North Prospect School Air Raid Shelters

During the regeneration of North Prospect in Summer of last year, another two WWII air raid shelters were discovered within days of each other during demolition work on the school. Last documented in 1989, when work on a new playground was halted after groundworkers broke through a roof section of the southern shelter, the smaller of the two, but this time round the larger north shelter had been uncovered too & archaeologists from Exeter were able to document both before their demolition. We managed to grab some exclusive photos from the southern shelter only & what follows is our account, with some fantastic graffiti from the period but very little artefacts left lying around.

Filled in stairwell of the original entrance

Infill through one of the escape hatches

Making the way through to the next section

Section of shelter with roof collapse & toilet cubicles

As you can see, this was one of the squarer type of construction with the precast sections & girders fitted additionally for extra strength at a later date. Some of the girders were found to have a combination British Steel & Earl of Dudley Steel markings on them indicating these were manufactured in the Midlands, although it is thought the concrete sections originate from quarries in Cornwall. One section of the shelter had suffered major roof collapse near to one of the toilet blocks.

Looking down a section of shelter with the passageway to the right leading to entrance

Torchlight shines from the distant passageway

A view showing the steel girders added for extra strength

Crumbling sandstone from the walls of the shelter

Earl of Dudley Steel girder section

The graffiti varied from child's drawings to adult humor & rude sketches, some of which would have shocked the schoolkids of the time & I wonder if the drawings came from older teenagers or adults. Maps of the 2 shelters were sketched onto one section, an almost cartoon sketch of Winston Churchill adorned another, name calling & random signatures could be found in other areas on the walls. For it's size, it contained a fair amount of graffiti & we documented what we could find in the time that we had.

Barrage balloon & banter

Jack

Postbox

Shelter map

Name calling scirbbled out

More examples of name calling

Sir Winston

Pat Brookes

Luftwaffe aircraft

Mary had a little lamb....the rude version 1940's style

No.2 Class Section

Candle with pin through found atop a girder just inside the entrance to the shelter

Although the pencil sketches were great in number, the artefacts were much fewer with by far the best being a candle made of pigs fat with a pin through for the holder. This was found on top of the girder immediately next to the entrance. This would have seen use during the raids no doubt. We were told a couple of years before they were uncovered that there was a shower block in one of the shelters but looking the archaeologist's plans, there was no evidence to support this. 

Shelter sections piled up awaiting disposal from the northern playground shelter

Another view of the shelter sections

Notice the heras fencing in the foreground covering the exposed sections of air raid shelter in the northern playground

A few days later, we were passing on a lunch break from work when we noticed a pile of shelter rubble & pulled over to grab a few photos on the camera phone, making them probably the last photos of the now demolished shelters. There we have it, another 2 have gone but how many remain is anyone's guess!

Were you a child who sheltered here during WWII? Do you have a member fo family who attended the school with memories of the Plymouth Blitz? If so please get in touch as we would appreciate any stories to add to the archives. Contact us via info@hiddenplymouth.co.uk

Defenders of the Skies - Plymouth's WWII Anti-Aircraft Defences

"The sound of the ack-ack boomed around the estuary at the waves of Luftwaffe bombers droning overhead, their payloads smashing down on Plymouth creating great explosions & fire throughout the City. The defenders of the skies were slogging away to try keep the enemy at bay with the Heavy Anti-Aircraft Batteries at Maker Heights pounding the night sky. What will come of the great City of Plymouth?"

A vivid account from a Plymothian who was only 12 at the time, witnessing the sheer ferocity of German attacks & the barrage of defences that surrounded the City, seemingly having little effect on the bombardment that rained down. Over coming months we will look further into the ways that Plymouth was defended from aerial attack focusing on the HAA Batteries that surrounded Plymouth, barrage balloon sites & light anti-aircraft guns that were sited around the streets, manned by US Troops. We will research deeper into each sites history to build a better account of what happened & who manned these important installations.

Maker Heights Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery as it is today

Rusting mountings for 3.7 inch guns

Many sites have been lost to development since the war, although some will still offer archaeological remains just beneath the surface such as the site on farmland near Penlee Nature Reserve. The concrete trackway still remains but all above ground structures were levelled with the return to farmland. A total of ten Heavy Anti-Aircraft Batteries were sited around Plymouth, including Maker Heights, Bere Alston, Carkeel, Plympton & Down Thomas. Over 6 years, we have documented each site carefully to record what now remains before any further loss to development that may happen in the future. Now we want to build on those photographs with unit histories, losses & accounts from the crews who manned them. Sites like this need to be remembered if only for the brave souls that manned the guns. We need your help to raise funds for plaques to be sited at each of the ten locations remembering the crews & will be setting up a fundraising effort in due course.

