IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Branksome Hill Road, BOURNEMOUTH, BH4 9LE

Dorset Road heading up to Branksome Hill Road

As seen from roadbridge on Brunstead Road Image, which forms the boundary between Bournemouth & Poole. For information about the gardens, see http://boroughofpoole.com/facilities/ref:F465e9bc752c16/

1930s bridge over the Bourne Stream; to the left, Upper Gardens in Poole, Image, on the other side of the bridge, out of sight, Upper Gardens in Bournemouth Image, at a different time of year.

- Air Raid Shelter: DoB ID: e42058 The visible remains above ground of one of four deep underground air raid shelters built during 1939 for the pupils and staff of the school. This one was opened to the public specially for a Heritage Open Day event. Used as a storeroom after the end of the war, this is the only accessible shelter, the others remain buried and unexcavated. This air raid shelter was refurbished and made habitable again in 2011, and is in use today as a 'Living History' classroom. Together, all four shelters could accommodate up to 125 pupils and staff at any one time. The School's archives show that the shelters were used extensively day and night throughout the war, and particularly during the most intensive period of 1939 - 1940. In the foreground protruding above the protective earth bank can be seen the concrete surround of the emergency escape hatch. The basic construction of the shelter consisted of sheets of corrugated iron bolted together supported by a framework of curved steel girders. After being given a concrete roof, the whole structure was then banked over with a covering of earth. Image

- Air Raid Shelter: DoB ID: e42058 The entrance passageway is a steeply sloping pathway protected by concrete blast walls on either side. Image

- Air Raid Shelter: DoB ID: e42058 The shelter's entrance doorway and vestibule that requires a sharp right turn at the end to enter, with no idea at this stage what lies beyond. Image

- Air Raid Shelter: DoB ID: e42058 The view of the interior from the entrance vestibule. Nothing prepares you for the sight of the interior of the shelter for the first time - its size is quite astonishing. For those interested in statistics, the interior is 20 metres long, by 2 metres wide, and 2 metres high. The benches that lined the sides (most have been removed to accommodate today's visitors), also doubled up as temporary beds by placing them together. The School's archives record that they were thus used during the intense period of enemy bombing of 1939 - 1940, when around 30 pupils and staff would have sheltered here. Image

- Air Raid Shelter: DoB ID: e42058 The chemical toilet facility at the south end of the shelter. 'Curtains? Don't you know there's a war on?' The ladder serves the emergency escape hatch. Image