Listening to the Past

FO IN CUS Listening to the past ABOVE Overlooking the Royal Border Decoding the secrets of a Berwick- Bridge and River Tweed, this Berwick-upon- Tweed garden boasts a strategic position and, during the Second World War, became upon-Tweed air raid shelter. home to an enigmatic air raid shelter. Archaeological investigation of what was thought to be record, and excavate the shelter ahead an intact Second World War air raid shelter, preserved of its removal. What this undertaking uncovered would surprise the entire in the back garden of a Berwick-upon-Tweed home, project team. quickly revealed that all was not as it seemed. John Bowman, Andrew Marriott, and Tom Whitfield explain BREAKING WITH TRADITION? more about this surprising structure. Even as the project began, our initial visual assessment suggested that fter retiring to 1939 and 1945, but as most were the structure did not conform to Berwick-upon-Tweed, dismantled shortly after the end of the norms expected of an Anderson archaeologist Lindsay the war, few survive intact today – shelter. These had been built to a Allason-Jones was and so Lindsay offered the shelter for very standardised design, with six intrigued to become the relocation to the Beamish Museum, iron sheets bolted together at the Aowner of what had been described in an open-air site in Co. Durham that top, and steel plates at each end to the sales particulars of her new home tells the story of the North-East in form an arched building measuring (a Victorian villa overlooking the Royal the 1820s, 1900s, and 1940s. She 6’6” by 4’6”. The corrugated metal Border Railway Bridge to the south) as a wanted to find out more about the was very resilient to compressive ‘Second World War domestic Anderson structure but, as a national expert in forces like a bomb blast, and for air raid shelter’, which occupied part of Roman material culture, this was not further protection, each shelter was Lindsay Allason-Jones her back garden. her period – and so, last year, Lindsay sunk about a third into the ground Over three million of these called on colleagues from Newcastle with more earth heaped on top (in structures were created between University to come and survey, which some enterprising owners ALL IMAGES: 52 NOVEMBER 2017 IN FOCUS LEFT Anderson shelters were supplied in kit form and built to a standardised design. Over three million such structures appeared in domestic back gardens during the Second World War. at the shelter’s northern end, to learn more about the condition and construction of its exterior. Here too, though, we quickly found further unexpected elements of its design. The 1939 Home Office Directions for the Erection and Sinking of the Galvanised Corrugated Steel Shelter, which instructed householders on grew vegetables to boost their ration- from the traditional design was a how to construct their air raid shelter, restricted diet). Lindsay’s structure supporting brick ‘dwarf’ wall that recommends that the Anderson was entirely subterranean, however, allowed an internal head height model should be covered by at least dug into the hillside and entered via a of about 6”. Its well-laid concrete 15” of soil – yet beneath a layer of brick passageway bearing a corrugated floor was less surprising, though; earth a few inches thicker than this, iron roof capped in concrete. An such surfaces were often added to we struck not the expected corrugated Anderson shelter would normally Anderson shelters by those who metal of an Anderson roof, but have had a much more rudimentary could afford them, as the structures concrete. Intrigued, we followed this entrance, facing the back wall of were notorious (and increasingly material to the north, east, and west. the house (which, here, would unpopular) for being prone to To the east, the concrete continued mean pointing north, not south) to flooding. Yet the rest testified loudly under the boundary hedge of a lend extra protection against flying to all not being right with the neighbouring garden – which we did splinters during an air raid. shelter’s initial interpretation. It was not disturb by pursuing the structure This shelter was also around three time to examine the site more closely. further in this direction – but it was feet longer and slightly narrower than With the visual survey complete, interesting to note that the hedge expected, while another divergence we decided to open a single trench began as privet, but for the entire ➡ LEFT The concrete shelter lay beneath a hedge between two gardens – today, this boundary is of mixed planting, reflecting the earlier disturbance. The structure has an unusual design, with a brick entrance passageway (shown below). IssUE 332 53 length of the shelter and passage it was of mixed planting, only returning to privet as the boundary passed south of the shelter – clearly, the