The Gatehouse at Bond's Mill

I heard that the Canal Trust were launching this classic Grade 11 Listed building as another of their visitor centres on the Stroudwater Canal, and today was the last of the first Open Days. It was built in 1940 as part of the wartime defences around the canal area as the old mill complex had become an important wartime armaments factory.

Now the canal is awaiting the next stage of its restoration to link it to the national waterway network. I saw one of the Canal Trust's managers steering his small boat away from the bridge, probably the first boat to have used this section of the canal in many decades.

I walked down to the right of this picture through the gates to the Bond's Mill complex which is a thriving small industrial estate which I had no idea existed. I have added a general shot of part of the buildings close to where the river flows under the old mill. I must return and explore it again another time.

Here is some info about the canal trust.

...... and some history about the gatehouse:
This pillbox was constructed as part of a national defence programme in response to the threat of German invasion in 1940. Coastal defences (batteries, mines and barbed wire) were strengthened, and defensive lines stretching inland were created in order to slow down the progress of an invading force. The defensive lines, or stop lines, provided final defensive positions for London and the main industrial areas in England. General Headquarters (GHQ) Stop Line: Green (also known as The Bristol Outer Defence Line), was constructed in 1940 and protected Bristol and the port of Avonmouth from attacks from the east. Stop Line Green looped around Bristol and Bath from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset to Newnham in Gloucestershire, a distance of 90 miles with 18 miles of anti-tank ditch, approximately 370 pillboxes and 250 road blocks. The Stroudwater Navigation marks the most northerly point of the stop line and The Gatehouse is one of a number of pillboxes that lines the waterway.

The Gatehouse was constructed in 1940 along with 15 other pillboxes along the Stroudwater Navigation. It stands on the north bank of the canal, opposite Bond's Mill, which was the site of a key wartime "shadow" factory: Sperry's Gyroscope Company was established to supplement an existing operation at Brentford, Middlesex to avoid air attacks, and manufactured instruments for the aircraft industry. Another factory was located nearby, operating for the Hoffmann Manufacturing Company. Some time after the war the pillbox was adapted to a gatehouse for the mill and it contains the controls to operate the neighbouring bridge across the canal. The bridge was replaced in 1994 with the first composite plastic lift bridge to be built in the world for vehicular traffic. A number of modifications to The Gatehouse, including the insertion of new openings, took place in the C20, perhaps at the time it became a gatehouse. In the C21 it is in office use, and has been refurbished.