World War II air raid shelters and defenses in the Liverpool area

[irishseashipping.com]

[QUOTE=marky;156144]Re: Greenbank Lane: I know there's a very small building in the front garden of the Gym. I have a picture of this if it is the building you mentioned.QUOTE]

Interesting to see the Stalbridge dragons teeth free from undergrowth. They used to appear like this in the 60s when I was little though one appears to have started to flake away.

As for Greenbank Lane is the small barrel roofed concrete building partly buried in the earth between the gate and the cottages.

[marky]

Here's the Greenbank Lane building I was thinking of:

[elliekr41]

Here is one for the history buffs among us, my family and myself were walking on the path from the coastguard station out towards Hightown and Formby today and I mentioned to my wife that there used to be what I imagine to be old air raid shelters dug into the sand dunes somewhere along there, I remember climbing down into them when when I was many years younger.

We walked as far as the waste water treatment pumping plant but for the life of me i could not place where the shelters were, or even how far they are from the coastguard station...any help to jog my memory would be gladly appreciated

Dave

We walk there regulary with our dogs and i have seen wot u r talking about...its quite out in the open...if you r still interested I will look next time i go and tell you exactly where it is...u r still able to get down into it cos my children have been down... elliekr41

[Spike]

Kew Street off Scotland Road had a shelter. Anyone know anything about it? any maps? anything? My family used it.

[ChrisGeorge]

Fine, photographs, Zaps and Marky! Very interesting stuff!

Chris

[Alan Smithee]

I read this on the Echo forums, please excuse the fact that I've cut and pasted both parts of the conversation.
Makes for interesting reading.

'I remember as a kid visiting a cousin in Kirkby. There was some sort of camp, huts and asbestos pipes overhead, I recall next to some park with a bowling green, anyone know what this was?
He used to take me to Kirkby industrial estate were there was still old war pill boxes, is that the word? made of thick concrete with slits I presume for guns? Also, an old rail track running between the old factories, I remember a wood next to it all, I heard that there where munitions factories in Kirkby during the war, anyone know about that?'

'......Yes......one sixth of all the munitions used in the war were made in kirkby and the Bunkers can still be seen in Draw Well road where they used to separate the trains into smaller groups in case of an explosion....it was referred to as Port Kirkby to confuse the germans who were looking for it.....the Royal Ordnance factories were built from 1936 onwards(They knew it was coming didn't they)....I bought 'Mysons' office block and most of the buildings had extremely tough walls and light roofs so they would blow off in an explosion....The 'Echo' have photographs of RAF bomber pilots visiting the girls who made the bombs on the estate....I don't know if there are any books written about Kirkby's part in the war(Might be an idea eh!) but I met a man who'd worked on the estate all his working life and he told me that on the right hand side of the 'Admin' building was where they made detonators....when they had a tray full a man would walk out and down the path at the side preceded by a man with a whistle and a red flag....anyone near would get down into the slit trenches at the side until he'd passed and he would be holding these things like a tray of eggs (true).......My mother told me that the girls who filled the bombs went yellow with the chemicals....an old black man asked could he look in my factory one day and told me he'd worked there during the war and he'd come back here for a visit from Barbados...he said that torpedoes had been made in that very building. I've got lots of snippets of information but would love someone to enlighten me further on this subject....Kirkby Industrial estate was very important in the war effort and people should know about it....along with the camp in Huyton and 'Fort Crosby'....just past the coastguard station at Blundellsands (Now demolished).....local history and so so interesting.....there is a well used film clip of a Lancaster bomber dropping a 10 ton 'Grand Slam' bomb and it always flicks through my mind whenever I see it.....Made in Kirkby.'

(From Tonycrosby and chancery3)

I remember the pillbox in Kirkby very well, located at the back end of that piece of greenery near the Industrial estate.

The ground near Simmonswood lane was pretty flat and there used to be lots of Sunday morning football played there - but near the back of the flattened area were a series of 'dunes'...a sort of hilly area just before you got to the estate itself (not far from the Birds Eye factory), and in the middle of this was a pillbox.

As young kids, this was an endless source of fascination to us, and many a war-game ewas played around this structure. It was quite small, a very low ceiling inside, with a small, short tunnel to gain access to it.

