• 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

Vivienne14 said:
I wonder if this one on Kingstanding Road is the same design as the one on Marsh Lane. Looking at this photo, there seem to be marks showing through the grass which suggests a long entrance to the shelter - down steps perhaps? Viv.
Click to expand...

Viv all built on simular lines, how deep ?
 
How deep . well I fell down the one in Blews st park 1940/41is I would suggest about10/12ft (OLD MONEY) and landed on a broken beer bottle I had about 12stitches Tom
 
I seem to remember the one on Kingstanding Road seemed to go very deep. The entrance was fenced off. This was in the late 1950s. The strange thing is I remember the central reservation on the dual carriageway appeared much higher than the picture shows. But maybe that was because I was quite small at the time. Viv.
 
Used to be one on the Walsall road almost opposite the Tennis Courts pub. Must have been removed when the road was dueled, not sure when as i moved to Cheswick Green in the early seventies.
 
33bus said:
How deep . well I fell down the one in Blews st park 1940/41is I would suggest about10/12ft (OLD MONEY) and landed on a broken beer bottle I had about 12stitches Tom
Click to expand...

That must have been the 'menace to health' they talked about in 1953! Hope there were no lasting mental scars from the experience. Viv.
 
Used to be one just like that opposite Swanshurst Park - wonder it is still there under the grass? My Mom would use it with us kids but my Dad always stayed in the house and had a brew.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for posting the link. Gives some interesting memories of shelters. One mentions steps down to the shelter, with 2 lines of 2 tier bunks and electric lighting. They all seem to have one common feature: smelly and damp! It also mentions that many schools had their own shelters. Viv.
 
Vivienne, it's a different type of shelter I know, but we spent many scary hours down our Anderson Shelter. During the big raid over Aston a burning bomb bounced into the shelter onto my mother's lap and as quick as lightening she picked it up with my brother's school jacket and threw it out of the shelter. Then because of the deadly fumes she threw us all out after it and no doubt saved our lives. Regards, David.
 
What an amazing story! Not only was your mum a brave lady, she was obviously a very quick thinker too. I guess when you're faced with something like that you do what you have to do. I remember my mum telling me how dreadful it was when a shelter was hit. That's why I suppose some people just wouldn't use shelters. Thanks David for telling us about your hair raising experience. Viv.
 
David Weaver said:
Vivienne, it's a different type of shelter I know, but we spent many scary hours down our Anderson Shelter. During the big raid over Aston a burning bomb bounced into the shelter onto my mother's lap and as quick as lightening she picked it up with my brother's school jacket and threw it out of the shelter. Then because of the deadly fumes she threw us all out after it and no doubt saved our lives. Regards, David.
Click to expand...


i agree with viv david...what a story that is and how brave was your mom....thank you

lyn
 
My grandparents had two anderson shelters 'buried' in their back garden, not far from Marsh Lane and the picture posted earlier, just off Chudleigh Road backing onto the reservoir. After the war they were dug up and used as garden sheds. I have fond memories of building a den in one as a child. they were still in the garden when my Grandparents passed away - I wonder what became of them ? Here's an interesting piece on air raid shelters from Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-raid_shelter

Ian
 
There were 2 shelters in the playground at Yew Tree Junior in Aston and 1 on the corner of Deykin Avenue and Cheshire Road in Witton. Brick built with thick concrete roofs but all had been blocked up. I think they were demolished in the 60's.
 
I have an Anderson Shelter at the end of the garden. It's buried level with the ground, there are bricked steps down to it, and it there used to be wooden steps inside but they rotted away, so no-one tries to go down anymore! It was used for several houses as there was a gate in the fence. Unfortnately the previous owners part-filled it with rubble and bricks.
 
We had two in our yard in Watery Lane Bordesley which had flat concrete roofs. Before demolition in th late fifties,they were used as sheds by some of the residents. I also remember there were some in most of the yards in the area. We used to sit on top of the one in Mona rd as it overlooked Kingston Hill park and have a sly fag while watching our mates playing football. All the best formula t.
 
There was a large brick built shelter in the Senior Girls part of Burlington Street School, I don't know when it was finally demolished but I do remember a great to do when a tramp was found inside it, this was after the war and I think some of the girls had been playing hide and seek and found him.
We didn't have an Anderson shelter in our garden, we used to go down the cellar, but I remember the one in Brenda Barr's garden - Brenda is a member of the Forum and lived next door but one to us, and we used to play down there.
 