Relic uncovered from demolished Nissen Huts at an AA Battery site

Arc type emplacements now provide a modern use for farmers

Ammunition lockers inside a HAA Battery emplacement

Barrage Balloon sites were in abundance in & around Plymouth, proving a necessity to help prevent low flying bombers, with locations including Mount Wise, Devonport Park & The Blockhouse, Stoke. The best preserved moorings are to be found at Staddon Heights close to the massive firing range wall but just recently, a hugely important find sheds new light & history of another location that is still under investigation by the team. Add to this another contribution from a reader as to another location in Saltash & it makes for some great results over the 6 years we have been documenting.

Barrage Balloons were sited at The Blockhouse in Stoke 

Balloon mooring points - the best preserved lie atop Staddon Heights

Marking a site at Mount Wise

Here are a couple of old photographs of barrage balloons from back in the day - the first thought to be from Plymouth Sound & the other a fine capture of a 1940's dance on The Hoe, both pictures courtesy of Cyberheritage.

Source: Cyberheritage

Source: Cyberheritage

Do you have any family members who were stationed at sites like these? If so we would love to hear from you & with your help build a history of each unit that served. Any photographs from around the time would be fantastic too although cameras were few & far between back then.

Next time on Defenders of the Skies - Maker HAA Battery.

Plymouth History - Get Involved!

Welcome to our first post of 2013, the year we take Hidden Plymouth to the next chapter & get more interactive with our readers via exhibitions, talks & we are now welcoming more public contributions to our research & online archive. In collaboration with Cyberheritage, we proudly bring you Plymouth Interactive History after months of research & planning, uncovering new stories & photos to add to those already collated in the past by local historians, researchers & archivists before us. Our new online archive will be available to the public from late February, as part of a brand new worldwide resource website launching right here in Plymouth with thousands of images to view. We are currently archiving a collection of over 10,000 slides & photos spannning 50 years that was kindly donated to us. Many of the photos feature old views of Plymouth showing the change throughout the years.

We have a number of drop-in sessions at selected locations in & around Plymouth throughout 2013 & offer a free archiving service of old documents, photographs, negatives & slides. For further information on dates & venues we are coming to please drop us an e-mail to info@hiddenplymouth.co.uk or alternatively, we can arrange for you to pop into our office by appointment only. In turn, these will also be deposited in community & national archives making them accessible to as many people as possible to gain a better understanding of their local history.

Plymouth Interactive History is your history, your stories & visual memories documented for the digital age. It offers a wealth of resources available electronically & to a worldwide audience, that can help in many areas in assisting future research such as your family tree or local history education for schools providing the next generation with tools to research their past & learn about their heritage.

Our first major project is Faces of Plymouth Blitz featuring previously undocumented stories from those who witnessed it first hand. We have had some amazing feedback from Plymothians since our call for stories of WWII memories to add to the archives. As you can imagine, it is a very lengthy process collating all the information & we put out another call for you to step forward take your part in a little bit of Plymouth history. We are in much need of contributions where history is lacking at some vital sites in & surrounding the city during WWII & urge you to get in touch if you have any information on the following areas under ongoing investigation;

• Home Guard in Plymouth & surrounding districts including the highly secretive Auxilliary Units AKA Churchill's Resistance. 
• Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Batteries
• ARP Wardens & Firewatchers, also Fire Guard Messengers who were volunteer children aged between 14-18 
• Air Raid Shelters - How many of you have an Anderson Shelter in your garden? Do you have memories or stories from the times in air raid shelters? Especially looking for further info on the following air raid shelters that have been lost to demolition; Ker Street, Devonport - Pomphlett Quarry Tunnel - Victoria Park - Mount Wise area - North Prospect School - York Street - Devonport Market & Pounds House ARP Control Centre - Millbay Laundry
• Barrage Balloon sites
• Family members who used Nissen Huts for temporary accommodation or shops
• Were you a Blitz baby? Get in touch!

Please get in touch via History Plymouth

We leave you with a photograph recently sent to us from a reader & featured on Cyberheritage....a rare photo showing the bombing of St Andrews Church on March 21st, 1941. Original source of the photograph is unknown therefore please contact us if you hold the copyright & we will gladly credit in due course.

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