Introduction

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With newsreel images of the terrible bombing during the Spanish Civil War fresh in everyone's mind, it was assumed that the same would happen here. The government shared this view and embarked on an ambitious scheme to provide the population with protection. The mainstay of the scheme was the Anderson Shelter -named after its inventor, Dr David A. Anderson, and not, as is generally thought, the Home Secretary of the time, John Anderson. This consisted of 14 pieces of corrugated iron sheeting and associated nuts and bolts which, when assembled, formed a shelter six feet high, six and a half feet long and four feet wide (a small number of larger and smaller shelters were supplied). The standard shelter could accommodate, a a pinch, six people. To give maximum protection it was supposed to be buried to a depth of four feet and to be covered by at least 15 inches of soil. As well as a main entrance, approached by makeshift steps, it had a removable panel at the back which would allow the occupants to escape if the main exit was blocked by rubble. It could not give protection against a direct hit from a bomb but tests had shown that it was capable of surviving a near miss.

Local authorities were asked to supply lists of those eligible to receive a shelter; families with annual incomes of less than £250 were entitled to a free shelter - providing they had a garden to put it in. Wealthier families would be allowed to purchase shelters, but only after all the free shelters were distributed. The railway companies agreed to undertake the distribution of the shelters, right from the factory to the doorstep. They picked up the parts from the manufacturers, assembled these into sets, transported them to the appropriate railway station and took them around the streets in their own lorries or horse-drawn carts directly to the addresses supplied by the Councils. In this remarkable operation, which began in February 1939, no less than 2,250,000 shelters were supplied, 1,500,000 of them before the outbreak of war. Because of steel shortages, no Anderson Shelters were manufactured after April 1940, before the demand for free shelters was fully met.

In the North-East the L.N.E.R. undertook the distribution of shelters and in Blaydon Urban District, where 5000 were supplied, the distribution was from Blaydon and Rowlands Gill stations. Being outside the main danger areas, the distribution here did not begin until well into the summer. Most were delivered correctly but inevitably there were some mistakes and not everyone found it easy to dig the required hole or to assemble the shelter, but generally, with the help of neighbours, most were made ready for the expected attacks in a matter of days. Then came the task of making them as comfortable as possible and this usually meant adding seats, bunks, lights, heaters and some sort of flooring, even carpets and pictures in some cases. Many also felt that an ugly mound of earth in their garden was unacceptable and planted grass or even flowers over the shelters. My grandparents and their neighbours in Watson Street, High Spen added their own twist -they joined their shelters together to make what must have been one of the largest Andersons ever. One problem that many never solved -holes in the garden have a tendency to become ponds when it rains!

What of the richer folks who were not entitled to a free shelter? A few Andersons were sold for prices ranging from £6-14s-0d to £10-18s-0d (£6.70-£10.90) but in most cases it was a question of the householder building a shelter himself or having one built. One very fine example of a self-built brick and concrete shelter still survives in the garden of one of the larger houses on Dipwood Road, although it is now covered in ivy.

Many houses, particularly in towns and cities, had no gardens and in these cases the answer was the Communal Shelter. These were built on the surface, sometimes in the middle of streets, sometimes on waste ground. Although they varied in size to accommodate between twelve and forty-eight people, they were generally about thirty feet long by six feet high and six feet wide. They had solid walls of brick -white brick in our area- about fourteen inches thick and had 1 foot thick roofs of reinforced concrete. There were many communal shelters in the streets of Blaydon but the only part of Rowlands Gill with such shelters was Ladysmith -The Bottoms- and here some at least of the shelters were built against the bankside below Burnopfield Road. In Blaydon Urban District as a whole one hundred Communal Shelters were erected. Blaydon Council also built some 356 domestic brick and concrete shelters in yards or gardens for families without an Anderson and with no access to a Communal Shelter. Sixty Morrison indoor shelters were also supplied. These consisted of a steel frame with strong wire-mesh on the top, bottom and sides, and were strong enough to protect those inside if the house collapsed. They offered no protection against fire or suffocation but they did save many lives.

