Anderson Shelter Rebuild

In my garden there were two Concrete roofed brick shelters. Each held 16 people.
I say “Were”, I removed one of them with a 16lb sledgehammer and a lot of fun. Walls were approx 12″ thick mades from interweaved Engineering brick.
Roof was brick formed (Like you did with lego) then 8 inches of concrete. NO REINFORCING. I had the roof down in 4 hours. A direct hit would have gone straight through…………..but, these shelters were not made to take a hit, they were made to keep you away from rubble and flying glass.

Anderson Shelter

As a small boy I remember Anderson Shelters being delivered to the street were I lived in west London it was just before WWII. I went with my family to our local school the day before to be fitted out with gas masks by the ARP.
I remember when my father and elder brother were digging a hole in our garden for the shelter the air raid siren sounded we thought war had been declared (panic!) soon after the all clear sounded it was only a try out I suppose to see if it worked. During the blitz we had four bunks fitted and slept in the shelter, we had some incendiary bombs dropped in the garden these were dealt with by my father,from time to time we had lumps of shrapnel from the AA guns falling on the house and garden. After the war once the shelter dug up it was erected and used as a motorcycle shed.

Are you going to bury it?
Didn’t they have a problem of filling with water as the depth went below the water table. In which case how are you going to stop it rusting?

We thought about this a lot. Do we go for authentisity and bury it, or go for the easy option and errect it on a concrete base? We went for the latter, mainly because the panels are in such a poor state to start with we felt it would rot away quicker in the ground.

Are you going to bury it?
Didn’t they have a problem of filling with water as the depth went below the water table. In which case how are you going to stop it rusting?

BTW what happened to corrugated iron? As a kid it was used every where and I can remember cutting my hands climbing over it on more than one occasion.

Did you buy it at I**A…? And are there some bolts missing,too?

At least you may have enjoyed the meatballs during your buying experience! And you could have picked up a handy tape measure and pencil. 🙂

Who me? Didn’t buy it. It was going to the tip so was saved. Some panels donated. We have all the bolts but are missing one washer. Also missing panel at rear under escape hatch.

Tony.

Did you buy it at I**A…? And are there some bolts missing,too?

At least you may have enjoyed the meatballs during your buying experience! And you could have picked up a handy tape measure and pencil. 🙂

Incidentally, in the February 1939 instruction manual for the shelter there are some errors. On this page it says, at the top of the list, the sizes are ‘steel channels each 6ft 6″, t sections each 5ft 1 1/2″ and angle sections each 5ft long’. We measured them and they are 7ft 6″, 6ft 1 1/2″ and 6ft respectivley.

Tony.

….sounds like a B&B in Newquay.:eek:

What a great project!

I’d guess you could rent out the shelter on a per night basis to those of us wanting to experience what our parents and grandparents went through.

Moggy

When mine is done you can stay in it with pleasure….but for the full “Gold” experience I’ll throw stones, bits of shrapnel and empty cartridge cases at it periodically through the night and lob in the odd thunderflash. Re-constituted eggs for breakfast.

[ATTACH]208067[/ATTACH] it is rusty but solid, measuring 28″x45″.

Many thanks. I’ll be in touch when I’ve spoken to my partner in chrime.

Tony.

[ATTACH]208067[/ATTACH] it is rusty but solid, measuring 28″x45″.

I have a spare panel (small straight panel) that goes below the door which you could use by cutting off the rotten section and welding it on.I bought 8 shelters some time ago,some sold and some donated to museums,just kept enough to do one myself with a few repair bits.Theres a great assembly video on you tube.

We are missing a panel below the escape hatch at the rear. Is this the same size? What condition is it in?

Yes, I have seen the video. They contacted me before they started for plans.

Tony.

Somewhere, I have the manual for erecting and building one.

I have always fancied building one in my garden, too!

Are these the plans you have? If not then are they better??

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Tony

I have a spare panel (small straight panel) that goes below the door which you could use by cutting off the rotten section and welding it on.I bought 8 shelters some time ago,some sold and some donated to museums,just kept enough to do one myself with a few repair bits.Theres a great assembly video on you tube.

Somewhere, I have the manual for erecting and building one.

I have always fancied building one in my garden, too!

I already have the plans thanks Tangmere. You can find them on my website.

http://www.bigginhill-history.co.uk/frameanderson.htm

What a great project!

I’d guess you could rent out the shelter on a per night basis to those of us wanting to experience what our parents and grandparents went through.

Moggy

Somewhere, I have the manual for erecting and building one.

I have always fancied building one in my garden, too!