| Click Images for Larger View |
|
|
Realising that there was a need to produce a relatively cheap domestic shelter to help protect the mass population of Great Britain from a potential, and almost certain danger of attack, from bombing. The then Home Secretary Sir John Anderson presented his problem to one of the most respected engineers of his time,William Paterson.
Preston, along with his co-director Oscar Carl Kerrison, |
|
|
|
set to and produced within a week the first blueprint of the new shelter and, within a fortnight, the first model.
The blueprint, along with the model, was then presented to the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for examination and evaluation by three experts: Mr David Anderson; Mr Bertram Lawrence Hurst and Sir Henry Jupp.
Their report on the new shelter was favourable, and by the end of February 1939 the first 'Anderson' shelters (named after David Anderson and not, as many people thought, Sir John Anderson) had been delivered to householders in Islington, North London.
|
|
| The Anderson was by far the most popular shelter that by September of 1940 over 2.3 million of them had been distributed country wide. |
|
|
| |
|
| The Anderson was small and just enough room for 6 people |
|
|
The shelters were free to those that earned less than £250 a year with a charge of £7 made to those that were on a higher income.
The Anderson could hold up to 6 people and normally erected in the garden of any home that has room for one.
It was made from six corrugated curved steel sheets which formed the sides and roof and two end pieces for the back and front of the shelter. |
|
The shelter, when erected, measured 6 feet (1.8m) high, 4½ feet (1.4m) wide and 6½ feet (2m) long.
First, a shallow pit of about 3ft had to be dug measuring about ten feet by four feet. Then the six corrugated steel sheet sides were bolted together.
The curved ends forming the roof of the shelter. The rear section was put into place followed by the front, with provision for a doorway. |
|
|
|
The shelters were then covered in a thick layer of earth (15" depth on top and 30" on sides and back). |
|
| It was said the Anderson Shelter could withstand almost anything but a direct hit. |
|
|
| |
|
|
Families made the best of their shelters and usually kept books, non perishable foods and toilet facilities in the shelter.
Although advised against it for health reasons, toilets meant a bucket in the corner in case of emergencies.
The soil which was piled on top of the shelter also made an ideal place to grow vegetables for the family. |
|
It was hoped that people would use their shelters every night for sleeping in. At least those who had them.
Many people did not. Especially those who lived in towns and cities.
At first people did use their shelters every night, but after a while most did not. Preferring their own home comforts than a dark cold shelter.
The drawbacks of the Anderson was that it flooded easily and families spent more time bailing them out than sheltering in them. The space inside the shelter was very small, especially for a family to sleep in.
|
|
|
|
Neither did it keep out the noise. Especially during an air raid.
War-time shortages of steel also meant that after a time the Anderson had to stopped being produced.
Anderson's were often constructed in a hurry which meant they were also unsafe because of the shortages of cement, which would have made them a more sturdy construction.
The force of a bomb going off nearby would make them collapse and people eventually became too frightened to use them. |
| |
|
|
Although the Anderson was, in principle, a good idea it only applied to about 27% of the total population as many people did not have their own gardens in which to erect the Anderson Shelter.
Those with young children were more likely to use the shelter than those without. Yet after a while even they were reluctant |
|
to use them unless they really had to. |
|
But night after night during the bombing raids it became very much a necessity.
The air raid siren would sound - the children would be woken and hurriedly ushered from their beds, and half asleep they would trudge wearily to the garden to spend yet another night huddled on some make shift bed in a dark, damp cold shelter - waiting for the all clear to sound and praying that the nearby explosions would not come any closer. |
|
|
|
For those whose who did not have the luxury of a back garden to build an Anderson shelter there was an alternative.
The Morrison Shelter .................. |
|
|