Then there were the Public Shelters which were often, at least away from the cities, of very similar design to the Communal Shelters, except that they sometimes had toilet facilities. They had a capacity of about fifty people and were built near main roads, particularly bus routes, and were meant for people away from home during raids. The main difference seems to have been financial; Communal Shelters were paid for by the Government whereas Public Shelters were only grant-aided. There were several in and around Rowlands Gill -two at the end of Norman Road where the library car park is now located; one where Curry and Wake's Garage stands; one at Lockhaugh on the left of the road to Winlaton Mill, just past the little dene next to Lockhaugh Lodge and one near Whiskey Jack's along the little lane to the sewage pumping station. High Spen had two -at the top of Rickless Bank and at Cardiff Square, Lintzford had one near the now-demolished row of houses, and Chopwell and Blackhall Mill had one each.

In April 1941 the Council applied to the Ministry of Home Security in Newcastle for permission to build another Public Shelter next to St.Patrick's Church Hall because the hall was a considerable distance from other Public Shelters and was used for meetings of the Church Lads' Brigade, the Girls' Friendly Society and a Junior Mixed Club. After a little resistance, permission was given and the shelter was built, bringing the total in the Urban District to forty-three. I was puzzled for quite some time about a reference in Council records to a Public Shelter in a "cutting beside Stewartsfield". No-one could remember any such building, but eventually the mystery was solved -there was a notice reading "Public Shelter" on the Highfield side of the Pipe Bridge, with an arrow pointing to a footpath which led under the bridge - the railway bridge itself was the shelter!

Schools had there own shelters provided by the County Council, but administrative and building delays meant that during the air-raid alert on the morning of January 29th 1940, the children actually had to hide under their desks. Fortunately no bombs fell on that occasion and there were no more alerts during school hours until the afternoon of July 3rd, by which time all of the local schools had shelter accomodation. To get an idea of the delays involved let us look at Rowlands Gill School. There the contractors did not begin work until December 2nd, 1939 and the shelters were not ready for use until June 11th. Admittedly they were large structures and were mostly below ground level, but six months does seem rather excessive for what, by any standards, was an urgent job. The school was open as normal from January 3rd 1940 after having been closed between September 3rd and October 24th 1939 and then partly open with half of the pupils attending in the mornings and half in the afternoons.

Most school shelters were of the "semi-sunk" type - with their concrete roofs just above ground level, but the shelter at Barlow School was a surface shelter and that at Chopwell West School was completely underground. Rowlands Gill School had six 50-person shelters situated behind the caretaker's house - where the swimming pool now stands. They were principally built of brick and had thick concrete roofs. Each shelter had its own staircase and entrance and the insides were bare except for rows of forms and a ladder leading to a trap-door, this was for use if the entrances were blocked. A gas-proof curtain hung above the inside of the door ready to be let down if there was a gas attack. For the younger children, entering the shelters was like going into a dark cave and they were given Horlicks Tablets and hard biscuits to try to calm them down. For the older children there were no such luxuries but their teachers always took a bottle of sweets to the shelters "in case of emergency". Unfortunately the longed-for emergency never occurred and the sweets were not eaten until Germany surrendered.

The children generally welcomed the excitement of an alert but the Nazis rarely obliged with daylight raids after the hammering they took on August 15th 1940, and the children were only in the shelters on 25 occasions and for a total of just under twelve hours. The last occasion that the shelters were used was from 11.25 to 11.55 on the morning of Monday October 26th 1942 -the twenty alerts after that date were all either outside school hours or during holidays. There is one curious entry in the Rowlands Gill School log book for Thursday 23rd April 1942; it reads something like "Sirens 3.35 - 4.00 p.m., children not in shelters as per new circular"! Any explanations?

Other schools had their shelters too. At Highfield there were four 100-person shelters against the outside of the playground walls - one block beside the south-west wall and three against the wall which now overlooks the playing field. Access from the yards was provided by gaps cut into the walls; these are now bricked up but the locations of two can be clearly seen in the Junior School yard -opposite the main entrance and to the left of the shed. There was probably a similar gap to the left of the boys' toilet in the infants' yard but alterations make it impossible to check this. Up at St. Joseph's School the shelter blocks (two 50-person) were built against a bankside at the rear of the playground on the Rowlands Gill side of the school. Along at Hookergate School four 100-person shelters were located alongside the woods at the top of the playing fields, where the Art and Crafts Block now stands, and there was also a single 100-person shelter on the tennis courts just inside the small gate which led to Spen Lane.

