About me
I've been interested in all things military since a young age; following an expedition into my grandfather's shed in 1980 and emerging with his gas mask and Air Raid Warden's helmet, I was hooked. I've collected militaria ever since.
Living near the Sussex coast where, if you trip over one pillbox, you tend to fall on another, it's hard not to take an interest in coastal defence.
Although I've always had an interest in World War Two, my main fortification interest has hitherto been the South Coast Martello Towers.
Pillboxes have never been far from my thoughts though; in 1940, as in 1805, Martello Towers were again in the front line against a threatened invasion from the French coast, and several were refortified with concrete roofs.
My long-standing interest has always been simmering just below the surface, but what finally brought it out was my weblog.
I enjoy mountain biking around the Sussex countryside and, dusting off my copy of Henry Wills' 1985 book Pillboxes: a Study of U.K. Defences 1940 (complete with pencil ticks against pillboxes in his gazeteer I'd visited some years previously), began mentioning some of the pillboxes and roadblocks I came across in my blogs. It suddenly occurred to me that my blog was in danger of turning into an incomplete database of pillboxes and related defences, and that it would be better if I knocked up a purpose-built database for the job.
The result was the Concrete Evidence database that originally formed the core of this website. What turned my interest into a full-blown research project was the realisation that I could find out much more than was already known with a common-sense approach and a knowledge of ICT.
The latter is the most important tool of my research; I'm a professional web designer by trade and have been bashing away at the Internet since 1994, when I became addicted to it whilst undertaking a BA (Hons) in War Studies and History.
My other websites are:
- http://www.martello-towers.co.uk (The South Coast Martello Towers)
- http://www.nbcd.org.uk (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence and Air Raid Precautions/Civil Defence)