national express and gallaghers bordesley green

[Astoness]

hi folks i am starting this new thread for member CPDR (chris) who has recently taken over the over site and has just undercovered an old underground air raid shelter...i will copy and paste his posts and some photos he has taken and he has said he will try and get some better photos tomorrow...what a find chris..i would be tempted to save some of the things you have found because this is real history...

lyn

below is a post made by chris on another thread and the 2 photos he managed to take so far

I took a couple of pictures today but we will put some lights down tomorrow and better ones to catalogue it. Old bed frames and some fire fighting equipment from the 1940's looking at the dates. There are a couple of decent sized rooms, and I think the last few occupants Gallaghers and Birmingham+ Blackburn construction company used for storage. Looking at a couple of records that have survived my guess is that is was last used in 1964 so nobody has seen any of this for a very long time

 

[Vivienne14]

Looks very interesting.

Just checking if this is the site ? 51 Bordesley Green.

 

[Vivienne14]

J J Gallagher Ltd, Gallagher House, 51 Bordesley Green were at this address from at least 1985 until at least 1998.

Perhaps the licence was granted, if after Gallaghers, it was later used as a National Express depot.


Source : British Newspaper Archive

 

[Vivienne14]

Initial thoughts. When time permits, a few more details could help. How large is the shelter ? Where exactly on the site is it ?

Is it near to the school (Wyndcliffe Primary, formerly Little Green Lane School damaged by enemy action in 1941) next door and, if forming part of a larger facility, could it have been used by the school during WW2? Or..

Given it doesn't look like a domestic shelter attached to a house, but looks more industrial, was there commercial activity on this site during WW2 ? Or could it have been a large shelter for a number of local residents ?

 

[Vivienne14]

Is this the 'Blackburn' Company you referred to ?


Source: British Newspaper Archive

 

[pjmburns]

Looking at maps it appears to be housing not industrial.

1949 map

 

[pjmburns]

2003 plan of site

 

[Vivienne14]

Birmingham and Blackburn Construction were at Armoury Close from at least 1952 until 1970, when it was wound up.

Source: British Newspaper Archive

 

[Astoness]

thanks viv hopefully when chris has time he will come back to this thread and confirm a few things for us

 

[Vivienne14]

Yes Lyn. We need a bit more info about the position of the shelter from him to progress on this. Could be very interesting in terms of this type of shelter.

 

[CPDR]

After looking at some old maps. I think what we have is actually the remains of the last house to survive from Reading Terrace, I think they were old front to fronts. I am guessing from the maps the others were all destroyed but one survived and I think has then been used as a shelter perhaps for the remainder of the war. I have marked the location with an X.

 

[CPDR]

Birmingham and Blackburn Construction were at Armoury Close from at least 1952 until 1970, when it was wound up.

Source: British Newspaper Archive

I have some documents from this and Gallaghers after that. Before World War 2 it was James Cartland and Sons they opened a Brass Foundry as a sister site to the one at Constitution hill.