KBGS Old Boys' Forum
A place to discuss Keighley Boys' Grammar School.
http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/news_keighley/10498475.Air_raid_shelter_discovered_during_demolition_work_in_Keighley/
Didn't there used to be an air raid shelter sign in the playground?
I am sure we knew of the existence of this shelter under the boiler house. But maybe it hasn't been excavated before.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64
Current location (optional) Wirral
Isn't this what was known as "The Black Hole of Calcutta" where new kids were herded down below by the big lads? I might be getting confused but the news of the find of an air raid shelter was not a surprise. It was something we knew about in 1947, but haven't thought of for years, maybe the ones who were there a year or two earlier might remember clearer than me. Cheers.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1947-51
Current location (optional) Auckland,NZ
There was certainly an air-raid shelter under the playground. In the period 1940 to about 1943 so far as I recall there were periodic "air-raid practices". We filed into the shelter bearing our gas masks (it was illegal not to carry these at first during the early part of the war). At some part of the process we had to put on gas masks and keep them on for a short time. After a while when it was considered that Keighley was not a prime target for the Luftwaffe these "practices" were gradually discontinued. Thereafter it was strictly forbidden to enter the shelter but I think a few adventurous souls may have attempted to break this rule.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1940-48
Current location (optional) Epsom
Just posted pics in Campus section of photos.
Daily Mail article here.
Link courtesy of Mike Nichols
There four in Eastwood School's playground which are probably still there. The entrances have been bricked up but the holes will still be there. Victoria Park had two that ziz-zagged through a great mound that was constructed to house them. The entrances were locked off but since this meant the shelters were not available in the event of an air attack they placed the keys in small cubicles with a glass to break. Needless the glass got broken and it became the big dare to pass through the shelters tunnels. first in a snake holding onto the one in front who would guide through the darkness with his hands on the seats. Then alone. I can still the dry throated terror of that first journey alone. Those shelters will still be in tact. The mound was used first as a viewing post for the firework display each Gala day but lately it has become a basketball court I think
There was also one under Ingrow Infant School
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64
Current location (optional) Wirral
There were two in the playground at Haworth Primary School
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958 - 61
Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth
Right back at the start say 1940 we were given our gas masks and an ARP warden visited the school to ensure that we knew how to put them on and see that they fit properly. This proper fit test consisted of putting a piece of cardboard over the air intake and stopping you breathing at all which was quite scarey also when you breathed out the rubber face piece vibrated with a buzzing quack sound a bit like a fart which caused much merriment. They came later and fit an extra filter to the intake. Also some men came and took the school railings. They used gas cutting tools that left little medallions of melted iron on the playground which we collected as prized possessions. A board was also placed in the schoolyard and painted with a gas reactive paint that changed colour if there was a gas attack. We used to play and dash over for a look at the board. It was all very exciting.I won't go into the static water tanks that degenerated into slimed stinking reservoirs.
I include the quote below from the report at the head of this posting.............
"The remnants of the air raid shelter are a stark reminder of the fear under which people had to live their lives during the Second World War."
The subsequent postings from other contributors under this heading make clear the threat under which we lived during the war. They say nothing of the shortages; rationing; bleak living conditions; health hazards (polio, diptheria);etc etc that were commonplace in most districts of the town.
We all had a great childhood - mainly because we knew of nothing better and the fear alluded to above we thought would not bother us kids in Keighley.
Nevertheless, there was real suffering in Keighley - across the generations and classes. It wasn't just on the battlefields. There's no easy way for a community to win wars.
But today, (2013) I find it increasingly alarming that there are those in our present society whose politico/economics seem to thrive on division. They wish to identify our generation as the sector of society which is leaching the benefits that are denying the needs of present day youngsters. I wish they would make a realistic comparison.
Were these latterday social reconstructors with me in the queues as a 6 year old : at the gas works for coke in the winter white-out of 1947; in the market for an orange etc etc .Of course not.
Our parents' generation in time defeated Beveridge's 5 giants of poverty. The one which benefited us all without exception at KBGS was the defeat of the giant, Ignorance, which enabled us to enjoy (thro the 11+) approximately 17% access to a secondary education with access to the GCE.
Today 100% of year 7s have the opportunity to take GCSE - and yet we are identified as the favoured generation, robbing the young of their birthright.
Time to remind the muckshifters of the truth.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60
Current location (optional) Nirvana
Interesting too, the talk of 'gas' during the war. Although any type of gas was never used by either side it appears from my reading that Churchill had stocks of various 'weapons of mass destruction' in stock and was ready, if not keen, to use them had the Huns been seen to be gaining the upper hand.
Good post, Terry. Couldn't agree more. Today's politics is all about emphasising the differences between people and creating divisions. Divide. And Rule.
I don't quite know what Terry is getting at. If he means that there were privations during the war other than the risk from air-raids he is, of course, right. But in spite of shortages/rationing I think most people "made do" with what they could get and very few starved! These were the days of coal fires; coal was short sometimes but again we managed and I remember burning wood quite a lot of the time though I don't remember its provenance.
