In November 1938, Chamberlain placed Sir John Anderson in charge of Air Raid Precautions (ARP). He immediately commissioned the engineer, William Patterson, to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens. Within a few months, around two million of what became known as Anderson Shelters were distributed to people living in areas expected to be bombed by the Luftwaffe. Made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end, and measuring 1.95m by 1.35m, the shelter could accommodate six people. These shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top.

The Morrison shelter was approximately 6 feet 6 inches (2m) long, 4 feet (1.2m) wide and 2 feet 6 inches (0.75m) high. When not in use as a shelter it could be used as a table (see illustration) by temporarily removing the welded wire mesh sides.
Whilst the Anderson was constructed of 14 corrugated sheets, and required some digging to let it into the ground, the Morrison consisted of some 219 parts (not including 48 nuts and bolts) and came with 3 tools with which to assemble it.
These shelters were distributed free to most people and over 500 000 had been distributed by November 1941.
The Morrison was extremely effective, if assembled correctly, and undoubtedly saved many lives.

I would not like to rely on that to stop shrapnel !

Terroconcrete, Stent,Reinforced, Public Shelters

A lot of people during air raids decided to seek protection in their own basement or cellar or even under a sturdy table or under the stairs rather than go out into the cold and often water filled shelters. Shelters were free to anyone earning less than £250 a year and a charge of £7 was made to higher earners. Though the Anderson and Morrison were useless against direct hits they offered excellent protection against compression and debris falling.

Really good study there bert - thankyou!

scary stuff, pity todays chavs don`t apprieciate this, its all plastic knives and spud guns these days thinking their `hard`.

grow up in these war times you little fags and see how hard you are then!

crackin post burt

So true Ste So true.

The pre-war policy of the Government was to disperse the population in an air raid rather than build large public shelters which might become mass tombs. Many of these public shelters were squat brick and concrete surface built shelters, designed to hold 50. They were dank and dark and had no sanitary facilities. Their poor construction also made them dangerous and deadly places. A nearby bomb burst could lift the roof, usually a concrete slab, which would come crashing down on the occupants. These defects were later overcome by the building of outer blast walls, improving the mortaring of the cement joints and by edging the roof so that it could shift a few inches without falling off the supporting walls A smaller version of these shelters were often erected in property's that had yards rather than gardens, a simple brick construction with a concrete slab for a roof. some of these are still in use now as sheds and coal bunkers.

When I acquired an allotment in the late 1960s (I was a bit younger then) I remember "finding" a buried Anderson shelter when I was digging foundations for a greenhouse. It seemed to take for ever to dig out bits of rusting metal sheet etc but it had to be done because I did not fancy having a potential "hole" below the greenhouse.

I gave up the allotment about 4 years ago

Snod

If you google "Anderson Shelter On Alotments" Youll find some interesting stuff

Does anyone have memories of using the Queensway tunnel as a air raid shelter. I remember my Mother telling me the people in her area use to use the tunnel on occasions and i would think seeing as she lived in Wood St it would have been the Dock entrance in Rendall St. I know the underground was also used and apparently a lot of people felt safer under arched brick bridges rather than the public shelter.

I dont have memorys as I wasn't alive during the war's. But I spoke to the old folk but they werent alive then neither, I should have known. But my mum told stories that my nan told her and yeah they remember that they were told to shelter there if that was the nearest place they could shelter.

If your house had a back garden you got an anderson shelter, which applyed to most of the semi detached council houses arround Birkenhead. if you lived in a terraced house that had room in the back yard you got one of the brck built shelters, if the terraced house only had a tiny back yard so there was no room for a brck shelter, the larger brick shelters where built in the street, as the one bert1 shows in his photo's. most of the strrets in lower Tranmere had these shelters in them..the bunk beds where wooden frames with thin metal straps accross them. If you where lucky some on had a candle that they lit so you where not in the dark.

This is a fantastic thread. So much info out there! I wonder if other countries had similar shelters during the war.

A single person shelter, Germany

Some German air raid protection bunkers ( Luftschutzbunkers )

France called there's Spain!

personal protection

Some pics from Fort Perch Rock stand at an exhibition

Anderson Shelter, Neston

where in neston is this mate,would love to go down and get some pics..

top work bert, thanks for Sharing bud.

Nice seeing old threads revived

My brother in law tells me the story of how they put their Anderson shelter up and put grass on top so the Germans wouldn't see their shelter and bomb next doors instead which had no grass. You couldn't make it up could you?

We had an Anderson shelter. You were supposed to dig a hole about 2 feet deep, erect the shelter in the hole & then bank up the soil & grass from the hole on the top to increase the protection.

When we moved into our house 17 years ago evey time it rained hard we had a pond in the garden, then we found out recently that there was a shelter in the garden right were the pond formed everytime it rained ,cos it had a big dip in the grass were the shelter had been.

Here's a picture from the book "Bombers over Merseyside", originally published by the Liverpool Post & Echo in 1943. Re-printed 1983 by the Scouse Press.
It shows the back yard shelters very well. The street running up the pic. is Brattan Rd., with the church at the top of Oxton Rd. in the background & the school (can't remember which), on the extreme right. Looks as if the shelters did their job.

Just looking at that picture again,if you go to a map just used Google maps and run a rule across Bratton Road it is more or less inline with Cammell Laird wet dock so early bomb release a possibility,the line more or less runs across to Hoylake golf club on the corner by Black rocks,a marker perhaps,Moreton had a Starfish site as per a topic on Wikiwirral so the authorities must have known the route,mmm interesting

Theres a brilliant shelter just off Mount Rd, as you turn down by the old quarry. Large house just on the corner, all new fences around and electric gates.Was in there repairing a tractor (used to mow the lawn, its THAT large!!). Right next to the driveway is a brick entrance, and the shelter is built into the solid rock and faced with brick and has a "rockery" ontop!! very complete, guy doesnt know what to do with it, maybe a wine cellar he says!!!!

Great idea there- I see what you mean- they went in for the bombing and missed

The school in the above picture is Christ Church Claughton(my old Primary School). My old house 12 Dingle Rd is on the right edge of the photo directly opposite the school. On the night this happened my old mum said the house next door 10 Dingle Rd just fell down.

We lived at 23 Bromborough Road, Lower Bebington, and only one house had an Anderson shelter, in the front garden of policeman Mr Ellison's house at No.11.
For the rest of us in the vicinity, I remember big timber joists being installed in the cellar of Stevens' grocers shop opposite and this was where we spent our air raids. There was an Elsan chemical toilet behind a sacking screen in the corner and the instruction was to sing out loud when anyone was using it! There was an overpowering smell of creosote, as used in that contraption!
That reinforcement is probably still there, holding up the shop above.

Couple more shelters.