This may sound ridiculous but for the life of me I cant understand the good of a air raid shelter at bottom of garden.(only the fact no adjacent building ) surely a German bomb had as much chance as hitting the house (or missing house and hitting shelter) as the shelter.To labour the point bomb hits centre of row of houses and damaged houses fall on next house ect is the the point of shelter. I lived in Richmond surrey in a st that was hit by a landmine which demolished the whole st both sides dont think the shelter would have helped there....thoughts please
The brick type built in back gardens were only designed to protect against bomb splinters and falling debris, not direct hits or even near misses. Same for shelter trenches in public parks, and in Edinburgh's case, sandbag baffle walls across close entrances. London, Tyneside and Glasgow are the only places with underground systems that could have provided deep shelters; everywhere else had no other option but surface ones. But they were still better than nothing. In my own neck of the woods, public shelters were only built immediately before the outbreak of war, and that wasn't that unusual. A lot of local authorities actually refused to implement any kind of civil defence until they were forced to, on the grounds that they somehow "encouraged" war.
They gave protection against shrapnel and falling debris, they were not called Bomb Resistant Shelters. More often than not people survived who would not have if they had stayed within the house, unless they perhaps had a cellar TD
I have never heard of brick shelters in household back gardens, and certainly never saw.one, and I have no idea who would have sponsored them. What were sponsored by the Governemnt were Anderson shelters,(named after Sir John Anderson (1882-1958), Permanent Under-Secretary,, Home Office, 1922-32, and Home Secretary 1939-40). House-holders were invited to purchase, for 5/-, a set of pre-cut and moulded corrugated iron pieces for self-assembly in a hole dug to size and preferably lined with concrete, the whole packed with earth over the rounded top and sides. Later, Morrison shelters were introduced,(named after Herbert Morrison (1888-1965), conscientious objector in WW1 and Home Secretary 1940-45), which were for use solely indoors, offering a degree of protection against rubble in the event of a house collapsing. A disadvantage was the amount of floor space required, as once set up, they needed to remain until air raids were no longer a danger. I occasionally overnighted in a relative's Anderson shelter when visiting. I saw, and probably clambered inside, a Morrison shelter in situ, but never slept in one.
Many people were killed by the building collapsing...or parts of it...or were caught in the resultant fire - in a small building away from the main 2-3-4 storey building defused this problem...the blast itself can kill, many people found completely intact but....dead. With it dug into the ground, If the occupants lay down they could survive a close hit (much like sitting in a trench). - I thought the idea was sound...gave the people some sense of "doing something" to protect themselves and brought fathers and sons together just to build the bloody thing!
There's around a dozen of them in my neck of the woods; one was privately built by the then home owners, the rest were built by the local authority. They were mostly demolished by the council after the war, but like I said, a few still exist and are used as garden sheds. I did have a thread full of photos of my local ones, but the demise of photobucket seems to have killed it.
I can assure you there where definitely brick air raid shelter in private homes, my maternal grandparents had a brick shelter cement roof with blast wall in front, as a child i use to climb all over it. This was situated in Kew a suburban district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames,
Quite frankly I would have taken my chances in a warm dry bed in house then tough it out in a damp ridden wet shelter . I can see the very valid Morrison shelter as a great alternative to back garden shelter, that would have been my choice .
I think you may find the ‘back garden shelter’ was just the rain cover...a stair or ladder led under ground...once the war was over the whole gets filled in and then used as a back shed...
Quoting myself from elsewhere, referencing a Britain at War article: In a world of debris from hits, shrapnel, AA shells falling to earth etc. Something is better than nothing.
When 1/KG30 attacked the Firth of Forth on 16/10/39, one man digging his allotment in Portobello was killed by fire from one of the pursuing Spitfires, an unexploded AA shell landed in the crossroads at Kirkliston, and another landed in the manse at Linlithgow and provided the meenister with a new fishpond postwar. And that was before things got even hairier.
Whereas Anderson and Morrison shelters were formally sponsored by the Home Office, even though householders had to pay the basic cost and arrange erection, I am sure that brick-built surface shelters, which clearly would have very limited protective value, were never officially sponsored. It is possible that they date from the Munich crisis of 1938, when some individuals undertook various activities on their own initiative in anticipation of imminent war.
The ones I showed earlier were definitely built by my local council immediately before the war, along with various public shelters across the town. Meant to post this rare survivor of a shelter sign in Stirling-
Re the comments about Brick air raid shelters, they were a great asset in major cities. street shelters were the only place people without gardens could go to shelter also if you were out at the start of a raid the first thing you looked for was over headcover. I know street shelters got a bad press due to them not being built to the correct standard I.E. weak cement in the mortar course allowing the bricks to be blown out and the solid concrete roof coming down on the occupants. As the old saying goes any port in a storm, some cover is better than no cover. Regards Lofty
We have an air raid shelter in the garden in very good condition which I'm looking to convert into a useable space. It is currently exposed as no door or window (not sure why it has a window space.. assuming it was knocked through after the war) so gets damp ceiling when it rains. Although I believe this is due to the rain coming through the roof? (concrete is porous). I have been trying to find similar projects but the only thing I've found is Anderson shelters. I am thinking to remove the soil from top and covers roof outside with some concrete waterproofing solution and possibly the same inside and install an air brick. If anyone knows anything doing this kind of thing I'd love to know