original hedge had been removed to accommodate the structure’s construction. To the north and west, the shelter was excavated to its base – a depth LEFT Period features: inside, the shelter of almost 8ft below ground level – was partly timber-lined, and furnished with where we uncovered a compacted shelves, a bench, and Bakelite power sockets. hardcore surface which was overlain within the dwelling. Whatever its we could clearly see the words ‘AIR by the shelter’s unusual concrete source, the cable ran through the RAID SHELTER’ factory stencilled in encasement. This casing measured conduit into the shelter’s wall where black on a semi-circular metal plate, about 11” thick on top of the shelter, it met, and was competently divided together with some more exposed and around 6” on its walls. It was on to feed, switched light and power lettering that was worn and harder to the northern elevation of the shelter sockets. Both were made of Bakelite, discern. Fortunately, a visitor to the that we found the first clue to its a material that was hugely popular in house (a retired solicitor) was able to function. the 1930s and 1940s, suggesting that transcribe these enigmatic words as they were original fittings. ‘WILMOT’S FORTRESS’. This was a EXPLORING THE SHELTER These were not the only hints particularly illuminating inscription Passing through the concrete and of how the structure had been as it suggests that the prefabricated entering the structure was a cast- furnished: inside, both gable ends elements of the shelter, or ‘fortress’, iron conduit drainage pipe bent at had been timber lined from the top of as we might now call it, had probably 90 degrees, from which protruded a the dwarf wall to the ceiling, and at been made by S M Wilmot & Co Ltd, short length of lead-encased electrical the northern end we found traces of a Bristol company who had produced cable. The top of the pipe broke shelving, the rotted remains of which a wide range of agricultural structures ground at a height greater than the lay on the floor. A wooden bench lay in galvanised iron and steel before bottom of the house wall (which lay along the western wall, together with and during the Second World War. In nearby to the north), suggesting that some butt hinges of unclear function, fact, a henhouse marketed as Wilmot’s the electrical supply did not come and in the southern wall stood a ‘Palace’ is particularly reminiscent from the house – and, moreover, an double door, its timber faces sheathed of the Berwick-upon-Tweed shelter, electrician who had very recently in tin, which was secured with a incorporating as it does a similar worked on the house’s wiring had simple locking mechanism. pressed corrugated arch with a found no evidence for a connection On the outside, just above the door, galvanised sheet forming its end piece. Given its inscription, though, this structure does seem to have been an air raid shelter of some kind, albeit not one built on the domestic Anderson model. What, then, was it for? Berwick-upon-Tweed experienced air raids during the Second World War, and the Royal Border Bridge – which spans the River Tweed and carried the LNER railway line – was a sufficiently important asset to justify special attention. Although Lindsay’s shelter was probably not for domestic LEFT The words ‘air raid shelter’ can be clearly stencilled above the structure’s door. This building did not follow the Anderson model, though. 54 NOVEMBER 2017 IN FOCUS use – something suggested by its interceptors, to help carry out shelter in his father’s back garden? unusual design, and the expenditure their operations. This latter group, Such ideas were lent further credence of so many vital resources like known as VIs, were often retired not long afterwards, when post- concrete, bricks, and electricity that radio operators or amateur radio excavation landscaping works to the went into its construction, which enthusiasts, and were required to be garden uncovered what is thought seems contrary to the idea of wartime able to transcribe incoming messages to be the probable base of a radio austerity – it could plausibly have had in Morse code, often encrypted, at mast just beside the garden path: a some kind of official function. This high speed. This information could substantial square of concrete that might explain the apparent lack of then be passed on to the codebreakers went down several feet into the earth need to honour neighbourly niceties at the Government Code and Cypher and had wires coming out of it. A in respecting the boundary with next School based at Bletchley Park in section of what may have been part of door’s garden. Buckinghamshire. the mast itself was found dumped at The location of the two gardens It seems eminently possible that the the bottom of the garden.

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