Avonmouth HAA was built to defend the nearby docks from enemy attack, nearby is an important rail junction and a large tank farm (bulk fuel storage).

Sadly Avonmouth HAA is one of the most neglected sites in the Bristol area, the site is heavily overgrown and I only found three of the four gun emplacements.


Entrance to first gun emplacement, all of the emplacements are in a sorry state with the ammo lockers destroyed and most of them are full of rubble/rubbish.


Stood in one of the gun emplacements, remains of one of the brick lined ammo lockers, I've always thought since these lockers have thicker floors and walls that perhaps they were originally intended as use as a crew shelter? On the outside of the gun emplacements at Avonmouth are concrete or breeze block rooms roughly 10ft by 12ft that appear to be a later addition, quite possibly built as gun crew shelters?



Stood on the wall of a gun emplacement, the interior of the emplacement is to the right and straight ahead is the exterior room.



Door frame of gun emplacement exterior room.



Another gun emplacement exterior room.



This is the remains of the ammo magazine, building is on the left and corridor and blast wall is on the right. I know these magazines are normally in pairs but at Avonmouth this is all thats left, looking at aerial/birds eye pics of the site on LocalLive it does appear that there may have been two magazines originally but I can't be certain.



Ammo Store.







R/F or Predictor emplacement.





Sorry to report that the command post is in a real mess, roof is gone and its totally overgrown inside.



R/F or Predictor pit interior.



Bishop  

Ah. Under this bit I posted the wrong pic, instead of the magazine I posted a pic of the middle of gun emplacement 3 with a chunk of red brick from one of the ammo lockers.

b

It is surprising to see so much remaining in an area so close to a city. What is destined to happen to the land, redevelopment ?

Do you have any history of the site ?

I have managed to find a list of HAA sites around Bristol along with OS cooridinates;

B1    3     Gordano                      ST525747
B2    1     Portishead/Portbury      ST487767
B3    7     Rockingham Farm        ST523808
B4    5     Cribbs                         ST568809
B5    11   Brickfields                    ST634811
B6    13   Purdown                       ST613766
B7    17   Whitchurch                   ST604683
B8    19   Reservoir                     ST564695
B9    -     Avonmouth                   ST507778
B10  -     Almondsbury                 ST606833
-      9     Almondsbury                ST611833
B11  -     Hanbrook                     ST636786
B12  15   Hanham                       ST636715
B14  -     Blackboy                       ST636715
B15  -     -                                  ST567642
B17  14   Rodway                         ST666757
-      2     Lodge Farm                   ST440750
-      4     St. George's Wharf          ST501711
-      6     Westbury                      ST577774
-      8     Pilning                          ST550862
-      10   Earthcote                       ST637862
-      12   Henfield                         ST682790
-      16   Keynsham                      ST685655
-      18   Chew                             ST551627
-      20   Backwell                         ST504677

At some point in the near future there will be a map on the website showing all the
HAA sites in the UK.

Hey Ack Ack thanks for the OS coordinates for the Bristol sites that's very kind of you. A friend of mine has a copy of the Colin Dobinson book AA Command which
has all the grid refs at the back which I've copied.

The Avonmouth site I've posted pics of above is the Rockingham Farm HAA the other Avonmouth site at (B9) ST507778 is gone. The Rockingham Farm HAA and the Purdown site are listed (grade2 I think?).

I've visited a number of the other Bristol area HAA sites in the past couple of years and I've a fairly decent bunch of pics so I'll post up some info/snaps of some of the other sites when I can.

B

What a great surprise to see this site, which I presume id the one in Smoke Lane, Avonmouth. My father served there (as well as Portbury) during the war when was in 76th Regt HAA, 237 battery. I would be very interested to see if any of you members also served at the same places.
Although I do not have any photos of he UK site I do have some photos of the 301st Military Mission to Canada where they trained and also visited the US at Fort Monroe.
Thanks for making the photos available, really good to see them.
My father was William (Bill) Maule.

Best wishes
Andrew Maule

Would love to see your photos if possible.

Hello Andrew, wow that's absolutely fascinating to read that your father served at the Avonmouth - Rockingham Farm (Smoke Lane) HAA and the Portbury site. I'm presently working on a website with a friend about Bristol's anti aircraft defences and I'd love to see any photos you have the Canada/Fort Monroe photos you mention sound fascinating.

B

Here are some photos of the Ft Monroe (USA) and Petawawa (Ontario, Canada) 201st Military Mission, which was undertaken by members of 237/76th Anti Aircraft Regiment (1940/1941).

Hi everyone, Im new to the site and would like to say its brilliant! Ive always been interested in these HAA sites and have visite a few. Does the site at Hilperton Farm near Easton in Gordano still exist ?

I've just joined this site after stumbling across an AA site in Stoke Park, up by the GPO tower overlooking the M32.  I notice that it's not on the list you published...  Does it have  a different name, was it not 'Heavy' AA, or has it just been overlooked?

Its is known as the Purdown HAA site.
My Grandfather served there and at Avonmouth before going overseas.

Local legend told of a large gun at Purdown, nick named Purdown percy. It was infact a group of standard 3.7inch HAA guns that fired salvoes, this echoed in the valley below and gave the impression of a very large gun.
There is also a 40mm bofors pit just outside of the main site at Purdown.

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I was walking my dog up on Purdown today and randomly got chatting to a man who used to operate the guns during the war. He told me that Purdown Percy was in fact a 4.7" AA gun which was why it was so loud - all the other guns were 3.7", as you all know. I didn't really know what he was talking about at the time (I'm too young), although I had guessed that the ruins up there were some kind of emplacement. The wonders of the internet and dog-walking...