By Peter Harp
As I sit here, I am drinking from a tea-set presented to my grandfather in recognition of his work organising the digging of air-raid shelters during the “Munich Crisis” of 1938. Recent events have reminded us that sometimes such structures are necessary, and on day four of the Russian re-invasion of Ukraine I suggested to the leader of the council that we should make a list of the sites of existing air-raid shelters in the borough which could be reopened in an emergency.
At the time of World War Two, we were mainly under the control of Banstead Urban District Council (BUDC). Large numbers of air-raid shelters were constructed; the majority were privately contracted by residents from local builders and comprised shelters large enough for a single household. These tended to be built from brick or concrete (either blockwork or reinforced, I know one in Burgh Wood where bicycle frames were used as reinforcing).
They were usually sited about 15ft from the back garden door: close enough to run into during an air-raid but far enough away so that if the house was struck the rubble did not block the entrance. A quick look at the Banstead Bomb Maps (two maps of Banstead made by a local police sergeant showing the location of every munition that fell and of what type) shows how heavily Banstead was bombed, usually by aircraft returning from raids over London. Often these bombs failed to explode (see the relevant logbooks of UXBs and UXAAs (unexploded bombs & anti-aircraft shells) in the Surrey Record Office). In rare instances (such as one in The Drive) a larger private shelter was built to house residents from several properties.
Less affluent residents could be provided with steel Anderson shelters, while residents without gardens had indoor Morrison shelters. Perhaps the most unusual private household shelter in our area was one dug into the west side of a Bronze Age burial mound: The Tumble Beacon. I reinforced my own domestic Second World War shelter with an extra foot of rebar concrete some years ago. (In Warren Road I understand there is a private nuclear shelter in a garden.)
BUDC were responsible for constructing public air-raid shelters, being initially discussed on the 9th May 1938 at the council’s ARP (Air-Raid Precautions) Committee. The committee decided they should provide shelter accommodation for 1,310 people (Appendix to Minutes, ARP Committee 31/10/1938). By October 1938 excavations of trenches had begun at ten sites, with six trenches completed. 77,000 sandbags were stored in Diceland Road. At this stage some of the trenches were recommended to be fitted out with duck boards, seats, sanitation etc., such as in the Lady Neville Recreation Ground, while others were filled-in again (e.g. a housing site in Kingswood, Horsecroft Meadow and The Oval in Banstead, Woodmansterne Recreation Ground and Shelvers Way). It was recommended that the new pavilion in Tattenham Recreation Ground have a basement shelter constructed (this seems not to have happened, although two surface shelters were built in “the Rec,” including what is now The Lodge Cafe).
Originally a surface air raid shelter, then a public convenience, now a local cafe
By November 1939, the work of the ARP Committee was taken over by the BUDC Emergency Committee. In total BUDC constructed 19 trench (underground) shelters at 11 sites, and 8 surface shelters at 6 sites, with a total seating capacity of 1,475 and bunk bed capacity of 717. The biggest shelters dug by BUDC were a group of 7 by Banstead railway station with 350 seats/147 bunks for refugees coming out of London each night to escape the Blitz on the city. The next largest was a single shelter in the Lady Neville Recreation Ground with 196 seats/66 bunks.
By January 1941, Surrey County Council’s War Emergency Committee were considering the construction of deep tunnel shelters, again often by railway stations for people coming from London. Two of these were dug near Epsom Downs. They are often mistakenly thought to be a single shelter with one entrance. The Longdown Lane shelter is inaccessible, with the entrance buried under the golf course opposite Bunbury Way (excavations with a mini digger were unable recently to get deep enough despite digging to a depth of 15ft.).
Another near-by is in Ashley Road and is still accessible.
