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Forty Hill Box

petewilson

Member
HI All,

I don't know if its me or if  this Site is being sucked into a Black Hole.... ::)
But I can no longer find the Thread that features those two photographs I posted a while back of  Y48 Forty Hill, Enfield  ???

So again quickly between the "This page cannot be displayed" screens let's see if I can post this hi-res photo of the box!

Pete


Y48 Forty Hill, Enfleld (Hi-Res) (c1955).jpg

 

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  • Y48 Forty Hill, Enfleld (Hi-Res) (c1955)-Blowup.JPG
    Y48 Forty Hill, Enfleld (Hi-Res) (c1955)-Blowup.JPG
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That is an odd one. Looks as though it has been stripped back to concrete up to the level of the horizontal window bar, or painted darker down to that level.
 
A couple of approximate POV streetviews for the above photos --

Forty_Hill_Box-Y48-(c1955)-Pic2-ApproxPOV_Streetview.JPG

Forty_Hill_Box-Y48-(c1955)-Pic1-ApproxPOV_Streetview.JPG

Note that "The Goat" P.H. building (bit of a local landmark) visible in the first photo is still there, though now called the "Chimneys Lodge".

View of the box site --

Forty_Hill_Box-Y48-SiteStreetview.JPG

URL:  https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Russell+Road,+Forty+Hill,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.667024,-0.070268&spn=0.000013,0.008948&sll=51.628901,-0.056233&sspn=0.004515,0.010536&hnear=Russell+Rd&t=m&layer=c&cbll=51.667024,-0.070268&panoid=mOg1O-0-fQhPHWj2GPuZ_w&cbp=12,178.49,,0,1.12&z=17

The OS maps that show this box:

From 1935 (marked "P.C.B." at centre of map) --

Forty_Hill_Box-Y48-OS_MapExtract-(1935).JPG

From 1968-1971 --

Forty_Hill_Box-Y48-OS_MapExtract-(1968-1971).JPG

Oh, and here's what "The Goat" looked like circa 1930, shortly after the current version of the pub was built (a pub of that name's been there since 1721, but the current building dates to 1929) --

Y48-TheGoatPub-(c1930).jpg

The future Box Site is there in the foreground.
 
My God banzai...You almost gave me an heart attack this morning!  ;D
Went onto the Site and saw 5 "New" Police Box Photo Thread messages!!

Anyway here's the Hi-res version of the other photo for this box!

Personally I think this 1955 snap in time shows the box part way through it's colour scheme transition

Pete



Y48 Forty Hill, Enfleld 2 (HI-Res) (c1955).jpg
 
Sorry.  ;D

Here's a blowup of the newest hi-res shot --

Y48 Forty Hill, Enfleld 2 (Hi-Res) (c1955)-Blowup.JPG

It's definitely mid-painting, but it could just as well be the first painting after the war if it's closer to 1949-1951 (I've seen Frith dating that's even worse than that). A lot of other boxes show this kind of very pale colouring after the war from extreme fading and wear due to the poor maintenance from about 1939-1949 or so. Paint was considered a vital war material and pretty severely rationed even after the war from what I understand.

Or it could have just been stripped to the concrete before painting as Mark suggests. Regardless, looks like the top and front took priority as they already have a full coat on them. Based on the shade of grey, it still looks to be a medium-light blue, possibly a bit darker than the pre-war blue, but quite possibly the same. After all, the 'Genevieve' Box in 1953 looked to be relatively newly painted yet had about the same shade of blue as the 1938 colour 8mm footage of the Cambridge Park Road Box, which was only a couple years old at that point.

Going by the new Box colour compared to the top sign flood colour, it does seem a bit darker than the pre-war as they are almost the same shade here; however, the signs kind of look like they might be a bit faded as well - not the usual darker tone. If they haven't been replaced since before the war, then it wouldn't be an accurate gauge as they are also subject to fading, as we've seen elsewhere.

EDIT:

Then again, take a look at this desaturated version of the "Genevieve" capture --

Genevieve-1953-desaturated.jpg

Looks to be almost identical, right down to the only slightly darker signs. This suggests it might have looked about like this when fully painted --

Genevieve-1953.jpg

Here's the 1938 shot of the Cambridge Park Road Box for comparison --

Cambridge_Park_Road_Box-J11-(1938).jpg

Considering the faded condition of the film, it was quite possibly about the same colour.
 
If it had the artifacts in it like the b&w Pertwee serials so you could colorize it, you'd get a lot more detail.  The windows and roof are more visible than I realized.  Unfortunately police box blue and tree green/brown read about the same shade of grey.  :(
 
Angelus Lupus said:
Hiding? Or planing a surprise attack?  ;D
Perhaps it's just learning "How not to be seen"... and just needs more practice. ;) :D

petewilson said:
Another photo of  this box from about 1940...
It's hiding from those damn Nazi's behind the Wall !   ;D
Good thing for the photo, Pete. (As my daughter, the English Teacher, would say, you've left us with a dangling (misplaced) modifier: is the box hiding behind the wall... or are those Nazis hiding behind the wall? Thankfully your photo answers that for us. ;))

But this did bring a thought to me - a bit of a touchy subject, and I don't know if it's ever been discussed before (at least I couldn't locate a topic on it) - but are there any records reporting how many, and which Boxes (name or alphanumeric designation) were destroyed during the course of WWII?

Dino.
 
galacticprobe said:
But this did bring a thought to me - a bit of a touchy subject, and I don't know if it's ever been discussed before (at least I couldn't locate a topic on it) - but are there any records reporting how many, and which Boxes (name or alphanumeric designation) were destroyed during the course of WWII?

Dino.

A good question Dino...I've always wondered that....I come across a lot of bomb damaged WW2 Photo's in my ongoing search  But never of any Police Boxes...so far!
The authorities did go to a lot of trouble to protect the Police Boxes...Wall barricades, sandbags and even light deflectors on the lamp......

Pete

 
I had always wondered this as well. Such a list might really help pin down the origin dates for the Mark 4, as well as how many there may have been.

I'm sure records and lists were made at the time (and there is some mention of Box damage in some of the early war Station journals I've seen), but considering secrecy at the time, they may have not been preserved and/or never consolidated.

Mike might know, if anyone does. I think I even shot him a query along these lines a couple years ago, but never received a response.
 
Well we do know that P8 in Chiselhurst scored a direct hit from an incendiary device killing the poor copper inside.

Actually, it was Dino's question a couple of posts up that reminded me of this, and I thought i'd go back and see if a planned commemorative plaque was ever installed. I'm pleased to report that it was!

Thread here: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=4878.0

 
Y48
Box
A.R.W. Siren
22-Apr-1935
20-Jul-1970
Forty Hill, east side 30 yards north of Russell Road

District: Forty Hill
Subdivision: Enfield


1968 Looking from the North:

forty-hill-1968-png.png
 
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