7 SEAFLAME BARRAGE PUMP HOUSE

A building doesn’t need to be big to be interesting

I could not resist putting this tiny building onto my list because it would take no more than a few minutes to build. I ‘discovered’ it while on a job for Rail magazine, when I decided to visit the handsome Southern Railway Art Deco station at Bishopstone. This tiny brick structure near the station is all that remains of one of those novel Second World War weapons that you might expect to find mentioned in Dad’s Army, the Seaflame Barrage.

Intended for use in the event of invasion, the plan was to pump oil out into the sea through underwater pipes and ignite it, thus producing an impenetrable wall of fire that would engulf the invaders before they reached the beach. Its sensitive location overlooking the entrance to Newhaven harbour had already led to the recently built station at Bishopstone having two pillboxes on its roof.