People did lose sons and husbands (and maybe daughters) but in those days children were some how kept away from death but, allowing for that, I don't think I actually knew anyone who suffered in this way. My only relation who went into the forces was an uncle in the RAF but he came away unscathed. My own dad who was 41 when I was born in 1930 was too old to serve in WW2 though he served in WW1 and was one of the first members of the Royal Flying Corps. He didn't fly but worked on aircraft maintenance, a pretty important job in both world wars. Incidentally that's where, unfortunately, I think he learned to drink heavily when off duty!
There were, I think. two raids on Leeds when we were conscious of overhead aircraft activity and the warnings sounded. We had some vague relations living there whose house was badly damaged but, other than that, I don't remember significant air activity over Keighley; I think a few random incendiaries were dropped later on in the war.
Of course I don't think we were without some suffering but compared with other areas of the country we got away rather lightly. The present generation, of course, have raised expectations but I don't think we can blame them for that. For instance car ownership when I was a child, at least in my social group, was almost unheard of whereas I expected to own my own car (though mainly subsidised by my employers) and my daughter and grandchildren who all passed their test first time expected to be bought a car of their own right away and got one (beginning in my daughter's and grandson's cases with an old banger).But my grandchildren despair of buying a house themselves until they are in their mid or late thirties; they are both earning but a 10% deposit on the kind of house in this area to which they aspire would amount at least to £40,000 which means many years of saving;and dads and granddads can't really afford, to be, nor I think should they be,that generous. It was a bit of a struggle for me and my wife to buy our first house but we managed it in the fifth year of being together and of course, in those days, realised a large profit when we sold a few years later.
Deprivation Terry alters its meaning over time! But maybe you didn't mean that.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1940-48
Current location (optional) Epsom
My Mother was a Civil Defence person during the War. She had to go to an underground room
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-66
Current location (optional) HAWORTH
Sorry, Tom, my posting was a bit abstruse to say the least. What I really meant to say, but with a personal and Keighley perspective, is best summed up in the following extract from an on-line blogger..............
"The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, has waded into the debate about the baby boomers and their alleged hoovering up of all of society’s resources and money. And his comments unwittingly confirm just how dumb generational politics are, just how daft it is to try to understand the problems that face our society in intergenerational terms. Bashing the boomers, the Bishop declared that those born in the years after the Second World War are the “fortunate generation”. What, all of them? Really?"
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100221455/the-bishop-of-londons-bashing-of-baby-boomers-reveals-how-destructive-the-generation-wars-have-become
And the Bishop is not the only one. Catch if you can Moral Maze of Wednesday 26.06.2013.....http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02ykygq and you'll get the drift.
Although not strictly a baby boomer myself, I take umbrage at the current trend of blaming the older generations - mainly retirees with pensions - for the problems confronting today's youth. It's a weapon waiting to be taken up by unscrupulous politicians. I think if they want what I've got, they can have it as long as they are satisfied to take also the few years I may have remaining. But I think they would blanch at that.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60
Current location (optional) Nirvana
I well remember the air raid shelters but by 1943 the frequency of air raids was less than earlier in the war and so we had fewer alerts. At school there was a reduction in the alarms where we had to assemble and proceed in an orderly fashion to the shelters. By 1944 they were pretty well abandoned. On the home front my father dug out aa shelter at the top of the garden . Timber framed and roofed with sheet metal he could stand in it and he was 6 ft.There was a yard of earth on top so it was pretty good . However it was only used once when the air was filled with the drone of German aircraft as they bombed Bradford . Apart from that there were plenty of warnings but that was chiefly due to the overhead passage of aircraft on the way westward .
There were harsh winters at the time too and coal was hard to get . The fires were banked up at night with slack so that they would stay in and with a poke in the morning we had a fire to come down to for breakfast .
I wonder if any of the boys at school then can say they flew over Keighley in the war . dad was a Policeman on Motor Patrol and his beat included Yeadon Aerodrome { now Leeds Airport]. He got to know the Test Pilot at that time who took him up in Lancasters as they came out of the huge underground factory there. One day in 1944 he took Peter , my brother, and I with him and we had a Test flight in an Avro Anson flying over Ilkley and Keighley with a wing dipped over our house in Devonshire Street where Mother was hanging out the washing . We had the run of the passenger area , no seats and no restraint so we were darting from one side to the other to look at the sight below .We were not allowed to say anything to anyone about it so never got to tell any of my friends.Thats all of 70 years gone now ,it was quite a thrill as you can imagine.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46
Current location (optional) Tasmania
An interesting post, Mike, especially your second paragraph describing your "clandestine" flight out of Yeadon Airport during the war years. I remember well my own first flight in 1948, along with my brother Arthur and several members of Keighley's A.T.C, also out of Yeadon. I still have my old 'Service Record' which shows me enrolling as a cadet, in early 1948, and a 'Flying Log' showing an Invitation Flight of 30minutes in a de Havilland Dominie(a bi-plane), taking us over Keighley, in July of 1948. I can remember being fearful of 'air sickness', as were most of the other cadets of the "100 Squadron, Keighley". Thankfully, it never happened! A wonderful experience for all of us.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50
Current location (optional) Keighley
What interesting posts Mike and David, keep them coming. I can't report anything as interesting as those but I did do a weeks General Seamanship course on HMS Duke of York, the Battleship which was at the surrender signing on VJ Day.(I was of course a sea cadet). I did other courses with the navy too, but it is interesting to see what opportunities were available to us youngsters if you went looking for it. All paid for by the Navy in my case. Cheers.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1947-51
Current location (optional) Auckland,NZ
As an Electrician( Air) I was posted to RAF Bassingbourn and given 6 Meteor jets and an Anson and a Tiger Moth to service. The Avro Anson was used to train wireless operators and had 6 radio transmitters onboard. They had a ground broadcast range of about ten miles. I used to pass my time sat in the Anson tuned into BBC Home Service feeding bogus and grossly exaggerated Test Scores into the local area. Hehe! Not sure if anyone heard but it gave me a giggle.
