Donyatt Halt and the Taunton Stop Line

Tiny villages still dot the English landscape today, where it seems time has stood still, and the world has passed them by. One such is Donyatt in Somerset, near Chard. The earliest mention of it comes in 725, as Dunnyete, and again 361 years later in the Domesday Book of 1086. Its remoteness allowed it to avoid becoming embroiled in many of the upheavals which beset the country, such as the Wars of the Roses and the Civil War.

The war comes to Donyatt
However, that is not to say that nothing ever happened there. The railway arrived in 1866 followed by the building of Donyatt Halt station in 1928. Cottage industries flourished and a local pottery exported its wares across the country and even to America. Change eventually comes, even to the most remote locations, as Donyatt discovered during the Second World War when hundreds of thousands of children were evacuated from cities, including London. They were sent on trains to locations deemed to be safe from enemy bombing, including Donyatt, where one of the first evacuees was a young girl called Doreen Ash, who arrived on September 3rd, 1939, and went to live with Mr and Mrs Hutchings at Park Bungalow.
The town settled down into a routine until the middle of June 1940, when the Allies evacuated France and Belgium through Dunkirk, which would lead to the next major change as Britain braced itself for an invasion by the German army, and defences were hurriedly built along the coast. Further inland, a series of defensive lines known as ‘Stop Lines’, incorporating ditches, anti-tank obstacles and pillboxes, were built across lines of approach an enemy might use. In Wales, there was the Carmarthen Stop Line, while in Somerset, a stretch of line was codenamed Green, but more often referred to as the Taunton Stop Line. Emplacements were built to accommodate 370 light/medium machine guns and 21 anti-tank guns and included 12 strongpoints called ‘defensive islands’.
During the war, the Taunton Stop Line ran south from the River Parrett estuary, which opens out to the Bristol Channel near Highbridge, for approximately 50 miles down to Seaton in Devon, where the River Axe joins the English Channel. It consisted of hundreds of pillboxes, other emplacements, and obstacles (some sources claim as many as over a thousand), many of which can still be seen today. From serious military architecture enthusiasts to those interested in social changes made to the Home Front during the war, this stretch of the many defensive lines which once crisscrossed the country is a fascinating remnant to explore.
Even plain curiosity may cause people to embark on a journey of discovery. The town of Highbridge is a good place to begin, following the A38 south towards Bridgwater, then towards Taunton to link up with the A358 to Chard and Axminster. This route follows the general course of the Taunton Stop Line, which runs through Donyatt, where one of the best-preserved stretches of the Line is to be found.
As you enter the outskirts of the village, continue along the road until you see the church of The Blessed Virgin Mary on your left. Take the next turning left into Church Street and continue until you arrive at a bridge which crosses what was once the Chard Railway. The first thing which grabs the attention is a row of perfectly preserved anti-tank obstacles known as ‘dragon’s teeth’ or ‘pimples’. A small gate opens onto steps leading down to the platform of Donyatt Halt, where a life-size bronze statue of a young evacuee girl seated on a suitcase is to be seen. Although a memorial to all evacuees, this statue is seen by many to be that of Doreen Ash. Nearby is an information board with fragments of her wartime letters and her background story.

Discovering Donyatt’s defences
Another information board shows a route which visitors can walk to investigate this part of the Line, with details of the installations in the immediate vicinity and the purpose for which they were intended, including the dragon’s teeth which dot the embankment above the platform. The railway line was removed in 1966 but its route can still be walked to take in some of the defences, for example, the concrete blocks on either side of what was once the rail track. They were intended to serve as a vehicle barricade to prevent access along the line.
Walk back up to the bridge and, turning right, take in the terrain and what this section of the Line would have meant for an attacker. None of the Stop Lines were on the scale of the Maginot Line, but rather a delaying measure until stronger forces arrived. Even so, against a formidable attacking force, as the German army had demonstrated itself to be, these defences would have been rather puny and more of a nuisance, lacking any actual stopping capabilities, but better than nothing.
Continue up the road and on the right in the field is a lone pillbox, now covered in ivy and brambles. The track is lined by three more pillboxes, one of which housed a six-pounder anti-tank gun, and the others were machine gun positions. Some emplacements have been removed, such as the anti-tank obstacles, but plenty is left to make this site of defence well worth investigating. Working out how the weapons in the pillboxes would have engaged the enemy is a worthwhile exercise and time well spent.
Today, the village is again a quiet rural setting, but its history is remarkable. From here, it is about 18 miles further on to Seaton, still following the A358, where the Stop Line comes to a natural end on the south coast. Here, the odd pillbox in the middle of a field helps put everything into context to understand what measures were being taken during the war, when Britain stood alone. Now these curiosities are seen as valuable items in the nation’s wartime history.