Jump to content

Potential bomb shelter in our garden?


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, mounsey said:

PS if it is like this the layer of concrete (middle) is at least 4 inches thick - as there is an area where I can see it looks like a former resident has "had a go" - at chipping away / down on one section. They must have given up though as with 3-4 inches in, no sign of anything different.. just more concrete! There's every chance it is ALL filled in - but that would be odd too. A real mystery..

It was just the (apparent) lifting eyes that made me think of that type of cover but I don't see how the edges of one of those would come away as yours did. I am definitely no expert on such things but from memory even a heavy duty one, perhaps 10 ton load bearing, would only be recessed for about  2½ to 3 inches for fill by concrete or tarmac etc. I doubt any kind of large chamber would be totally filled with concrete, if only because of the cost.

Again I may be wrong but I doubt an air raid shelter would only be accessed through a hatch in the top, surely there would have to be another entrance so presuming it is a shelter and it was not originally built in to a bank is there any sign on the ground that there may have been steps down at one end. Please keep up the investigation, it is enthralling, though it sounds like a lot of probing / digging will be necessary

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, boginspro said:

It was just the (apparent) lifting eyes that made me think of that type of cover but I don't see how the edges of one of those would come away as yours did. I am definitely no expert on such things but from memory even a heavy duty one, perhaps 10 ton load bearing, would only be recessed for about  2½ to 3 inches for fill by concrete or tarmac etc. I doubt any kind of large chamber would be totally filled with concrete, if only because of the cost.

Again I may be wrong but I doubt an air raid shelter would only be accessed through a hatch in the top, surely there would have to be another entrance so presuming it is a shelter and it was not originally built in to a bank is there any sign on the ground that there may have been steps down at one end. Please keep up the investigation, it is enthralling, though it sounds like a lot of probing / digging will be necessary

Hi there. Oh, worry not - I don't intend to give on this mystery any time soon! - the problem will be time, as obviously I can only look into this at weekends - and only occasional ones at that.

Here are a couple of bang up to date images - make sure you read my accompanying updated notes too:

1. I've temporarily moved the bird bath + square (small) paving slab we've had on top (as neither were attached).

2. Unfortunately ZERO sign of any markings underneath - i.e. NO indication of a plaque / notice having been removed etc.

3. Ignore the smaller square "border" - that's simply where the small paving slab was - i.e. debris etc. from around the edges.

4. Likewise, ignore the apparent sign of metal in the middle area. This is also just debris (twigs etc.).

5. This doesn't give a true impression of the raised nature of the rectangular central area. It's a fair few inches.

6. NO sign of any other potential entrances / exits (sadly!)

John.

IMG_20180606_202035.jpg

IMG_20180606_202044.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quick update for you folks. I've continued to chip away at the corner (lower-left on this new image). Still no sign of a gap, nor "hole" - but I'll keep going! (a few inches down / in now).

Also.. as another tactic, I've started clearing away more of the grass / earth (see top left section of this picture). This is (now) roughly where the concrete seems to end.

The picture still does show the "mound" nature of this (though it is fairly subtle) - with that rectangular section higher up than the rest, which is the "mount" bit (the rectangular area being flat).

I'll keep chipping away and update accordingly! Next part (weekend coming) will be to find the outer edge of the concrete are all the way around (continuing from top-left corner).

John.

IMG_20180609_132200.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you considered that it may have been be a base for something to be fixed to, rather than covering a void?  For example a statue, or weather station or other equipment. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Be careful when you chip away at it, it might be a capping for a shaft or well. Try looking at old maps for the word 'shaft' or similar.

I'd be tempted to drill a 10mm hole though it in the centre and send through a borescope. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plumbing-Tools-Plumbing-Job-Lot-Plumber-Inspection-Camera-Mechanic-Hand-Tools-/263461220159

Old shafts are very common. I know someone who dug through something like this in the yard of a house in Nottingham and uncovered a 40 foot well shaft. The garden of my mother-in-law's house in Devon also has an old shaft for a silver mine in it, which has a concrete cap. Lastly, there's a house I once visited in Leicestershire where they have a thick glass panel in the floor of their kitchen. During alterations their builder had uncovered a well with water about 10 feet down, so they decided to illuminate it to turn it into a feature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember a few holes, one in the area of Lyons Street was a pit shaft covered with a large concrete slab,pushed aside by the dozer driver, luckily he stopped in time it would have swallowed him, another at Woodhouse we had nearly finished the job and were tidying up, there was a piece of flagstone in the middle of the site and as I lifted it there was a 12 foot wide cistern underneath about ten foot deep shaped like a bell, another at Commonside was a domestic well in a backyard about 20 foot deep with a hollowed out log down the middle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Sheffield Corporation Electric Supply Department

Not saying these photos are connected with the above mystery but thought I'd upload them as I only saw them for the first time yesterday ! Corner of Napier St and Somerfield St.