Whilst I wasn't a cadet, my last Army posting was as MIlitary Secretary to the Australian Army Cadet Corps. It was like being in an elephants' graveyard except it was populated by old Army officers.
I went on a fair few training exercises with the Cadtes who ranged from 13 to 18 in age. I never ceased to be amazed by their abilities when it came to such areas as navigation and bushcraft. Most of these kids eventually go on to join the Army, but as with many activities, the cotton wool brigade became involved and nearly all of the supervised risk taking behaviour was removed from the syllabus.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958 - 61
Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth
A poster on the Facebook page of KDLHS has said there was an air raid shelter in the
the grounds of Wesley Place Junior School.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64
Current location (optional) Wirral
Nothing at all to do with Air Raid Shelters but slightly connected and I can't find a suitable heading for this . I was going through the books in a local bookshop and I noticed a reference to Keighley . This was to an account of the visit to Keighley in 1936 of the Hindenburg which had hovered over Morton Banks and dropped flowers with a note asking for them to be put on the grave of a World War 1 prisoners grave .I do remember as a young lad talking to someone who had seen this happen . Does anyone else have anything to add to this which must have been a sensation at the time .
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46
Current location (optional) Tasmania
My parents spoke of this visit by a German dirigible which dropped wreaths for their 1st World War prisoners who died in the UK,
Keighley Cemetery is, of course, at Utley. The one at Sandbeds is Morton Cemetery.
I lifted the following from a website which was charting observations of the flight of the Hindenburg - which was directed at military espionage rather than healing the wounds of war.
Norman Whiteoak August 3, 2012 at 5:57 pm
l remember the airship (Hindenburg?) hovering over Keighley,Yorkshire and it dropped a wreath to be laid at Morton cemetary for the German military who were buried there, those who had been wounded and nursed in the, what ,l belive was later the isolation ,Fever hospital. l was at the Picture House cinema that night when the lights went up, at the interval and the Manager came on with the two Boy Scouts who had taken the wreath on to that cemetary. The grave is a large one with the statue of a German soldier over it, it can be seen from the bus which goes to Bradford.
l learned later that the airship was taking photographs of the area, Steaton which became a munition factory and Yeadon airfield. In fact l believe l have some of the maps from that date and l will try looking them up
Norman Whiteoak. 85 years (1/8/27)
Reply
Gill July 31, 2012 at 6:28 am
I too saw the Hindenburg in Shipley. I was 17 months old!
As a grown-uip I related to my mother a “dream” I had had as a child, in which she and our au pair ran upstairs to a back window looking down towards the Aire Valley, and I saw a “tramcar” go by in the sky. It was the excitement of the adults which grabbed my attention. My mother told me it was in fact a Zeppelin. As a small child, and not knowing what to look for, I completely missed the large balloon above the gondola!
See: http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/flight-schedule
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60
Current location (optional) Nirvana
My father used to tell the story of seeing the Hindenburg almost blotting out the sky near "the cross" and dropping something in the vicinity.
The cross, I think, was where the roundabout is where Oakworth Road and South Street meet. Was there a memorial there?
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-65
Current location (optional) Leeds
No, not there but in Morton Banks cemetery. I saw it quite often as a child. Memory may be playing tricks but I think that there were something like 14 names on it.
Doug
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58
Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire
My Gran
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-66
Current location (optional) Haworth
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19360525&id=9xoRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4329,2641527
Contemporary report of the Zeppelin incident.
It occurs to me only now, after John's contribution, to wonder why the Graf Zeppelin made the journey to drop flowers for that particular grave. Did it then go on and do the same at other British locations? Or was it on some sort of reconnaissance flight, even in 1936? And who were the dead German soldiers from '14-'18, and where had they died that must have been in the Keighley area? Did they die of war wounds or in the Spanish flu epidemic that swept Europe in the winter of '18-'19? These questions sound like a project for our archive sleuth from Denholme!!!
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58
Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire
Pipped me by a second, Allan!
Doug
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58
Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire
A slightly fuller report with names of the scouts and the German priest who dropped the flowers and letter and of his brother who probably died of that flu epidemic in a Skipton POW camp here
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19360613&id=1X8tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MJkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6811,1727991
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 54-59
Current location (optional) Denholme
