Family Wartime Memories of Birmingham

Sheila Fennell's parents lived in Selly Oak during the Second World War. They had an Anderson shelter in their garden which was shared with their neighbours, but Sheila remembers the scary spiders that also inhabited this air raid shelter! Her father also bought a Morrison table air raid shelter which was kept in their dining room, and she often slept there with her brother.

Sheila also recalls collecting shrapnel from German bombs and anti-aircraft shells after it fell in the garden and a German bomber that crashed on the sports ground close to the nearby battery factory.

Her father worked at the Austin Factory and was an ARP Warden checking people's blackout as he wasn't called up. Her grandparents lived in Ladywood which was heavily bombed.