Air Raid Shelters etc

On a personal note, working on the Blitz has got me thinking about my own house and its history. Does anyone know how I would go about finding out a) if my garden would have had a shelter or b) where my nearest communal shelter would be? I'm fascinated and want to know more about my house/street and what happened. Is it all in the History Centre at the Herbert? I'm near Hearsall Common, I've heard there was a communal shelter there but I don't know whereabouts.

Good luck with that Siobhan. I've been trying to find the origin of a concrete bunker situated behind the Hearsall Inn in Hearsall Lane. It may or may not have been a communal air raid shelter? The whole site was left derelict for decades after the war. I understand that part of the story. The brewery had wanted to turn the site into a customer car park but the council objected on the grounds that it would interfere with traffic on the main road. An entrance was eventually created on the Craven Street side of the site and the bunker is no longer there.

I can remember a concrete shelter in Stoke Aldermoor, at the junction of the Barley Lea and the Moorfield. We lived just yards from it in a prefab, and I can even remember when it was demolished in the early 1950's. They used a crane with a wrecking ball to take it down. Very exciting stuff for a young boy to watch! On a similar note, can anyone remember the "static water tanks"? These were built to provide a source of water for the firemen during air-raids. I know there was one in Jordan Well, at the corner (I think) of Much Park Street. I imagine there were others located around the city centre.

Not half. I was so used to seeing it I continued to imagine it was there long after the Godiva pub was built on the site! I believe the basement of the original Marks & Spencer store in Smithford Street was also left flooded until it was eventually redeveloped as the underground toilets in the Upper Precinct.

I think there were a number of large shelters between the allotments and Hearsall Lane near to the traffic lights. Certainly up until recently the shape of them could be made out above ground. There was also a small childrens' playground there which I remember playing on in the 1950s with swings and a roundabout.

I remember the air raid shelter in Coronation Road being demolished by a crane with a wrecking ball, as you say it was exciting to watch. Tricia

I remember as a kid in the early to mid 1960's. They were digging out the start of the "new" ring road at Hill Street. At the junction where the subway came out (directly opposite where Mosely Warehouse is (or was), there was a full underground air raid shelter there. It would have housed perhaps 15 - 20 people. It was just a concrete shelter with a wooden bench running either side for people to sit on. I remember playing inside before they filled it all in!

The static water tanks, most of which were still there in 1950, were essentially the basements of bombed-out buildings. I seem to remember that the girder framework that later became the Co-op department store also had a flooded basement area for some time.

The large green in Jubilee Crescent houses quite a large air raid shelter I am led to believe. It was opened up in the late 90's I think. Some say it had kitchens and store rooms, living rooms and all that. But I can't confirm that as I have no info or pics.

And this appeared in todays Coventry Telegraph regarding an air-raid shelter discovered in the Memorial Park. Telegraph article Edited by Midland Red, 16th Dec 2017 10:15 am (Dead-link re-established)

I know exactly where that shelter is, I always point it out to my grandson when we are in the park. Great news that they are going to excavate it, he will be really pleased.

If you are looking for air-raid shelters then take a look at the Radford Common, as you look from the Radford Road you will see a hump stretching from left to right, underneath is one or more shelters. As a kid I used to play in the shelters until the Council filled them in but still intact, it would be a great project to reopen them, and I bet my name (with about hundred others) will be scribbled on the concrete walls. Well you never know. Anyway I would like to have another look. Colin.

Really interesting, RK - any idea on the size of them, and how many folk they may have catered for?

Whereabouts in the Memorial is that? Probably walked past it a hundred times and never realised....

Hello NeilsYard, as a kid I only remember going in one shelter that was the one to the right.as viewed from the Radford Road. the others were semi filled in (why? I don't know) Have to remember we are talking some 55 years ago now, gulp. That's all I can tell you, hope it throws some light on the subject for you. Colin