How lovely! Cracking tool shed too! 👍

Our house was built 1938/39 our above ground shelter, 6 inch slab roof, is now my tool shed. Had to enlarge door and knock out a wall for the window! Hard work, 4 brick thick walls with sand filled cavities between, presume for blast protection?

…and still features the escape hatch at the opposite end to the door.

It’s a nice survivor and a reminder of the impending sense of foreboding among the civilian population in the late 1930s, and will be a very useful addition to our Second World War education package.

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…all chamfered, and the chicken wire supported by upholstery straps and covered with thick corn sacks which had been split down the long edges and opened out into the full length.

The entire operation took us less than an hour.

The empty shelter is now a very usable space…

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…local museum that might like to save them.

They are suffering badly from woodworm, so many parts won’t be reusable but they are both in good enough condition to provide patterns & will certainly have some original parts.

The joinery was excellent, with the sharp corners…

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…to provide their own shelters.

The shelter itself is in remarkably good condition and, unlike many we hear about, the owner was keen to keep it and repurpose it.

However, the bunks were in the way and had to go. Rather than smash them out and burn them he had sought out…

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A diversion into the Second World War for us this morning.

We had the opportunity to save two wooden bunks that had been built into a brick Air Raid Shelter in 1938, just down the road from us in Bury St Edmunds.

If householders earned more than £300 per year they had to…

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…us delicious food and keeping us topped up with tea!

We all all looking forward to the Autumn volunteer weekend already.

Thank you to all the ‘Mad Hutter’ volunteers (and ‘Hut Dogs’) who made the weekend such a success!

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…been re-sandbagged, the Guardroom veranda has been painted, a length of new trench firestep has been built, the front gate has been painted, and the parade ground has been weeded.

A superb job all round.

As usual, Jane, helped by Alan and Bex, did a fantastic job feeding…
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…daffodils have been dead-headed, the picnic area has been weeded, the camp gates and fence have been painted, the bridge has been scrubbed clean, the Stoke-by-Nayland RBL Standard stand has been painted, The river has been cleared, several sections of the trenches have…
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Thank you, Bobbie! X

…rescued stacking chairs have been painted, the new Barrack Hut windows have been primed and painted, another 20 feet of the 11th Suffolks Barrack Hut interior has been refitted with its original matchboarding, two new benches have been made and fitted in the picnic area,…
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Our 2026 Spring GWH Volunteer Weekend has been a huge success. In fact we all agree that it has been the most successful volunteer weekend to date.

Over 2 days many of the Huts have been given another coat of wood preserver, doors and windows have been painted, more of our…
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Huge thanks to GWH supporter Karen Dennis for sending us a collection of BBC sound effects records for the GWH Archive, including this one of a MkV Tank on manoeuvres.

They belonged to Bill Fulton, who used them in his talks. He died 8 years ago today, making their arrival especially meaningful.

The Volunteer Training Corps and the Volunteer Regiments of the First World War. April 2020. YouTube video by Great War Huts

We made this during lockdown about the VTC which explains more 🙂

youtu.be/N9CHmTk6BEY

It’s entirely possible.

He would’ve had a uniform with the badge sewn on the right cuff. However, brassards were also intended for wear on civilian clothing. We’ve not seen another example of a qualification sewn to a brassard, so we suspect Sgt Stafford was keen to show as many people as possible that he was a Marksman!

An informal group photograph of officers, mostly of the Keighley Volunteer Training Corps during the Great War. Three of them are with the Gordon Highlanders.

A soldier being shaved in a doorway. He is seated with a towel around his neck and another man is soaping his chin with a shaving brush.

Several Keighley Volunteer Training Corps officers standing in a field, who appear to be looking at a map.

Keighley Volunteer Training Corps volunteers with long raincoats and holding rifles. They are probably on a rifle training course during the Great War period.

Oh yes, we're very fortunate to have these items in our local archive. The album holds 99 photographs (all scanned by us) Sadly there are very few captions, but there are some great images of the men in training:

What a superb resource!

Front cover of a booklet listing Keighley's Volunteer Training Corps 1914 to 1916. It is made from orange card with black text.

Two pages from a nominal roll for Keighley's Volunteer Training Battalion, giving name, address, marital status, children, age, height, weight, chest size, reason for not enlisting, previous military training and date enrolled.

A column of men (mostly in uniform) marching past an old uniformed officer. This took place in a field near Keighley and the men are the Keighley Volunteer Training Battalion. The old officer is the Earl of Harewood and it was for an inspection which occurred on the 3rd of July, 1915.

A black and white photograph from the Great War period. Eight men in uniform in a seated group photo, with a large round shield. There is no caption but presumably they had just won the shield in a competition.

We’re very fortunate to have a nominal roll for the Keighley VTC which gives name, address, age, occupation, height, weight etc and reasons for not enlisting (usually over age). The booklet is held in Keighley Library’s archive. There is also an Adjutant’s photo album of training, group photos etc.

…GWH Collection.

The VTC, and the Volunteer Regiments which replaced them (they were the Great War equivalent of the Home Guard) are a fascinating study in their own right.

In 2020 we made a short film about them which is well worth watching:

shorturl.at/fjdj5

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109 years ago today, on 31st March 1917, Sergeant R.P. Stafford, the 30th man to sign up for the Halifax Volunteer Training Corps, was presented with his Volunteer Regiment Proficiency Badge and certificate.

We also have his armband and Marksman’s qualification badge in the…

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…death notice from The Old Contemptible magazine.

K Battery mobilised at Christchurch. On 1 October 1914, a new XV Brigade RHA was formed. The brigade sailed from Southampton and landed at Ostend on 8 October 1914. It first opened fire NE of Moorslede on 19 October.

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At our first #HuttedHistories talk of the year on Wednesday we were delighted to receive this kind donation from James Hyde.

It is the bronze grave marker of Old Contemptible 34900 Driver George Neaves of K Battery, Royal Horse Artillery.

Andrew Thornton kindly sent us his…
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Our 2026 #HuttedHistories season gets off to a flying start next Wednesday (25th) when @drkatevigurs.bsky.social joins us to tell extraordinary true stories of the female agents of the SOE from her gripping new book, Mission Europe!

For more details & tickets:
shorturl.at/CTMwO

Regular Conversations: Taff Gillingham on 'The Home Guard was full of First World War Veterans' YouTube video by Remember the Regulars

Trying something new on the YouTube Channel. I had the pleasure of being joined by the wonderful Taff Gillingham of @greatwarhuts.bsky.social

Taff joined me to discuss the up and coming myth 'The Home Guard were full of First World War Veterans'.

youtu.be/_IFHgBXbKww?...

#WW1 #WW2 #History

…He was Quarter-Master General in the 55th (West Lancs) Division from April 1926 until retiring as a Colonel.

As Deputy Lieutenant of Herefordshire, he added the O.B.E. for services as ‘Secretary of the TA Association for Brecknock, Hereford and Radnor’ in January 1945.

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…Following his recovery Kyrle served as a Staff Officer at the War Office and with Home Forces, gaining another Mention in Despatches, until August 1917 when he sailed for France.

He was promoted Lieutenant Colonel and became Assistant Adjutant General, gaining another MID…
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…service at Gallipoli he was awarded the Military Cross and Mentioned in Despatches for the first time.

‘Hunter-Bunter’, commander of the 29th Division, sent his own personal congratulations…
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…He served with 2/SWB at Gallipoli and was wounded in the battle of Gully Ravine on 28 June, when his unit’s war diary noted that the men ‘advanced through a perfect hail of shrapnel ... the whole place was littered with dead and the stench was almost unbearable’
For his…
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