At High Spen Junior School -the recently demolished two-storey building- the shelters (two 100-person and one 50-person) were outside the school grounds. They were behind Gardner's corner shop (now a hairdressers) just across the small lane to the north of the school. From August 29th 1940 the County Council gave permission for these shelters to be used as Communal Shelters for the residents of the nearby council houses. Unfortunately such a spirit of cooperation was distinctly lacking on the other side of Hugar Road at High Spen Senior School. The caretaker, Thomas Nicholson, was understandably annoyed when he discovered that he and his family were unable to use the school shelters outside school hours. The headmaster or, more likely, his wife insisted on locking the shelters and keeping the only key! That school had two 50-person shelters.

There was always a conflict between security and safety with all types of shelters. Because of vandalism and thefts of light-bulbs, heaters and other fittings from Public Shelters, many were locked, but inevitably there were times when the person detailed to open them during alerts was not available. Such problems led to calls from the Government in February 1942 for Wardens and Police to carry keys for all Public Shelters in their areas. No chances were taken in Newcastle, however; on June 10th 1940 the order was given for locks to be removed from all Public Shelters. It was a well-timed move; the first bombs rained down on Newcastle just three weeks later. Even Anderson Shelters presented problems; the householders tried to make them comfortable by adding refinements but this simply encouraged theft and made them even more attractive hideaways for courting couples.

Commercial firms had the responsibility of providing shelters for their workforce. Some simply provided trenches but most used basements or structures similar to the Public Shelters. The management of the cokeworks at Highfield had a rather clever idea -they left a block of Beehive Ovens unused. These ovens were of extremely strong construction and quite spacious and they served the purpose adequately. Although shelters in commercial premises were primarily for staff and customers, nobody would be refused entry.

Returning to the subject of Public Shelters; larger towns and cities tended to use basements of public buildings where available and suitable, as well as purpose-built shelters. Gateshead, for example, utilized among others, the basements of the Town Hall, Central Library, Shipley Art Gallery and the Teams Social Club. Where the basements had windows at ground level they were covered with sandbags. Most of Gateshead's purpose-built shelters were of very large capacity; those at Windmill Hills, Sunderland Road Recreation Ground and Redheugh Park each had nominal capacities of 486 people, while those in Saltwell Park and St.Alban's Playing Fields could accommodate no less than 648 each. (The top two steps of the Saltwell Park shelter can still be seen today, and the shelter is still under the large field in the Park which is used for circuses and the like).

Newcastle's provision was on a rather larger scale; their aim was to provide 33,000 places in public shelters compared with Gateshead's 9,600 and Blaydon's 2,200. This figure was to include 10,500 places in "trenches in open spaces" which were certainly better than nothing, but hardly ideal. There were also to be 2,000 places in street and surface shelters, 1,000 under railway arches and 14,500 in basements -even the dungeons under the Castle Keep were used, the Keep had, after all, been built as a refuge for Newcastle's citizens when the City was under attack. Newcastle's best shelters, however, were quite unique outside London - they had two deep tunnel shelters; the Ouseburn Culvert Shelter with a capacity of 1,000 and the much more ambitious Victoria Tunnel Scheme which had provision for 5,000 but could easily have accommodated 9,000. It is worth looking at these in some detail.

The Ouseburn Culvert was constructed in 1909 as part of a land reclamation scheme, it carried the Ouse Burn from Jesmond Vale to just north of Byker Bridge, under what is now an athletics track. It was a high arched tunnel and by the simple expedient of building a platform above the river level it provided a very secure and spacious shelter. The platform was extended outside the culvert at the southern end and a wide stairway led from this to the surface above the culvert. The end of the culvert above the platform was sealed with a strong wall and an entrance, protected by a blast wall, was provided. It has been suggested that there was a similar entrance at the northern end of the culvert but I have found no evidence of this. Inside the culvert the roof level was somehow raised and seating, bunks, lights, toilets and first-aid facilities were installed. The shelter was well used during alerts throughout the war but, by February 1941, structural defects had become apparent and part of the culvert had to be closed.

