by gap74 » Tue Aug 29, 2006 10:54 pm
Aye, cheers for the pics G, I live fairly near the Blantyre one and have visited it fairly regularly for the last 20 years. I'm afraid it's been pretty badly vandalised in that time by the local youth of the nearby scheme in Blantyre (Coatshill, I think it's called).
I think it's condition might also be explained by the proximity to Redlees Quarry to the northwest of the site - although long abandoned and flooded (and now in use as a trout fishery!), the spoil from the quarry works was dumped on the site of the AA guns. Indeed, a large spoil heap on the west of the site partially covers at least one structure, the entrance to which is just about passable in the side of the hill.
A friend's grandfather was based there during the war, he says the camp was next to the road, although that appears to have been obscured by a long embankment built to landscape the area in the 80s.
It's also very much more overgrown than it was when I first knew the site, difficult to get pics of the place in summer, and the overall view of the site from the spoil heap is now blocked by trees.
Incidentally, are there any websites that explain what the general layout and function of the buildings in these places were? I'm particularly curious about the two buildings in Blantyre which are arranged into sort of numbered stalls.
Cheers,
Gary