Taking shelter in Worcester as German bombers flew overhead

It seems that many people opted for the safety of their own cellars during the many air raids of the period, rather than the public shelters constructed across the city.

As Brian Pingriff recalled: “When war was declared against Germany in the autumn of 1939, I was three-and-a-half years old and living in Lower Chestnut Street in the Arboretum.

“A large air raid shelter had been built of brick with a thick concrete flat roof and situated on the opposite side of the road.

A reconstruction drawing of the air raid shelter (and a World War Two water tank) on the field behind Lower Chestnut Street, produced by Maurice Jones for the Defence of Worcestershire project

“Another shelter had been erected in a field at the rear of the houses. It had a curved roof which was covered by soil and grass.

“Strangely no one ever used the shelters preferring their cellars during an air raid which were in all the terraced houses.

“An air raid siren was situated near Shrub Hill Station and at night when it sounded my parents would carry me down into the cellar. We then sat on the bottom cold step with just a candle for light. No house was allowed to show any light outside and the street lighting was turned off.

“The German bombers always flew over the house and their engines made an intermittent sound which I can still hear as I write.”

A view along Northfield Street in 1979. The large white Georgian buildings of Lansdowne Crescent can be seen in the distance

Others made their own provisions for shelter by building their own.

Neil Sharpe got in touch to share a story that he’d discovered about his home in St John’s, recounted by a previous occupant: “My father built an underground shelter for us to use during the war – opposite a greenhouse.

“We only had one bomb dropped locally – at the very top end of the garden – it blew the glass out of some of the house windows on the west end of the house!

“But we were able to keep some chickens in the garden who laid eggs for us and some pigs in the stable who gave us some much-enjoyed meat and bacon at a time when food was rationed.”

Neil was able to relay that the location of the shelter is marked by a sunken part of the back yard which may have been the entrance.

Returning to Brian Pingriff’s experiences, the war must have felt very real, on the evening of November 14 1940, when his father called him and his mother out to the street.

“Many people were standing silently looking down the street. At the bottom was the Worcester Canal and beyond, a row of white Georgian houses.

“The whole of the sky above the houses was brilliant red, far more fiery than any sunset. My Father turned and whispered, ‘It is Coventry on fire’.”

Worcester Life Stories

Worcester Life Stories is a collaborative project bringing local people together through shared stories of the City of Worcester.

It is co-led by Dr Natasha Lord, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust and Sheena Payne-Lunn, Worcester City Council and funded thanks to National Lottery players.

For further information or to share your stories visit worcesterlifestories.org.uk, our Facebook page or Twitter @worlifestories.

You can also email worcesterlifestories@gmail.com or call 01905 721133.

And why not visit the We grew up in Worcester page on Facebook?