In the anxious summer of 1940, as Britain braced itself against the threat of German invasion, Somerset’s countryside was transformed into a fortress. One of the most ambitious defensive schemes was the Taunton Stop Line, a west‑facing anti‑invasion barrier built between July and November 1940. Stretching for some fifty miles from the mouth of the River Brue to the River Axe in Devon, it was designed to slow enemy armour and infantry, forcing them to fight for every mile of ground.
The line followed natural features wherever possible: the River Parrett to Bridgwater, the Bridgwater to Taunton Canal, the old Chard Canal, and the Great Western Railway. South of Ilton it joined the Southern Railway and the River Axe, running into Devon. Along its length, engineers constructed an extraordinary array of defences: 233 pillboxes, 61 medium machine‑gun emplacements, 21 anti‑tank gun positions, 83 road blocks, 22 railway blocks, and 46 prepared demolitions. The anti‑tank obstacles included 24 miles of waterways, 7 miles of improved water barriers, 11 miles of ditches, and 8 miles of artificial obstacles such as concrete cubes and “dragon’s teeth.”
From autumn 1940, twelve locations were prepared for all‑round defence as ‘anti‑tank islands,’ strongpoints designed to resist encirclement and hold out even if the line was breached elsewhere. Nine of these were in Somerset, including Bridgwater, Durston, Creech St Michael, Wrantage and Crimson Hill, Ilton, Ilminster, Chard, and Forton with Perry Street. Ilminster’s designation as an anti‑tank island reflected its strategic position astride the A303, a natural invasion corridor. Here, pillboxes were sited to cover road junctions, while the Dillington Estate was lined with dragon’s teeth to block armoured vehicles. Bridges and railway cuttings were fortified, and the town itself became a defended hub within the wider line.
Although the feared invasion never came, Ilminster’s anti‑tank island left a lasting mark. Many of its pillboxes survive, hidden in hedgerows or standing sentinel beside quiet lanes. The dragon’s teeth at Dillington remain one of the most extensive surviving stretches of anti‑tank obstacles in Britain. For the traveller, encountering these relics is to step back into a moment when Somerset’s fields became a frontier, and when Ilminster itself was transformed into a fortress in the English countryside.
