet by a bomb and given a motorbike to go and pick up the downed pilots.In 1942 John sailed off to join the Sikh regiment in India and in 1944 joined 50th Indian para brigade who made a heroic stand on the hilltop on the Burmese-Indian border which held up the Japanese advance on Kohima and Imphal. My father was later a distinguished military attaché attached to the foreign office. His father was major Alex sanderson DSO MC bar the technical expert of the Australian mining coal and commander of the third Australian tunnelling company and an expert on teinforced concrete. His father was in charge of repairing damage to the London underground during the Blitz.
Chris – what is your area for searching pillboxes? I’ve used your website massively since August and found it extremely helpful location wise. I have a few pillboxes that I can’t find on your website so was wondering do you only stay quite local.