HAVE you got an old air raid shelter hidden away somewhere in your garden? A rusty old Anderson shelter made of corrugated iron - or an overgrown brick shelter that you now use as a garden shed.

There are more of them about than you might think. And the people of York have been busy taking selfies of them for a project to record the long-lasting impact of the wartime air-raids on York.

The Raids Over York project started on 11 August 2020 - the 80th anniversary of the first raid on the city, which saw York Cemetery and the Fishergate area hit by high explosive bombs.

The project, which is commemorating the 80th anniversary of each of the 11 wartime air-raids on York, aims to raise public awareness of the raids - and of the legacy they have left behind.

The most recent air raid to be commemorated - just last month - was that of April 3, 1941. It was the seventh wartime air raid on the city, and saw incendiary firebombs dropped in a line from the former sugar beet factory on Boroughbridge Road all the way to the former North Riding mental hospital off Shipton Road. The incendiaries were put out by York's Civil Defence force.

The next anniversary won't be until April next year - but that will be the big one, the so-called 'Baedeker Raid' of April 29, 1942, which left 74 people dead and 206 injured within the city boundary, and a further 14 dead and seven injured in the Flaxton area.

In the meantime, the Raids Over York team is busy consolidating all the research they have done so far- and the many photographs and stories they have been given.

York Press:

 Homeowner Lawrence Edmonds with a brick-built air raid shelter with reinforced concrete roof in the backyard of a property in Huntington Road

Jonathan French of York Oral History Society, one of the partners in the Raids Over York project, said despite lockdown there been a big response to the project.

“We have been delighted by strong public interest," Jonathan said. "People have come forward to tell us their memories of what York was like during the war when they were only a child. It’s an interesting mixture of recalling real fear, but for teenagers at the time they have told us that the war also offered excitement”.

One of the things that members of the public have really responded to is the call for information about surviving air raid shelters. "We’ve had our first ‘air-raid selfies’ of homeowners delighted to find out that their sturdy, brick-built shed in the yard was originally a bomb shelter," said Dr Duncan Marks of York Civic Trust, another partner in the project.

"Our research shows that these typical brick air-raid shelters were amazingly robust, with accounts in York of high explosive bombs falling only meters away from the shelters and the inhabitants of the shelters living to tell the tale.”

There are also a surprisingly large number of Anderson shelters still to be found - especially in allotments. Anderson shelters were metal framed and made of corrugated iron, and were partly submerged, with the top covered with soil. After the war, many were 'recycled' and sold off as scrap metal. But others were snapped up for use on communal allotments – as storage sheds and somewhere to brew up a cuppa.

York Press:

Stanley Shoobridge with his Anderson shelter

One Anderson Shelter the Raids Over York team has discovered isn't actually in York at all - but in Acaster Malbis.

It is in 90-year-old former Acaster postmaster Stanley Shoobridge's garden. During the war, Stanley's parents-in-law Ted and Mabel Stott lived in the house - Mabel was the village postmistress and Ted the village Air Raid Warden.

With RAF airfields and bases routinely targeted by the Luftwaffe, Ted and Mabel were actually living in quite a dangerous place, Dr Marks said. "Their village was in the centre of a triangle formed of three RAF bases at Rufforth, Elvington and Acaster Malbis."

Stanley's ex-wife Marian was just a child at the time. She has sadly passed away now - but she told Stanley that the family scarcely used the shelter. "She said to me 'the only time we really should have used it, on the night of the Baedeker Raid on York, we were up in the top bedroom looking at all the flames!" Stanley said.

York Press:

Ted and Mabel Stott outside their Post Office in Acaster Malbis during the war

Another key piece of information to have emerged from the Raids Over York project is about the role that women played in the civil defence of York during the war.

"We have moved beyond thinking of WW2 Civil Defence as being all about old men and young lads, as Dad’s Army portrayed it," Dr Marks said. "Recent popular films, such as Atonement, or the TV series Land Girls, have shown women as auxiliary nurses or part of the Women’s Land Army. But the Raids Over York research shows that women were also frontline Civil Defence participants and could be as fearless as any male."

The second raid on the city, on October 28 1940, demonstrates this. At 22:27 that night, a 'stick' of four high-explosive bombs were dropped in the Malton Road area, causing widespread damage, and killing two local men - ARP warden John March, and Henry Coles. Many others were injured by splinters of broken glass. The ARP report singles out two part-time air-raid wardens, William Middlemiss and Joan Maw, for ‘special comment’ - William for reporting the raid, and Joan for ‘assisting the evacuation’.

York Press:

Young women lining up at the York Employment Exchange in April 1941. Many registered for National Service or joined Civil Defence teams

There are other examples, too, of courage by women, Dr Marks says - such as Air Raid Warden Gertie Crouch spotting and Warden Edna Sykes of the Auxiliary Fire Service putting out incendiary bombs in the Fishergate area in a raid on November 15, 1940. "The Raids Over York project would really like to know more about these women," Dr Marks said. "Who were they? What did they do after the war?

"Perhaps you’re a relative of Joan, Gertie or Edna, or know of them? If so, please do contact the Raids Over York project." You can contact the Raids Over York team at raidsoveryork@outlook.com

The 11 air raids on York during the Second World War

  • August 11, 1940: two injured
  • October 28, 1940: two killed
  • November 5, 1940: no casualties
  • November 15, 1940: two injured
  • January 2, 1941: no casualties
  • January 16, 1941: one killed, two injured
  • April 3, 1941: no casualties
  • April 29, 1942, the 'Baedeker Raid': 74 killed and 206 injured within the York city boundary, and 14 killed and seven injured in the Flaxton area
  • August 2, 1942: one killed and 45 injured
  • September 24, 1942: one killed and five injured
  • December 17, 1942: two killed and 23 injured