Extract from How to put up your Morrison Shelter, Catalogue ref: HO 186/580
Experts said that bombing would kill hundreds of thousands of people. So new plans were made for mass evacuation, the construction of large public shelters, and the erection of small units in private gardens (“Anderson” shelters) and inside houses (“Morrison” shelters). Although the War began in September 1939, bombing of Britain did not start immediately. People developed a false sense of security and were not keen to have shelters. Once heavy bombing began, from the summer of 1940 onwards, shelters became more popular.
- Can you explain how the Morrison shelter worked?
- Compare this to the Anderson shelter ‘Diagram of how to construct an Anderson Shelter’, Catalogue ref: ZPER 34/196.
- According to Jenny Fleming in her letter addressed to Herbert Morrison what were the problems of public shelters, 1940? Catalogue ref: HO 207/783
- Do you think Herbert Morrison would have responded to this letter?
- Could the government have done anything to improve public shelters?
Transcript
FIGURE 3
fourth stage
Put the top plate on the shelter. Use the lever provided so as to make the holes in the top plate fit exactly over the holes in the rails; as each one fits into place bolt it loosely with the 16 smaller bolts, with bolt head on top.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 6
seventh stage
Put the side and end panels over the studs.
Get inside just before the last one is put into place, and fix the four hook-and-eye fastenings as shown in Figure 7. You will notice in the illustration that the eyepiece is fastened to the last wire of the end covering…
How to Use the Shelter as a Table.
FIGURE 8
The side and end panels must be in place and fastened with the hook and eye fastenings, when the shelter is in use as such. To use it as a table, or to make the bed, the panels can be removed.