Pelaw, Shields Road, air raid shelters

HER Number:
13169

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Pelaw, Shields Road, air raid shelters

Place:
Pelaw

Map Sheet:

Class:
Defence

Site Type: Broad:
Civil Defence Site

Site Type: Specific:
Air Raid Shelter

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Demolished Building

Description:
Six World War Two underground air raid shelters lie within a grassed area between the CWS shirt factory and the pyjama factory. These are shown on a 1989 plan found in the shirt factory and are labelled 'bomb shelters to be fully collapsed and infilled'. This appears to have been carried out thoroughtly with only isolated elements surviving of the shelters after their destruction. A watching brief in 2013 was held while three shelters were exposed and recorded prior to the redevelopment of the site. The shelters were of the covered trench type (constructed from 1939 onwards) and were regular in plan with an entrance projecting from the north-west corner where a stairway would have originally ran, an example of which survived insitu at shelter 2 protected by thick reinforced concrete walls. The shelters were constructed using prefabricated materials with concrete wall panels cemented against concrete slabs that lined the trench.

Easting:
2909

Northing:
6210

Grid Reference:
NZ29096210

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Jamie Scott and Jocelyn Strickland, Tyne and Wear Museums, June 2008, Pelaw Shirt Factory, Shields Road, Pelaw, Gateshead - Archaeological Desk-based Assessment and Historic Buildings Recording; AD Archaeology, 2013, Former Pelaw Shirt Factory, Pelaw, Gateshead, Archaeological Watching Brief; TWM Archaeology, 2010, Pelaw Shirt Factory, Archaeological Evaluation