Though it has to be said...my one abiding memory of it was that it was generally used as a place to relieve oneself when caught short. It was often littered with various little 'offerings' of all sorts from small boys. You tended not to spend too much time inside there, such was the general odour...

[wsteve55]

I remember the pillbox in Kirkby very well, located at the back end of that piece of greenery near the Industrial estate.

The ground near Simmonswood lane was pretty flat and there used to be lots of Sunday morning football played there - but near the back of the flattened area were a series of 'dunes'...a sort of hilly area just before you got to the estate itself (not far from the Birds Eye factory), and in the middle of this was a pillbox.

As young kids, this was an endless source of fascination to us, and many a war-game ewas played around this structure. It was quite small, a very low ceiling inside, with a small, short tunnel to gain access to it.

Though it has to be said...my one abiding memory of it was that it was generally used as a place to relieve oneself when caught short. It was often littered with various little 'offerings' of all sorts from small boys. You tended not to spend too much time inside there, such was the general odour...

Ha Ha,
sound just like the one we "used", in Kirkdale!

[marky]

Fort Crosby, June 2009. Part of a larger site/camp, demolished in the '60s.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2563250...1717/?edited=1

Location:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...7&z=19&iwloc=A

This site has a couple of earlier pictures:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache...1-775a96200b1b

[GNASHER]

This is a fire watchers(?) post on top of Liverpool Uni

[irishseashipping.com]

It could well be a fire watchers' post.

There are similar additional structures on the top of the Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse.

John

[ashy]

i my self used to play in the bunkers on crosby beach from about 1988 to 94, i've since found out a lot more info. Crosby fort used to have hundreds if not thousands of german prisoners of war. check this link out as a starting point.

http://www.crosbyherald.co.uk/news/c...8459-22296186/

this guy is friend of my mums and he's done a few books like this about the crosby area..

the german prisoners used to put plays on for the locals as i understand it. think it was torn down in the 60's although it was still partly in some use in the 50's.

My older cousin was convinced there were more tunels connecting some bunkers. I have been as deep as you can go in the larger bunker an its impossible to say if they extend or are linked because of the ruble, sand, and rubbish in there. my cuz actually went as far as to set off a small home made exposives in the dunes next to the bunkers trying to uncover further passages, obviuosly i know now this was a bad idea but boys will be boys! and no he never did find that elusive hidden bunker! i know around crosby the took down signs to confuse the germans if they ever did land. Theres a boundary stone by my mums which marks where great crosby and little crosby are, it points in a certain direction, its been there for years an years, they even defaced this just incase it helped the ememy find the way.. some really intresting facts like the old duck pond being used for bull fights and many more detailed storys all factual... like i say a good read indeed..

[87_dave]

Hi everyone know am late but if anyones interested I have a underground air raid shelter in the back garden. Its puzzling me on what type though because it seems to be an anderson shelter inside although it is fully underground with concrete roof walls and stairs going into it, looks like a professional job and not something knocked up during the war. It is partially filled in I am in the process of getting all the crap out of it.
My grandad filled it in years ago when he bought the house. I cant find any information on this type of shelter being used so if anyone has or knows were I can find out would be much appreciated.

BTW the house is by broadway in norris green.

[Ged]

That's interesting Dave.

I know there's an air raid siren on the roof of St. Georges Hall which must have been a good vantage point.

[marky]

The shelters at Dovedale School have been demolished...as I found out, when I went to photograph them recently.
Google Streetview:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...12,358.29,,1,5

[az_gila]

Hi everyone know am late but if anyones interested I have a underground air raid shelter in the back garden. Its puzzling me on what type though because it seems to be an anderson shelter inside although it is fully underground with concrete roof walls and stairs going into it, looks like a professional job and not something knocked up during the war. It is partially filled in I am in the process of getting all the crap out of it.
My grandad filled it in years ago when he bought the house. I cant find any information on this type of shelter being used so if anyone has or knows were I can find out would be much appreciated.

BTW the house is by broadway in norris green.

Could it be a Cold War "fear of nuclear bombs" shelter, and not a WWII one?