The Victoria Tunnel was constructed between June 27th 1839 and January 8th 1842 to carry coal from Spital Tongues Colliery (just across the road from Hunters Moor Hospital) to staithes on the Tyne near Glasshouse Bridge. It was almost 2 miles in length and its official opening on April 7th 1842 was an occasion of much rejoicing:

It had an arched roof of brick and an inverted arch floor of stone with dimensions of 7 ft 5 ins high and 6 ft 3 ins wide. It had a maximum depth of 85 feet and descended some 222 feet from the colliery to the river. Sets of waggons travelled under gravity on a track of 4 ft 8 ins guage and empty sets were hauled back up by a rope attached to a 40 horse-power stationary engine. The colliery ceased trading in 1857 and the tunnel was sealed at both ends; its only occupant for the next 82 years was perhaps the ghost of William Coulson who had been killed in the tunnel back in 1852.

In 1939 the tunnel was inspected and found suitable for use as an air-raid shelter. In fact it was deep enough, particilarly in its central section, to be officially "bomb-proof". The tunnel was cleaned, whitewashed and given a tarmac floor along its entire length. Then came the mammoth task of providing easy access to the tunnel. Eighteen entrances were originally planned but only seven were actually built. All except the Ouse Street entrance, which is in the side of a hill, were formed by driving sloping shafts varying in length from 40 to 110 yards, and all except that in Ouse Street had one or more angle bends to limit blast penetration.

The entrances were at Claremont Road (near the junction with Hunter's Road), Hancock Museum (On a bank on the north side of Claremont Road not far from the junction with Barras Bridge), St Thomas's Church (just north of the church building), Ridley Place (in a cul-de-sac at the City Baths end), Shieldfield Green (on the south-east side), Crawhall Road (On the east side of the roadway at the junction with New Bridge Street) and Ouse Street (In a courtyard behind some houses). The slope of these entrance shafts varied considerably; the Hancock Museum entrance shaft was a very gentle incline whilst that at Crawhall Road was so steep in parts that steps were necessary. Most entrances were six feet wide -the official width of three people- whilst those at St Thomas's Church and the Hancock Museum were twice as wide.

Victoria Tunnel: St Thomas' Church Entrance

Drawn by Mr Ronald Henderson from a photograph deposited at Newcastle City Library

Most of the entrances were simply rectangular holes with railings around three sides and steps or an incline on the fourth side leading down to the passage entrance. The entrances at the Hancock Museum and at Ouse Street were vertical rectangular openings on banksides. The Claremont Road, St Thomas's Church and Ouse Street Entrances were completed before the first of the bombing in July 1940. They were followed soon afterwards by the Crawhall Road and Shieldfield Green Entrances and finally the entrances at Hancock Museum and Ridley Place were added. Construction work on the Ridley Place Entrance was accelerated by working both from Ridley Place and from a vertical shaft sunk in Vine Lane.

Lighting was installed in the tunnel and seats, bunks and toilets were added near each of the entrances. From most entrances, after walking down the entrance passage you could walk to the left or right and encounter first seats, then bunks and finally toilets (chemical closets), then you would pass through an empty section of tunnel before encountering the toilets, bunks and seats associated with the next entrance. Baffle walls, three feet thick, were added where the entrance passages met the tunnel -this was to prevent blast penetration in case bombs fell near an entrance and, in the shallower sections of tunnel near each end, blast walls were added to protect the rest of the tunnel in case a bomb should penetrate the tunnel, these consisted of thick overlapping concrete walls each covering about 60% of the tunnel width. Near Ouse Street, where the tunnel was only twelve feet beneath the surface, these were placed every 20 to 30 yards, under Claremont Road they were rather further apart.

Many people from the Shieldfield and Battlefield (St Ann's) areas of the City used the tunnel as a short cut to and from the City Centre - but they needed torches as the lighting was only switched on during alerts. There was also at least one man who cycled through the tunnel on his way home from work. The shelter was used until the end of the war when most fittings were removed and the entrances levelled and sealed, all that is except the Ouse Street entrance which is on private land (and not visible from the street)- incredibly this entrance is still in its original condition and still gives unhindered access to the eastern end of the tunnel. In 1976 a half mile section of the tunnel was lined with prefabricated concrete sections and it is now used as a replacement for the Pandon Sewer, but the remainder of the tunnel and the entrance passages are still more or less in their war-time condition. In the mid-seventies occasional conducted tours of the western section of the tunnel were arranged, access being gained by a manhole leading into one of the entrance passages. Plans were also made to make this section into a tourist attraction. A door was inserted where the old Hancock Museum Entrance was located, and I would assume that this was part of that plan. However, the plan has not been followed up, apparently because there are problems with methane gas building up in the tunnel.

