Pillbox. The name, from the shape (often circular in plan and roughly suggesting a ships conning tower) for the German Ferro-concrete small battlefield-redoubts or forts, employed from the autumn of 1917 onwards to defend sections of the line in Flanders. Some of the larger were Quadragular in shape.

It seems that I’m not the only person who finds the pillbox interesting. There is a Pillbox Study Group and copious books on the subject. This photo essay dedicated to British pillboxes from the Second World War is rather good, and this website carries some beautiful images.

Pillboxes are poignant, evocative, deathly places. There is a new one at La Digue du Braek. Like the old house – Maison du pendu loon-plage – which I built last week, I hope that the structure echoes the spirit of this place in real life.

The gutted, roofless building that stands on the beach at La Digue du Braek looks to all intents and purposes like an abandoned house, but there is a more complicated mythology behind it.

There are a number of stories about the house. One especially poignant myth is that the house was being built in 1940 for a couple, but in May or June of that year the wife was killed during the Battle of Dunkirk. Her despairing widower then hanged himself at the house, which has stood empty ever since. The house is nicknamed the ‘hangman’, and amidst local legend that the place is haunted, a noose still hangs inside …

It would seem that the truth, however, is altogether more mundane … albeit still colourful. An old woman, Madame Dufour, was building the house but ran out of money, and it was never finished. In the years since she died, materials from the building – such as the roof – have been stolen, changing its appearance and adding to its ruined look. The building is sometimes referred to as the ‘house of madness’ on account of the belief that Madame Dufour was insane.

Maison du pendu loon-plage also featured in the 1986 movie, Le Passage, starring Alain Delon. Here is a clip from it – the house appears after around 25 seconds …

I spent a few hours today building a reproduction of the house, and it can now be seen at La Digue du Braek in Second Life. I hope that its presence there enriches the sim and deepens its connections with the real location …