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Air raid shelters

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A photograph of a Morrison shelter in a room setting, showing how such a shelter could be used as a table during the day and as a bed at night. The table cloth is partly pulled back to reveal the sleeping area.
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© IWM D 2053
 
paul stacey said:
Sounds like a WW1. ex service man Morturn, so many were like that!!
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Paul, absolutely spot on there! He was a WWI pilot and engineer. With flying still in its infancy he apparently had seen a lot of dreadful accidents.

He had a scar across the top of his head from where a propeller had hit him while starting the engine. He said the following week, a you lad did the same and was killed.
 
sorry if if this has been posted i looked but could not see it
www.iwm.org.uk

What To Do During An Air Raid

The National Health Service was introduced in 1948, giving free healthcare to all. The Family Allowance was established and secondary schools were available for all children over 11. However, there was still great austerity.
www.iwm.org.uk www.iwm.org.uk
 
Morturn said:
There were some people who thought they were safer in the house. My grandfather was one. They had a bomb hit their back garden in Hermitage Road and blow the next-door neighbour garden shed to bits. There were bits of the shed all over the roofs of the terraced houses and it left a significant crater in the garden. The soil was four feet high up the back door.

My grandfather did not even bother getting out of bed. My dad said he just said **** Hitler and **** the Germans, rolled over and went back to sleep.
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Much like my parents. We used to shelter in the cellars of the Clifton Cinema in Great Barr, as Dad was the manager. Mom got fed up with it and said she would stay in the house in her own bed and just risk it.
 
Vivienne14 said:
I’ve given this some thought about the panels we had in our garden. I have a feeling they were never assembled. They didn’t look like they’d been dug/sunken into the ground and I certainly don’t remember one assembled. They weren’t shiny just very rusted. They’d been stacked together against the coal shed and it was only when they were moved that I took any notice. My dad bought the house after the War so the previous owners must have taken delivery of them and not assembled the parts. So where did they go for protection ? Under the stairs? Maybe they preferred the public shelters - there were many in Kingstanding. Viv.
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They can still be made out, can't they Viv? As a child, I used to always try to spot them, they were often on dual carriageways or near shops/flats. Here is one below in Wolverhampton, I know there is one near Kingstanding Circle on the Kingstanding Road near the police station, another further on, at the left near the junction of Sutton Oak Road and Bakers Lane and one in the central reservation on College Road, just before the traffic lights with the Chester Road, near the Beggars Bush.
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Yes John we had one on the Kingstanding Road reservation near the junction with Tresham Road. The entrance was still visible in the 1950s - fenced off and went deep under the reservation. Not sure if Kingstanding Road at that point was a dual carriageway during WW2. Probably not. Viv.
 
After one night of bombing myself and my brother walked up to see the damage, they had obviously been aiming for Kingstanding Road, fortunately they missed the road and the houses but there were bomb craters in many of the front gardens
 
John L said:
They can still be made out, can't they Viv? As a child, I used to always try to spot them, they were often on dual carriageways or near shops/flats. Here is one below in Wolverhampton, I know there is one near Kingstanding Circle on the Kingstanding Road near the police station, another further on, at the left near the junction of Sutton Oak Road and Bakers Lane and one in the central reservation on College Road, just before the traffic lights with the Chester Road, near the Beggars Bush.
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As far as I can remember there were two on central reservation of the Kingstanding Road by the junction with Goodway Road.
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Not sure if I've said this before but I'm pretty sure there were still underground shelters in Perry Barr where the Walsall Road ends, just past the River Tame by where the Greyhound Track land used to be - that was before the road was widened.
I used to walk past them on my way to Birchfield Road school in the mid 50's.
 
Vivienne14 said:
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
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You are definitely right Viv the basement is huge, I work there. We have 2 levels, basement and sub basement which are both used as a carpark nowadays. There is a tunnel from the sub basement carpark which links with The Square shopping centre. It looks like an old shelter but not certain if it was ever used as one.
 
Janet Hunt said:
You are definitely right Viv the basement is huge, I work there. We have 2 levels, basement and sub basement which are both used as a carpark nowadays. There is a tunnel from the sub basement carpark which links with The Square shopping centre. It looks like an old shelter but not certain if it was ever used as one.
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Found out a little more about the role of the Lewis building during the WW2. We have two tunnels in the lower basement neither was used as an air raid shelter. The one used to be the old exit from the carpark. The other was the old rail line that come in with coal to stoke the old gas boilers. The lower basement was used during the war as a hospital, so I guess it was a shelter of sorts for the sick and wounded. Believe the upper basement housed ambulances.
 
Janet Hunt said:
Found out a little more about the role of the Lewis building during the WW2. We have two tunnels in the lower basement neither was used as an air raid shelter. The one used to be the old exit from the carpark. The other was the old rail line that come in with coal to stoke the old gas boilers. The lower basement was used during the war as a hospital, so I guess it was a shelter of sorts for the sick and wounded. Believe the upper basement housed ambulances.
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thanks for that info janet....it is always nice to have someone on the inside :D

lyn
 
Mike - I don't think they are the same place.
Your article is dated Jan 2023 and is an Anderson Shelter.
Lyn's article is Feb 2024 and is a tunnel.
 
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