Another deep tunnel shelter was planned in Newcastle, the old disused Benwell Drift Mine -I assume that the bricked-up mine entrance which can be seen on Scotswood Road is the one referred to. Preliminary work, which consisted of cleaning out and heightening the drift and the laying of a railway track, began in December 1940, and some tunnelling was started on January 24th. Unfortunately the arch girders were in a poor condition and there were several serious roof falls during the course of this work. The City Engineers reluctantly concluded that it would be too dangerous and expensive to continue and, with the agreement of the Emergency Committee, the project was abandoned. I have also seen a brief reference to plans to use some disused drift mines in the Consett area as shelters but I have been unable to find any details.

Shelters in general undoubtedly saved many lives on Tyneside; during a raid you were certainly safer in a shelter, but there were many deaths from bombs which landed too close. When the shelters concerned were Public or Communal Shelters the the resultant death toll could be quite appalling. When a bombed penetrated into the basement of Wilkinson's Lemonade Factory on King Street, North Shields, on May 3rd 1941, 105 people lost their lives. On the other hand, two weeks later, on May 16th, a bomb landed so close to a brick and concrete Communal Surface Shelter at Queen Mary Street, Middlesborough, that the building was lifted completely off its foundations, yet of those inside only two women and three children suffered minor injuries. Even Anderson Shelters could offer protection against near-misses. At half-past midnight on the morning of October 29th 1940, two high-explosive bombs fell on Newcastle. One was five yards from an Anderson shelter at the rear of 95 Sackville Road, Heaton. Splinters penetrated the shelter, but the occupants, a man and a girl, survived. (The other bomb scored a direct hit on a steel and concrete shelter at the rear of 48 Debdon Gardens, it was demolished but it was empty - the occupants had gone indoors when the "All-Clear" sounded forty-five minutes before the bombs fell).

After a long period without alerts -there were none between May 24th 1943 and March 31st 1944- many people found other uses for their shelters; they were particularly useful for storing bikes and garden tools. The Government were concerned but realized that they could not do much about it. They had to draw the line somewhere, however, and when they heard that Anderson Shelters were being used as hen runs, they asked local authorities to take steps to discourage the practice.

After the first of Hitler's "Victory" weapons -the V1 flying bombs- reached England on the night of June 12/13th 1944, one week after the Normandy landings, the demand for shelters from Londoners soared. Local authorities around the country held large stocks of Morrison Shelters and these were immediately transferred to London. Even this could not satisfy the demand and the production of a further 100,000 was authorized. An appeal was also launched on July 4th in areas not considered to be under threat, including the Blaydon District, for people with Morrison Shelters to give them up so they could be sent down to London. The appeal was very successful and by mid-September the demand had been met and the Minister of Home Security, Herbert Morrison, sent a letter on September 25th thanking everyone for the response to the appeal.

With the end of the war in Europe the government set about recovering the Anderson and Morrison Shelters which had been supplied free of charge. Holders were told to dismantle the shelters and store the components until such time as they could be collected. Boy Scouts were mobilized to assist households with no able-bodied men -a high proportion at that time. Anyone wishing to keep their shelter components could purchase them at a modest cost: £1 for an Anderson and £1-10s-0d (£1.50) for a Morrison. Many took up this offer and used the corrugated sheets as part of a garden shed or garage. Public and Communal Shelters were closed immediately after V.E. day and were demolished as soon as possible -those which obstructed roads and streets came down first. The demolition of the shelters certainly helped one man. William Carr Johnson, the owner of Ryton Service Station, wanted to extend his garage but building materials were very difficult to obtain. He asked his local council if he could purchase the bricks from their shelters. The Council agreed but they warned him that he was unlikely to find many in a usable condition. Mr Johnson was no fool, he had examined the shelters and realized that the quality of the mortar was very poor. He ended up with 31,000 bricks in almost perfect condition for a token payment.

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