From Ian's Wiki link above it looks like the Kingstanding Road and Marsh Lane shelters were probably " trench" types built before 1940. These had a pre- cast concrete lining. The other community shelters above ground (including schools) had 14" brick walls and a 1ft reinforced roof. These could take around 50 people and seem to have been built around 1940. Some had interior walls and bunks. But judging by the fear of flooding from burst mains or the concrete roof collapsing, it's no wonder some people didn't like them. Maybe your chances of survival were as good if you used the Anderson, cellar or under the kitchen table. Nightmare to live through for those in heavily raided areas. Viv.
 
I remember the air raid shelters from my juniour school "our lady of st rose of lima" gregory ave weoley castle, we chased the girls in there and snuk a kiss and played war and cowboys. I suppose they have all gone now.
 
Dave M said:
https://aghs.jimdo.com/acocks-green-s-vulnerability/air-raid-shelters/
Click to expand...

I've been reading a bit more on this link and there are some pointers on where some of the Acocks Green shelters were:

Shirley Rd near Oakhurst Rd
Olton Boulevard (in front of Lidls)
Gospel Lane end of Fox Hollies Park
Douglas Rd
Dudley Park Rd
Botteville Rd and Victoria Rd junction - this had the roof smashed in and was covered over.

Dolphin Lane Junior School
Lakey Lane School - half buried type of shelters
Hartfield Crescent School

I expect most of these will have gone as the Botteville Rd/Victoria Rd one did, but there may still be some signs of their former existence as per the Kingstanding Rd and Marsh Lane ones with a little of the structure left as a reminder. Viv.
 
Last edited:
I think there were 2 types of personal Shelters, the common Anderson, which was an ouside shelterand the less common Morrison Shelter which was in effect a steel/iron table which you assembled yourself with nuts and bolts (first of the flat packs?), easier than the Anderson, that required a hole being dug before assembly. We lived in Shirley during the raids and we had the table type Shelter which we rarely used as we were not affected to much by the raids as Brum, until one night a stray bomb demolished a house in Clinton Rd which ran parallel to our Road (Cranmore Boulevard) and damaging our house, we spent the next 3 months living in an old gypsy caravan in Earlswood on a farm whilst our house was patched up and made habitable, my sisters and I thought it was great fun, I doubt Mom and Dad felt the same. Eric
 
Think there used to be some air raid shelters on the Birchfield Road end of the Walsall Road, near where the One Stop shopping centre is now.
 
Dave M said:
Kingstanding Rd :)
Click to expand...

This shelter is located outside the Co-op on the Kingstanding Road (heading towards Sutton Oak Rd, just after Kingstanding Circle). I've just managed to find it on Streetview using Daves photo.. Dave, the shelter I remember was nearer Kingstanding Road/Tresham Rd junction. So there must have been several shelters along Kingstanding Rd. Well it is a long road!! Maybe the dual carriageway made it an ideal place to locate these? Viv.
 
Last edited:
in our yard in nechells there were two shelters they were brick built with a blast wall outside the door which was metal us kids spent many a happy hour shinning up between the wall and shelter to get on the roof they were knocked down in the early 50s there were also two gas street lamps that used to be turned on and of by a man with a big pole or is that somthing i dreamed anyway when they were knocked it left plenty of space to play in and have big communal bonfires on nov 5th they seemed big to a 6 yr old anyway
phil
 
I can remember my old man saying that although there was an Anderson Shelter in our back garden, it was beneath his dignity to actually use it. My mother said she spent a few nights in it, with my gran, but it was so damp and smelly. I can remember my dad finally getting rid of it in the very early 1950's. Some tatter with a horse and cart took it away.

Big Gee
 
There was a big brick one with a concrete roof in Greenway St , opposite the Bywaters abbotoir that was still there well into the mid/late 60s, but I think the entrance was bricked up. There was an undergtound concrete bunker at the rear of a factory behind the big tip entrance opposite Camp St, and a similar one on Coventry Rd opposite Elmdon Airport, both about a foot deep in water, and both still there around 1965.
 
Quite a few of these seem to be on the reservation areas of dual carriageways. I expect they survived because they are too difficult to remove. Thanks for the photos Dave. Viv.
 
There's a brick built one with a concrete roof in the garden of 235 Cherry Orchard Road, Handsworth Wood. A former owner found it too difficult to demolish so used it as a garden shed.

We had an Anderson in our garden in Winson Green. After the war it served many purposes including a hen house, kids' den and glory hole. When used as the latter I can remember my mother nagging the old man to get it cleared out for ages. In the end, fed up with her nagging, he doused all the contents with paraffin and set light to them. I can remember watching the metal glow red hot on the outside. Such was the heat that all the fixing bolts welded to the steel making it impossible to de-construct.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top