Top.jpg

Bottom.jpg

Full.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We seem to have got you thinking you may drop into an abyss now  mounsey , and everyone is quite right to advise some caution. Though it would be a shame  ( just for the mystery )  if it turned out to be a base for something like Edmund  said, at least you would know you had not got a large void under your garden.  Whichever way it turns out the investigation is very interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like we shall never know.

Shame really, I was looking forward to some kind of resolution/conclusion to this mystery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Casting my mind back to the Anderson shelter in our neighbour's garden when I was growing up, the roof was curved down into the ground in a sort of semi-circle with earth over (the mound), and there was a concrete wall at each end. One end had the entrance, so you went in down steps and through a small vertical door. There was another wall in front of the steps, presumably for extra blast protection.  I don't remember there being a top hatch. Mum's neighbour later on still had one, so I have photos somewhere if I can find them. .  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to resurrect the old thread.....I came across it looking for something else,  however I have read this far & I am curious if you ever got into it!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found these two a while ago, one is in the wall of the Taylors Eye Witness Works  I've turned it round so its easier to view, the asphalt on the left is actually the footpath, the other one is at 27 Wilkinson Street.

 

Air raid hatch.jpg

Air Raid Cover 27 WilkinsonSt.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎18‎/‎09‎/‎2019 at 13:23, binbagwarrior said:

Sorry to resurrect the old thread.....I came across it looking for something else,  however I have read this far & I am curious if you ever got into it!!

Todays generation would never get through it. lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/06/2018 at 09:44, neddy said:

I remember a few holes, one in the area of Lyons Street was a pit shaft covered with a large concrete slab,pushed aside by the dozer driver, luckily he stopped in time it would have swallowed him, another at Woodhouse we had nearly finished the job and were tidying up, there was a piece of flagstone in the middle of the site and as I lifted it there was a 12 foot wide cistern underneath about ten foot deep shaped like a bell, another at Commonside was a domestic well in a backyard about 20 foot deep with a hollowed out log down the middle.

Neddy - regarding Commonside - can you remember whereabouts this was? My family used to live at 36, where the bungalows are now, and I know that when the houses were demolished the gang had no idea that there was a well in the back yard, and were somewhat startled when my gran told them!

If anyone has any photos of the houses between what became the hospital and the bottom of Hands Lane/Road, I would be extremely interested. Numbers 36 to 50.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, deltics said:

Neddy - regarding Commonside - can you remember whereabouts this was? My family used to live at 36, where the bungalows are now, and I know that when the houses were demolished the gang had no idea that there was a well in the back yard, and were somewhat startled when my gran told them!

If anyone has any photos of the houses between what became the hospital and the bottom of Hands Lane/Road, I would be extremely interested. Numbers 36 to 50.

The one at Commonside was on Hands, as I remember the well was at the bottom of the gardens, a fella I knew lived on there Derek Myers, R.I.P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Neddy, I remember Hands Road very well, my gran's family were friends with a chap called Joe (?) Owen who lived, I think, on Mona Road so I remember the street from my childhood. I didn't know that wells in yards were so common, I'll be more careful next time I dig the garden!

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, deltics said:

Thanks Neddy, I remember Hands Road very well, my gran's family were friends with a chap called Joe (?) Owen who lived, I think, on Mona Road so I remember the street from my childhood. I didn't know that wells in yards were so common, I'll be more careful next time I dig the garden!

Chris

Looking at maps the site where the bungalows are would be about right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lol ... I know that the houses were pulled down in 1974, an appalling decision as it would have been much cheaper to invest in upgrading them, even though they were very old. There was a patch of open land at the bottom of Hands lane by then where three (?) smell houses once stood on the corner of Commonside and Hands Lane, on the opposite side to the Closed Shop pub. The houses had decent front gardens but, of course, nobody used the front doors and the way in was by the back lane.

