大象传媒

Much is talked about Anderson shelters but a lot less about Morrison shelters and they were a far more sensible idea. Every organisation was called in to do some war effort and the Boy Scouts were ideally suited to erect these table shelters, as they were just like a large Mecanno set.

The council delivered the kit to the address and we would arrive and construct them. Because the shelters were designed to double up as a table as well, it oftem meant moving the existing table to another room. The four corner posts(made of half inch angle iron)were the heavy bits and it took two of us to carry them in to the house. All four of these were connected, top and bottom,by other pieces of angle iron and the whole framework looked like a telephone kiosk on its side. The top was a very heavy lump of quarter inch plate measuring 3'6 by 6'6 and when it was bolted to the framework it made a grand table. The bolt heads could be a bit of a problem but the completed shelter looked so robust that no one seemed to mind.

Our next job was to make the bed. We made a warp and a weft of flat strips of steel and fixed them to the frame with springs and they made a comfortable base for a matress. We fixed strong mesh to the side that made a cage. I helped build one in our own house and mum and we three kids slept in thereall through the Doodle Bug raids.

It seems a strange thing to say, but these shelters were designed to have a house collapse on them but most of them were erected in Jerry built houses with flimsy walls. If it did happen the claustrophobia must have been terrifying but at least the occupants were unharmed.

I can't boast that any of the shelters that we erected saved any lives, but the occupants would have had a good night's sleep, safe in the knowledge that they were well protected.

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