The Ashley Road Shelter is still accessible. Planning permission was apparently granted in 2012 to convert it into vaults to store precious metals and more recently it was used as a paintball adventure centre
These two were part of a group of five dug by SCC with an intended total capacity of about 5-6,000 people. The others were at Brighton Road (Coulsdon), Godstone Road (Kenley) and one on Stagbury Downs in Chipstead Valley. This last one was abandoned during construction following a fatality caused by a roof fall. Recently the ventilation shaft has also begun to collapse and is visible as a fenced-off depression on the east side of Banstead Wood. The layout of these shelters was essentially the same, with minor variations. Plans are available on the internet, but for plans and photographs of the interior of the Ashley Road shelter, there’s a chapter in Nick Catford’s Secret Underground London (Folly Books, 2013).
In addition to shelters for residents, BUDC also constructed a number of shelters for Air-Raid Wardens. BUDC constructed 97 wardens’ posts for a total staff of 582 wardens. The 97 posts were organized into 22 groups under 5 divisional heads. ARP Posts in the Nork/Banstead/Tattenhams area were split across Districts 1-3, with 23 posts in “our” area (BUDC 1942-3 Invasion Defence Scheme, Surrey Record Office Acc1249, Box 4). The ARP Post perhaps most familiar to residents is the small mound at the junction of Yew Tree Bottom and Fir Tree Road (“Buckles Gap”).
This is District 2, Post 15. While the public shelter in Banstead’s Lady Neville Recreation Ground is next to the tennis courts, the ARP Warden’s Post there was a similar mound nearer the cafe. This had been forgotten when it was demolished in October 1996 (see photo) to create a new flowerbed.
Finally, we come to military shelters. Local troops in training, and the Home Guard, dug many slit trenches on Banstead Commons. One fine example still exists on Banstead Heath near The Sportsman pub in the woods. The records of the Banstead Commons Conservators list 54 trenches dug by troops in training and a further 55 dug by the Home Guard (each precisely measured). In addition, there were over 30 pillboxes between Chipstead Valley and Banstead Crossroads (Home Guard 6”:mile map of Banstead).
Some of these pillboxes (reinforced gun emplacements were of a size and design unique to Banstead, now called “Banstead-type,” with apocryphal accounts suggesting some may have incorporated First World War naval guns). This was part of the defence of London, creating a trap or “killing ground” for any German invasion around Banstead crossroads. In Nork Park, where the Canadian Army were stationed, there is evidence that an underground cistern originally for rainwater for the use of Nork House may have been used as an air-raid shelter as it was internally whitewashed. Between Banstead and Woodmansterne, at Courtlands Farm, an ammunition depot (“No.116 Equipment Ammunition Depot”) was constructed in 1939. This was a group of 8 bunkers (“ADGB Bin Type Storehouses”) designed to hold in total 1,000 tons of ammunition for anti-aircraft defences around London, and for coastal defences after the evacuation of Dunkirk.
It was just one of 100 similar depots, being supplied by both truck and rail from Banstead Station. At one point a munitions train derailed at Banstead Station in 1940. The site continued in use by the army for munitions storage until 1953 and was closed in 1956. You may be aware that recently it was raided by police when they apparently blew the doors off.
Peter Harp
Peter Harp is Secretary of the Nork Residents’ Association and one of the three borough councillors for Nork on Reigate & Banstead Borough Council.
He has a background in archaeology, having lectured at museums such as the British Museum and Museum of London, and was for many years chairman of the Surrey Archaeological Society Archaeological Research Committee which oversaw all professional and voluntary archaeology in Surrey and the south London boroughs. He is an advisor to English Heritage on the Palaeolithic period, works closely with the National Trust, and has directed numerous excavations such as at the former royal palace at Esher.
He is a Banstead Commons Conservator, the borough council’s “heritage champion”, and helped to set up Friends of Nork Park which has over a thousand members. In his spare time he is also secretary of the local archaeology society and is a former secretary of the Banstead History Research Group (now Banstead History). He has lectured extensively on topics as diverse as Palaeolithic archaeology, Nineteenth-Century burial practice, sinkholes, and the archaeology of the occult. For relaxation, he reads Harry Potter and steampunk.