[Dr David Dixon]

We recently moved to 15 Pearson’s Terrace Hexham and discovered what looks like an underground air raid shelter big enough for a few people to take refuge. I wondered if any of your members knew about this and whether it’s an unusual feature for this area. It’s not in the best of states and would need some work to make it perfectly safe. If it’s not that important, then we might as well remove it and fill in the hole.

Also, we were intrigued to know why our end of terrace has such a large plot of land (nearly three quarters of an acre) which drops down on one side nearly to the edge of Cockshaw Burn.

Thanks

David

[Mark Benjamin]

Hi David

Sorry to have missed your posting here but, just to confirm what we spoke about on the phone. Anderson Shelters (named after Sir John Anderson, in charge of Air Raid Precautions) were pretty common as the WW2 government encouraged any householder with a garden to build one. As to why your end terrace has such a large plot of land attached, if it’s not mentioned in the property’s deeds then I suspect the reason is lost to history!

[Gary Rogers]

I’ve got a digital copy of a 1920 Hexham map. It looks like No 15 was a later addition to the street as it’s not on the map. The building to your NW wasn’t there and there was a large gap between no 14 and the square house two doors down. Prior to that it looks like the land was a garden or orchard with a small house on the NW corner of the land. I have no hosting site so can’t post a URL. I can be contacted maybe through Facebook or I can drop you a copy off as I regularly park outside your house to visit my wife’s mum over the road from you. Gary

[Gary Rogers]

Oops. That should be NE

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