When Sunderland prepared for war with the building of air raid shelters

Sunderland was preparing for war in 1939 with the building of air raid shelters; Chris Cordner reports. Memories from the Sunderland Echo archive.

Transcript

00:0085 years ago, Sunderland was preparing for war. The threat loomed ever larger and the

00:07town was a hive of activity. Children were evacuated, families were shown how to put

00:14on gas masks, and there was another vital part of it all. Air raid shelters sprang up

00:20all over the town. People dug up the gardens to install them. Other communal shelters were

00:27built in Mowbray Park and Ryop. By the time war was over, one and a half million Anderson

00:34shelters had been distributed. If you had a relative who lived through it all, tell

00:40us more by emailing chris.cordner at nationalworld.com