• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Air raid shelters

This is very similar to the shelter I remember on Kingstanding Road near the junction with Tresham Road. I remember it in the 1950s, by which time it was far from pristine and clean as in the photo. It also had the same fencing around it. Pretty insufficient to stop us kids investigating it. Presume it was filled in rather than demolished. Viv

84932F78-FCF4-4A0C-8841-E045DCE50187.jpeg
 
notice that henry manzoni was in that photo viv...was the shelter anywhere near here...be interesting to find out the exact spot although its obviously filled in now

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
This snippet mentions various types of public shelter including ‘Stent’ of ready cast concrete and steel lined trenches. Interesting that a decontamination facility was being built, so there must have been concerns about gas attacks well before war started. Viv.

1DA6F65F-AC36-4786-8A38-9FE2998C7B10.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
I noticed the Oxygen Street name which I had never heard of but I see there is a thread on it - apparently it was in Aston but no longer exists.
 
These bricks were ready for building a surface shelter in St Phillip’s churchyard. Did department stores such as Lewis’s and Greys in the vicinity use their basements as public shelters ? Viv.

AB4626C1-4A5C-4AAE-95C0-D764FDA38DF9.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
Yes, I remember an air raid warning given over the public address system, at Greys, which advised shoppers to go to the basements. It also occurred in Lewis's
 
Radiorails said:
Yes, I remember an air raid warning given over the public address system, at Greys, which advised shoppers to go to the basements. It also occurred in Lewis's
Click to expand...
Vivienne14 said:
These bricks were ready for building a surface shelter in St Phillip’s churchyard. Did department stores such as Lewis’s and Greys in the vicinity use their basements as public shelters ? Viv.

View attachment 161561
Source: British Newspaper Archive
Click to expand...
I had an older friend who was around during the war who told me that there was some kind of ambulance station underneath Lewis's?
 
Alan - makes sense, the basem3nts must have been huge.

Tinpot. That sounds quite possible as I remember posting something on the Lewis’s thread about it being used to provide a temporary ward in wartime. Viv
 
The demolition of one building Brummies would have been happy to see the back of. I wondered if this was the one being built in post #549 five years earlier.
Viv.

3FC25C9A-F5A9-4E63-A9F1-07795F3932C8.jpeg
 
Vivienne14 said:
The demolition of one building Brummies would have been happy to see the back of. I wondered if this was the one being built in post #549 five years earlier.
Viv.

View attachment 162928
Click to expand...
Ah! Those were the days when demo was done without the worry of Health and Safety, just an old Ruston Bucyrus 22 or 33 with a heavy iron ball swinging from a chain and not a hard hat or piece of Harass fencing in site. Memories
Bob
 
Does anyone know of any lists of the whereabouts of public air raid shelters? I am attempting to discover more about a husband and wife who lived in Stechford area and were killed in a raid on 10 April 1941. The place where they died is given as Public Works Depot, King’s Road.
 
Eric said:
Does anyone know of any lists of the whereabouts of public air raid shelters? I am attempting to discover more about a husband and wife who lived in Stechford area and were killed in a raid on 10 April 1941. The place where they died is given as Public Works Depot, King’s Road.
Click to expand...
The place where they are recorded as having died may not be where they were sheltering. I have four relatives who died in an air raid, two were shown as having died at what I assume was their address, one was recorded as having died at an address which would have been across the road and another was recorded as having died at the nearby public baths which I presume was being used as a first aid post.
 
I don't think this was necessarily a public shelter. People were allowed if necesary to shelter in private ones. In this case it would appear that it was in the Corporation yard shown in the centre of this 1951 map on Kings Road

map c1951 showing corporation yard Kings Road Tyseley.jpg
 
They seem to be the only 2 people killed or injured at that address. This, to me, makes it unlikely to have been a public shelter.
Their names are on the Tree of Life memorial.
 
The couple’s home address was in Stechford. I believe their daughters were with them at the time of the raid and one hospitalised. I alerted grandson to the memorial. Thank you for your help.
 
eric if you can give me the names of the people that died i think i can post you a photo of their names on the tree of life memorial

lyn
 
That’s kind of you but I let the grandson know and he went and found their names yesterday (Wynne). He has walked past the memorial many times without realising they are remembered there. The slight mystery now is why they were a good long walk away from their home at night at the time of the raid (especially after the heavy raids the previous night).
 
oh thats great then eric...i also have 2 rellies names on the memorial when their house in minstead road erdington took a direct hit...yes i guess that is a mystery but it could be they were visiting someone or on their way home from a cinema when a raid took place and they had to take cover....either way a sad loss

lyn
 
At the very beginning of 1939, Manzoni was advertising in the Birmingham Gazette for engineers to survey buildings whose basements could be made to serve as air raid shelters.

Viv.35A0D62C-F470-4091-9752-B31F5AE9903F.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
Not too sure what to make of this structure at the Longbridge works. It says that sand will be shovelled over the roof. Is that It? Nothing else ? Hopefully it did what it claims to have been able to do. Viv.

8BB3548B-25C8-4D9E-8E06-03510C36BDEF.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
Vivienne14 said:
Not too sure what to make of this structure at the Longbridge works. It says that sand will be shovelled over the roof. Is that It? Nothing else ? Hopefully it did what it claims to have been able to do. Viv.


Source: British Newspaper Archive
Click to expand...
i looked a few times. there has to be some kind of roof to hold the sand.prob that is what the timber is for on the lft side.
 
Must be Pete. I thought the wood at the side was supporting the side, but looking closer yes it looks like it’s just resting there. Interesting that the shelter was carved out of an old sandpit. Viv.
 
i recall going down a shelter in the grounds of my dad works in nechells it was concrete section bolted together like the london tube.
 
Last edited:
Vivienne14 said:
Must be Pete. I thought the wood at the side was supporting the side, but looking closer yes it looks like it’s just resting there. Interesting that the shelter was carved out of an old sandpit. Viv.
Click to expand...
wonder if that is just the front of the shelter it does say 400 ft.the rest might have been coverd in soil. dont think we will ever know Viv.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top