Rushden Research Group: Air Raid Shelters WWII

Air Raid Shelters in WWII

Air Raid Shelter at Bus Garage Photos Courtesy of Trevor Walker, 2016

Entrance from Bus Garage	Going inside	Door into Rectory Garden
		A series of photos taken by Trevor Walker to record this building shortly before demolition in 2014. The entrance was from inside the old bus garage, and led through to a door at the back which gave access, via quite a big drop, into the Rectory Garden.
The open door	and from the Rectory Grounds

Notes from Ken Smith, 2023

Air Raid Shelters

There were three underground shelters in the town. One in Church Parade between Jim Knight’s barber shop and the Y.M.C.A., another at the Lightstrung, where the pizza and chip shops are now, and the third on the Higham Hill and Washbrook corner. (A bungalow was built on the site later - Bruno's Corner)

They were concrete sections bolted together, about 30 feet long, ten feet wide, and eight feet high, and set about six feet into the ground, and the excavated soil heaped over the top. Steps went down at one end, with a blackout curtain over the doorway, and an emergency exit at the other end via a vertical ladder to a pathway.