KBGS Old Boys' Forum

A place to discuss Keighley Boys' Grammar School. 


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KBGS Old Boys' Forum
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Re: Air Raid Shelters

Yes Geoff there is one on the roundabout in High Street.(near to the Albert)

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-1964

Current location (optional) Keighley

Re: Air Raid Shelters

There was one in the school yard (Eastwood Infants) in Marlborough Street. There must have been others in the big Eastwood campus) and one (at least) in Vic Park near the Parson Street entrance in the raised area (good for watching the Gala (pronounced "gayler") events and fireworks.)

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Re: Air Raid Shelters

My mother often talks to me about Kly.in the 2nd.W.W.Every Sat.night she had to go to where the new market Trader`s car park is now and underneath was the Kly "war room" where my mother had to man the telephones etc. in a shift pattern and operate the air -raid siren if bombers were imminent. Cups of tea and Camp beds were her teenage memories of a Sat. night out . Bit different to the typical teenage Kly. Sat. night today.!Apparently having a top job in those days she was deferred from being "called up" every 6 months but still had to "do " her bit for the country.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959 -1966

Current location (optional) Haworth

Re: Air Raid Shelters

Recollections ?
When the warning siren sounded, the siren was situated on the top of the ONDURA building at the junction of Hardings Lane (Road) and Bradford Road,
We had to turn out the lights in the living room/scullery and squeezing passed the gas cooker situated in the space at the top of the cellar steps, descend into the cellar and coal cellar.
Fearing to take the further additional step into the nether reaches underneath the cellar steps, because the total blackness there left the imagination racing about what may be lurking !!.
The next action was to pull down the black(heavy duty paper) roller blind and wait perched on the gas water boiler (in which we used to wash the clothes using the posser and rubbing board) or on the stone sink immediately below the cellar window, until the all-clear was sounded !!
Failure to extinguish the living room lights quickly led to the oft quoted "Put that ruddy light out!!" emitted by the local ARP Warden. (The expletives that would be used in a current day situation doesn't bear thinking about!!) In those days the word ruddy was very daring.
On occasions we would stand at the back door and sneak a look at the aerial action with aircraft showing in the spotlights.
The doodle-bug was the ultimate frightener. The droning noise as it made it's unseen "journey" and when the noise stopped the eerie silence as we waited for the explosion, not knowing whether your name was on it !!.

For the liberally used we, above, read MUM


Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1950/1955

Current location (optional) Keighley

Re: Air Raid Shelters

Reading your account, Derek, reminded me that we had a shelter of a type in the cellar - where there were four steel girders (almost a la Guinness advert) sunk vertically in the floor and joined at the top with steel cross members to stop the cellar ceiling from falling in, in the event of a direct hit.
Incidentally my Dad was an Air Raid Warden (we had a little metal plate on the front door advertising the fact for several years after the war) and "ruddy" was the "worst" word I ever heard from him. Maybe it was PC in the ARP then.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Re: Air Raid Shelters

The most relevant to KBGS were the shelters under the school yard which were entered at the bottom of the steps at the south end of the school yard, opposite the bottom corridor (or tunnel as it seems to have been called). There were emergency exits at the Alice Street end of the yard. As no one has mentioned them, perhaps all visible signs were removed shortly after the war.

I seem to remember only using them twice and I think both were for practice. They were cold and damp.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1937-1944

Current location (optional) Huntingdon

Re: Air Raid Shelters

I was certain that I'd seen photographs taken from the window of the Physics Lab showing the air raid shelters beneath the playground under construction, but I couldn't think where. I've now remembered. They were printed in one of the copies of the Keighlian loaned to me last year by Tom Bell Jnr. Tom has in his possession, a volume made up from all the issues printed during the time his father was at KBGS. I should think that the shelters were built in 1939/40. Am I correct Tom?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945 -50

Current location (optional) Norfolk

Re: Air Raid Shelters

I was at school 43-46 and we never went into the air raid shelters in the playground . There were stacks of sandbags around the main building entrances in and around the centre of town.I don't remember taking a gas mask to school either so that must have been in the early days of the war.As for domestic shelters ,dad built a beauty 6ft deep and boarded throughout with steel roof and the excavated soil put back on top. We never used it and it housed a cat trap to keep the things off the vegetable patch.
The nearest air raid siren was on the West Lane Mill roof, just level with our bedroom and we would sit bolt upright in bed whenever it went off. Still hate to hear the siren to this day.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Re: Air Raid Shelters

Pestered by defecating cats as I am, I would be interested to hear of how your cat trap worked, Mike.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Re: Air Raid Shelters

Terry, I used to have a problem with feral cats, some the size of bulldogs. I discovered these lead tablets that you injuect via a rifle soon puts a dent in the population.

Re: Air Raid Shelters

I'm told they can also put a lump in your cheek Marcus.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-65

Re: Air Raid Shelters

...and years later, they can leave a crater