I have previously written about summerhouses on St Ann’s Allotments during the 19th century. They provided gardeners with shelter, along with partying and storage facilities. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II a shelter proposal under the Hungerhill Gardens, rather than over them, was suggested.
In a city that is on the edge of a mining area, where thousands of men are living who know all about timbering, and pit props and mine galleries, and a city moreover in which there are hills wherever you look, it really does seem amazing that no effort at all seems to have been made to drive shelter galleries beneath the hills. All men who served in France [during WWI] and picked up a bit of practical knowledge about dugout construction, will remember how very safe and comfortable were the dugouts in cases where “baby elephant” shelters, of a type very similar to the Anderson A.R.P. [Air Raid Precautions] shelters, were driven gallerywise into a hillside. Shelter for the population living in the Woodborough-road, Sycamore-road, St. Ann’s Well-road area could well be provided by driving shafts into that huge hillside covered by the Hungerhill-gardens.”
(Nottingham Journal – Thursday 27 April 1939)
An example of an Anderson shelter can be seen at Oliver’s heritage gardens. Although in a wartime situation it would have been buried below ground, with perhaps rhubarb or other crops planted on the top, it is now used as a surface seating area. Modern below ground shelters are available for garden use, and a company in the Shire of Nottingham offers them as bespoke pods. In effect they are luxury summerhouses installed below ground, with green roofs and other environmental benefits.
However, before you start thinking of growing hairy feet and installing a pod under the Hobbit-hill Gardens you might baulk at the, upward of, £20K cost, although this still compares favourably with the cost of a 19th century summerhouse.
