Show on map The 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.
 
Show on map I believe this is the control bunker for a Starfish decoy site from WW2, I suspect the area was a decoy for the nearby Marske aerodrome which was used during the war.
I’m sure it will be fully explained when the relevent volume of Defence of the UK by the North Yorkshire and Cleveland 20th Century Defence Study Group is published.
The pipe on the site is stamped with the name of the North Bitchburn Fireclay Company, which was apparently the brick making subsidiary of Pease & Partners who owned the nearby Upleatham ironstone mine.
UPDATE : As of August 2010 this site has been completely flattened and cleared by the farmer.
Show on map The two mounds carried 4.7″ Hotchkiss QF guns during WW1.
The mound closest to the river was re-used during WW2 when it held a BL 6″ Mk7.
An extensive battery covered the whole site, with much underground, but very little remains visible on the surface now.
Show on map These plinths would each hold a Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun, there are a total of four at the location 14ft apart.
Show on map The second mount for a 29mm Spigot Mortar that I located today.
I had previously misidentified something on the other side of the road as this several years ago.
 
Show on map This concrete base with its stainless steel pin would have been used to mount a anti-tank spigot mortar, also known as a “Blacker Bombard”
 
This one is almost buried by some recent work nearby, but the pin still looks almost new.
Show on map 
Some people say this is a First World War jetty, it may well have been reused / rebuilt then but the 1894 OS maps already shows a tramway running from the powder wharf in the direction of the gare, joining up with the tramway on which sail bogies were also known to run. This would tie in nicely with 1880’s submarine mine loading complex on the gare which presumably needed a supply of explosives.
   
The small inlet immediately to the south east is known as Powder Hole.
Show on map More from the archives.
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I’m struggling to find any reference to the origins of the naval mine that stands next to Saltburn Pier, presumably its from the war, but I don’t know which.
I do recall that from time to time munitions are washed up on Saltburn beach from wartime wrecks.
Show on map Its seems like an eternity since I posted any new pillboxes, so here’s one from Hummersea above Skinningrove
Its flooded inside, so no internal shots.
Show on map This painted sign has somehow survived 65 years and indicates the site of a likely still intact Second World War air raid shelter for 367 people.
