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Paisley, Dykebar Hill

Anti Aircraft Battery (20th Century)

Site Name Paisley, Dykebar Hill

Classification Anti Aircraft Battery (20th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Gsg5; S5; Clyde Aa Defences; Dykebarhill

Canmore ID 107522

Site Number NS46SE 88

NGR NS 4985 6228

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/107522

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Renfrewshire
  • Parish Paisley (Renfrew)
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Renfrew
  • Former County Renfrewshire

Archaeology Notes

NS46SE 88 Centred 4985 6228

Situated on the summit of Dykebar Hill was a four emplacement heavy anti-aircraft battery. There may have been an extra two open emplacements and the accommodation camp was to the SE adjacent to the A726 public road.

Information from RCAHMS (DE) July 1997

This World War II heavy anti-aircraft battery is situated on Dykebar Hill to the rear of Glanapp Avenue.

Five earth mounds now cover the gun-emplacements and command post and part of the perimeter fence survives to mark the existance of the battery. No other remains could be seen on the date of visit.

The battery was armed with four 3.7-inch guns.

J Guy 2001; NMRS MS 810/11, Part 3, 194-5

Activities

Archaeological Evaluation (February 2004 - March 2004)

NS 499 622 (centre) An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in February and March 2004 on the site of proposed residential development. Specific targets were a medieval defensive work, 18th-century circular landscape features, the possible post-medieval or earlier Dykebarhill farmstead, and WW2 anti-aircraft defences.

The evaluation established that the summit of Dykebar Hill had recently been capped by a major dump of redeposited boulder clay, up to 3m thick, which would have buried the medieval earthwork. One of the circular landscape features was investigated, and shallow ditches and a revetting of loose fieldstone were found at locations on its perimeter. At the site of Dykebarhill farmstead, two phases of building remains were found. Evidence of WW2 defences was found in the form of an intact bunker-like structure, and the brick walls and concrete floors of other buildings.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: O'Brien Properties Ltd.

R Cachart 2004

Watching Brief (1 December 2009)

NS 4989 6225 (centred on) A watching brief was undertaken 1 December 2009 on the site of a residential development. The focus of the watching brief was the S side of a WW2 bunker which is located on the SW side of a WW2 antiaircraft battery. The bunker is situated on the N boundary of

the development area, near to the summit of Dykebar Hill. The bunker revetting/ramping material consisted of soil and rubble containing modern finds. The ramping material was machine cleared from the S face of the bunker and this revealed the outside (S face) of a brick blast wall on the E

side of the bunker. Part of the W side of the bunker remained masked by soil deposits that were left in situ. No finds or features pre-dating the construction of the WW2 bunker

were found.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: O’Brien Properties Ltd

Field Visit (22 June 2017)

Only a section of the security fence that once surrounded the gun emplacements and the command post, together with a short length of the wall of one of the gun-pits, can now be observed of this heavy anti-aircraft battery, which is situated in waste ground on the summit Dykebar Hill. It was one of at least 43 such batteries that were constructed to protect the industries in the centre of Glasgow and along the banks of the River Clyde from aerial attack by the Luftwaffe during WWII. However, the presence of the fence is an indication that it was later one of at least 78 heavy anti-aircraft gun emplacements that were deployed to counter the threat from the Soviet Union during the Cold War c.1950-56 (WO106/5912).

What remains of the gun-pit (NS 49857 62257) is situated about 50m SE, at the edge of the waste ground behind some recently built houses. It is represented by a 7m length of brick wall 0.35m thick and up to 0.92m high, which is eroding from the SE edge of the earth mound under which the rest of the structure is buried. Enough is revealed to indicate that it was polygonal on plan with ammunition lockers extending outwards from the blast wall.

The security fence-line (NS 49801 62283 to NS 49868 62340), which is marked out by square-sectioned, cast concrete posts, runs for a distance of 88m from SW to NE. There is one slight change of angle to the NNE, before it turns sharply ESE to run for another 3m about 7m SW of Glenapp Avenue.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AGCH) 22 June 2017.

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