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'I couldn't play on beach because of landmines'

BBC Celia Henry stands with the estuary of the Wansbeck from Cambois beach behind her. She is an elderly woman wearing a brown fleece. The sky is full of pink and grey clouds.BBC
Celia Henry says they never played on the beach at Cambois during the war

A woman who lives in the village where she was born says she remembers the World War Two defences which recently emerged on a river bank.

Celia Henry, 83, from Cambois, Northumberland, recalls asking her mum why there was scaffolding on the beach and being told: "To stop the Germans."

The metal poles were spotted at the mouth of the Wansbeck after being hidden for many decades.

Historian Colin Durward, who runs Blyth Battery, a wartime site six miles (9.6km) further south, said he believed they were there to stop landing craft.

Mark Richardson A river estuary at low tide with poles sticking out of the mud and stand. In the distance you can see a boatyard .Mark Richardson
It is believed the poles were installed to rip the bottom out of any landing craft trying to come up the river

The Northumberland coast was heavily fortified in 1940 amid fears of a Nazi invasion.

Coastal erosion has accelerated in the last year because of high tides and winter storms, revealing a number of defences, like the poles and concrete tank traps.

The poles at Cambois are similar to ones spotted at Meggie's Burn in Blyth in 2021.

A row of metal poles can be seen emerging from the river bed across an entire estuary. On the opposite bank there are caravans.
The Northumberland coast was fortified after Dunkirk amid fears of a Nazi invasion

Mrs Henry also remembers the gun battery at Cambois, which she thinks was dismantled in the 1950s or 1960s.

"It was in the field opposite my house, and there were lots of soldiers," she said.

"After the war we used to play in the camp, there were Nissen huts there."

Celia Henry A grainy black and white image of Celia Henry taken when she was about 4 or 5. She is wearing a dress with a white collar Celia Henry
Celia Henry was just a young child during the war but says she has clear memories of the defences and the soldiers

The beach was out of bounds for many years to Mrs Henry.

"There were landmines on the beach and my Aunty Nolly saw three people blown up there, so we just played in the fields," she said.

"There was barbed wire everywhere, but in the years after the war they must have taken it all away."

Looking north up Cambois beach towards the Wansbeck estuary. The tide is quite far out and there is a lone man walking with his dog.
Big flat beaches like Cambois would have provided a perfect landing site for the Nazis

Mr Durward said Mrs Henry's memories confirmed his view the poles were there to help protect the battery.

"They would rip the bottom out of any landing craft trying to go up the Wansbeck," he said.

"The problem is, there is so little written down about exactly where the defences were."

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