TWENTIETH CENTURY DEFENCE SITES of TYNE and WEAR

Section 3 The Second World War
transferred to Heaton Secondary School.
The house had another wartime role, as the
headquarters and control room for the Air
Raid Precautions (ARP) network in
Newcastle. It would have been here that the
police, RAF Fighter Command, and ARP
wardens’ posts would send reports about
bomb damage during a raid.
Attached to the house is a series of tunnels,
with one entrance inside the main building,
and three others at the bottom of a cliff to the
north in Jesmond Dene. Each tunnel
entrance is marked by either one or two
decorated stone pillars, all of identical
design. The tunnels, exits and marker posts
seem to have been constructed at the same
time as the house, in the early 19th century,
presumably as cold stores or cellars or
servant’s entrances. However, the interior of
the tunnels have a distinctly 20th century
appearance, being reinforced with concrete.
It is no surprise that while the house was in
use during the War, the Home Guard or
more likely the ARP made use of the tunnels,
which were ideal as air raid shelters and
control rooms.
Tunnels under Jesmond Dene House
Near the tunnel entrances is a small, square,
brick hut with a heavy concrete roof,
described as a pillbox by the Ordnance
Survey. Although it does not have as many
‘embrasures’ or firing holes as a normal
pillbox, there is one hole on the eastern side
which has now been bricked up. It is possibly
better described as a warden’s post. Also
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nearby is a concrete structure, almost totally
buried, with a slit in the front, possibly a firing
window. It is thought that this may have been
a sentry box or similar. Both structures were
positioned to defend the tunnel entrances.
Jesmond Dene House is listed grade 2 and
has been converted into a hotel (Browne
1946, Nolan 2004).
Public Access to pillbox (but not tunnels) in
Jesmond Dene
NZ 254 672
64 Houghton-le-Spring, Rough
Dene, Home Guard Bunker
(HER 5504)
The concrete remains of a bunker survive,
half-buried, in the wooded dene. Local
residents recall the Home Guard volunteers
practising manoeuvres here.
Air Raid Shelters
There were a number of different types –
trench shelters, which were merely a trench
revetted with sandbags, steel plating, timber,
brick or stone; covered trench shelters which
were trench shelters which had been lined
and roofed with concrete, steel or timber;
surface shelters (e.g. Anderson shelters)
which were brick or concrete with a concrete
roof; semi-sunken shelters; basement
shelters and underground shelters (Lowry
1996, 67-73).