If you look up the access road, through our front car park you can just about see the entrance to our one remaining air raid shelter. According to our school log book, several were built on the grounds in 1940.

During the Second World War, Mary Beavis, our Headmistress was awarded the LARP (Local Air Raid Precautions) silver brooch for her efficiency in evacuating the children to these shelters. Mary's surviving family have generously given the school her brooch, which we proudly display alongside her Red Cross First Aid medal which she earned during the First World War. She really was an amazing woman and a role model for our children today.

In the past, we have used the shelter to bring to life the experiences the children at the Alvey would have gone through during an air raid warning; there are two benches along each wall, it is dark and not particularly comfortable and today's pupils are keen to get out again, as I'm sure they would have been in the 1940s!

We thought turning the air raid shelter into a museum, a little like Mrs Smith's Cottage in Navenby, would be a suitable memorial for those children from 'The Alvey' who went on to fight and tragically fall in WW2. The shelter will also serve as an interesting resource for the children who currently attend the school. We want to put in a glass door, special lighting, a sound system and some artefacts that the children would have actually taken into the shelters during an air raid. Once we get the roof water-tight, the door and the lights in, we will give you another update and hopefully, when all COVID restrictions have been removed, we can have a 'Grand Opening'.

If you can donate £5 or more we will ensure your name is engraved onto a permanent memorial which will form an integral part of the air raid shelter itself, along with this, you will receive an invitation to the Grand Opening later in the year.

Please note this project is also supported by Home Front History.