Air Raid Shelters
Recently Mr Stephen Farrow of 5 Flixborough Rd., kindly donated a WWII Air Raid shelter that was originally placed at the property by the Gray family who had lived there from 1924 until 1999. The final place for this shelter has not been fully decided yet by BSHG but at the moment (Dec 2013) it can be seen at The Ferry House Inn, Burton upon Stather.
A friend of BSHG, Mr Stuart Nicholson who is a previous owner of 5 Flixborough Rd., has been able to provide us with further pictures from 1999 taken by his daughter Shona. These show the house before work started on modernisation and clearly show the shelter in relation to the house and other original outbuildings. Interestingly he has also provided us with copy of the original deeds written when the property was purchased as a parcel of land on 30th June 1924 from Sir B.G.D Sheffield Bart. and Others by Mr Henry John Gray who had the house built on a double plot of land.
Anderson Shelters were issued free to all householders who earned less than £5 a week, those with a higher income were charged £7. There were 1.5 million shelters of this type distributed from February 1939 to the outbreak of war. During the war a further 2.1 million were erected.
Flixborough Rd seemed to have been a more affluent area of Burton upon Stather during that time and Stuart tells us that a number of the houses along that side of Flixborough Rd. had much fancier WWII Air Raid Shelters than the standard government issue Anderson Shelter, the one at No. 5 being a case in point.
So it seems that the shelter Mr Farrow donated to BSHG of reinforced concrete bolted together in sections, is similar to a Stanton Shelter. Stanton Shelter - manufactured by the Stanton Ironworks of Ilkeston and could be constructed in any length, each segment of pre-cast reinforced concrete being 20 inches wide with two segments forming a 7ft arch. Stanton Shelter's were used mainly by the Air Ministry during WWII.
If anyone has any further information we would be pleased to hear from you.