The GHQ Line (General Headquarters Line) is a 300 mile anti-tank defence built during World War II to contain the expected German invasion.
It used natural defences like the River Thames and the River Ock. But where there were no natural defences a trench was dug.
Every half mile there is Pillbox fort, like the one above overlooking the River Ock near the Ladygrove Estate – decorated with grafitti outside and in.
On the other side of the Ock a ditch was dug across the fields…
The ditch could not connect right up to the Ock or it would have changed the flow. And so there are about fifteen of these Concrete Dragons Teeth packed together as a defence between River and ditch. Only a few are visible through the reeds in recent years.
The area of the dragon’s teeth – within a curve of the River Ock – is just left to itself and the trees do their own thing,
creating strange sculptures out of themselves.
You can see a few of these structures on the Radley to Didcot train journey, usually along the edge of fields.
Those were to distract the enemy, Alan.
when i was a kid, that abandoned air raid shelter was THE place to find abandoned porn magazines for some reason…
..Interesting stuff, and terrifying to realise how little chance we would have had against the wermacht!
. don't understand the logic of the ditch joining Abingdon to Appleton!!
I removed Appleton as I was not sure of my logic either. I remember piles of burnt free newspapers when we used to go down that way. It was a way of finishing the round I suppose.
Fascinating bit of history …..