Wartime shelters

A number of Year 5 pupils were challenged on Saturday to develop their understanding of what war was really like on the Home Front. Mr Baker had developed a plan to make a diorama of the back of a house in wartime. A “hole” had already been dug in the garden ready for the Anderson shelter (the parts for which were “delivered” on the back of a truck by Tom and Nick just after the lesson started), and he had made a kit that the children were required to assemble. The constituent parts were the back of a house, a shed, the outside toilet and the Anderson shelter. 

Working from contemporary pictures the children were asked to build their scene adding as much appropriate detail as possible. The house had been “hit” by a bomb that had gone through the roof, yet the Morrison shelter proved up to the task, as did the Anderson shelter in the garden. A cut-away section here showed the bunk beds, the toilet and the gas masks, and over the roof were planted vegetables as part of the Dig for Victory campaign. 

Windows in the house and shed were taped up to prevent the glass acting as missiles, but blast damage was clear as the top windows of the house were blown out. The children worked with great intensity and as the pictures show, their end results were very impressive. They displayed great patience, an ability to work in fine detail and it will undoubtedly have helped their understanding of what life was really like for civilians in Britain during the war.

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