Late in 1940 the Ministry of Home Security adopted a policy of 100% provision for civilian air-raid shelters. Accordingly, at the start of the following year the Canterbury emergency committee decided to provide pre-cast concrete trench shelters for all civilians who required shelter in event of invasion attempt, and set about providing trenches sufficient for 10,000 persons. In early January 1941 a plan was discussed for pre-cast concrete trench shelters to house 2320 persons ‘on the land recently purchased by the Council’ at Martyrs Field. Around May, the size of the proposed shelter was reduced to 1386. The shelters seem to have been built because they are supposed, in November 1941, to have received additional latrines. Their whereabouts is as yet unclear, but the fact that the Council had recently bought the land suggests it might subsequently have become a housing estate. This suggests the large post-war housing estate to the south-east of Martyr’s Field Road. At the start of December 1943 there is reference to a public air-raid shelter in ‘Fowler’s Orchard’ adjoining Lime Kiln Road, which is now part of this estate, and immediate post-war aerial photographs show an unusual group of large linear features in the orchard adjoining this road. Oddly the shelter doesn’t seem to feature in lists of public shelters made early in 1942; surely this could not have been the ‘Wincheap’ shelter?
Owner : Unknown
Publicly accessible : Unknown
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : Destroyed
Date of visit :

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). SKE14898.

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). Ske14898.