I was brought up in Sunderland so my visits to Sheffield tended to be at Christmas. Dad had a car (he was a teacher!) and to get into the lane he had to drive onto the car park behind the Closed Shop and down the kerb, across Hands Lane and between the rather narrow gateposts that guarded the entry into the yard, after warning people to lift their washing out of the way! There was a block of toilets on the left, then wash-houses for the houses themselves. 36 was the very end one, next to the wall separating it from what was, by the early 1970s, a hospital. It's now a retirement home, but originally must have been an impressive private residence with servants and the like. Anyone confirm its name as the one Dad called it doesn't match that on the map I have from roughly 1903.

Dad suggested that the Commonside houses had one belonged to the 'big house' and had been for domestic staff and the like. This might explain why the wash-house for 36 had a collection of equipment more suited to a stable or somewhere with horses. Had the original residents been ostlers? Dad suggested that the lane was the original access to the 'big house' and that the current entrance point on Commonside itself, much nearer the 'Old Bank,' was a much later addition but, sadly, he passed away before we could complete the jigsaw.

What he did say was about the well, which must have been roughly behind no. 40 or 42. He described it as a bell shape, much wider at the base than the top, which sounds terrifying. It's strange to think that I can remember people who can remember drawing water from a well and not from a tap in the kitchen. Tell that to fowk today and they won't believe you ... It's a fact!

You've stirred up some very fond memories and, as it's Easter and I've just broken my fast, I am raising a glass to you in thanks.

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, deltics said:

lol ... I know that the houses were pulled down in 1974, an appalling decision as it would have been much cheaper to invest in upgrading them, even though they were very old. There was a patch of open land at the bottom of Hands lane by then where three (?) smell houses once stood on the corner of Commonside and Hands Lane, on the opposite side to the Closed Shop pub. The houses had decent front gardens but, of course, nobody used the front doors and the way in was by the back lane.

I was brought up in Sunderland so my visits to Sheffield tended to be at Christmas. Dad had a car (he was a teacher!) and to get into the lane he had to drive onto the car park behind the Closed Shop and down the kerb, across Hands Lane and between the rather narrow gateposts that guarded the entry into the yard, after warning people to lift their washing out of the way! There was a block of toilets on the left, then wash-houses for the houses themselves. 36 was the very end one, next to the wall separating it from what was, by the early 1970s, a hospital. It's now a retirement home, but originally must have been an impressive private residence with servants and the like. Anyone confirm its name as the one Dad called it doesn't match that on the map I have from roughly 1903.

Dad suggested that the Commonside houses had one belonged to the 'big house' and had been for domestic staff and the like. This might explain why the wash-house for 36 had a collection of equipment more suited to a stable or somewhere with horses. Had the original residents been ostlers? Dad suggested that the lane was the original access to the 'big house' and that the current entrance point on Commonside itself, much nearer the 'Old Bank,' was a much later addition but, sadly, he passed away before we could complete the jigsaw.

What he did say was about the well, which must have been roughly behind no. 40 or 42. He described it as a bell shape, much wider at the base than the top, which sounds terrifying. It's strange to think that I can remember people who can remember drawing water from a well and not from a tap in the kitchen. Tell that to fowk today and they won't believe you ... It's a fact!

You've stirred up some very fond memories and, as it's Easter and I've just broken my fast, I am raising a glass to you in thanks.

Chris

I do remember the Hospital type building, we demolished some other properties in the area, it was a bank holiday I think, and there was a fella from there used to hang around while we were working, think he had mental problems, we jokingly asked him to look after some timbers we left there until after the holiday, when we got back he'd cleared the timber and took it to the hospital/home, we had to fetch it back with the lorry, Marmaduke was his name.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never knew the guy but,yes, sounds about right. Once upon a time we would have accepted people like that and regarded them as part of life's rich tapestry. Nowadays, there's a Social Services 'care plan' in place and everything they do is monitored. Got to keep the loonies on the path ...

So YOU'RE the vandal who pulled down a perfectly good house! Outside toilet, well in t'yard, cellar for coal, cold tap in the kitchen, Yorkshire pudding sizzling on the range (for starters, fills you up so you don't want as much meat course...) Luxury beyond belief!

Daft thing is, nostalgia and being a kid at the time and all that aside, I'd move back now if I could. 'Er indoors could do with a bit exercise, laying fires and the like ...

Chris, pragmatic as ever

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 04/06/2018 at 05:11, Gordon crapper said:

The Anderson shelter was the normal domestic one, corrugated steel with an arched shape, buried about 6 feet but with the top showing.  I slept through the blitz in ours!

So did our family and houses on fire on Hunters lane Sheffield.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...