SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

On the 1949 and 1938 maps of Hunselt Moor it shows in the park 2 shelters, they are not on any earlier maps and was wondering if these could be surface air raid shelters or maybe bunkers underneath? Under the trees there is concrete but what looks to be in the shape of a bandstand, i forgot to take a photo but will get one soon as and upload but you can see on the attached photos the concrete through the trees and location of where it looks to be on the maps, anyone any ideas?

A simple check would be to look at the known air-raid shelters in other Leeds parks and see whether they are similarly marked.
See
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/lo ... see-600195
for a list of locations of Leeds air-raid shelters

The shaded circle marked shelter on your map of Hunslet Moor is identical to shelters in other Leeds parks from the same map series. There are several shown in Roundhay park , for example, one of which I know for certain was a simple circular shelter, a bit like a band stand but glazed and not raised. Its only purpose was to shelter you from the weather! It may still be there.

It is an interesting question whether air-raid shelters were ever officially marked on published OS maps and if so how were they marked. I suspect not. The exception might have been the Emergency ARP sheets drafted in 1938 which were never issued to the public.

This document may help

This 1951 OS Map of Belle Isle Circus clearly shows the old AR Shelter, now concreted over, so I would imagine that others will also be shown on the later maps

Would a 1938 map even display air raid shelters? Two reason why not spring to mind in were we even expecting a war in 1938 and even if we were would we be publicising sensitive targets. Yes local on the ground intelligence could pin point them and they aren't as sensitive as munitions factories or other similar vital infrastructure but a strike on a mass shelter would be deemed demoralising to the populace which was one of the major reasons for the blitz.

Could the shelter be from the weather like the ones on sea-fronts?

Buffaloskinner's list shows there were loads of air raid shelters in 1939. I see that Gott's Park and Armley Park had eleven between them. Living in Armley from 1944 to 1954, I spent a lot of my early life playing there. Had there been accessible shelters there of any type, we'd have been all over them but my memory is blank on this. I can only assume they were either completely shut off or perhaps repurposed as public lavatories. Bearing in mind that any air raid shelter intended to be occupied by a lot of people possibly overnight, they would need washing and lavatory facilities so existing public conveniences might have been ideal for conversion to shelters. The redevelopment involved with building the M621 could have had all sorts of effects on Hunslet Moor.

I think the concrete base is the remains of either the bandstand or the circular "Old man's shelter". The Old Man's shelter was still there in the 60's right up until the motorway being developed, I remember it well. I don't remember the bandstand but see attached map for location.

Further to my last post re Hunslet Moor....on the 1955 map (attached) the circle is shown as a shelter, I am convinced this was the Old man's shelter. It looks like the bandstand had gone by then.
The only air raid shelters I remember in this vicinity were nearer to Garnet Road behind what used to be Wilkinson's Knacker yard, see map, I have shaded them green, as kids we played in them right up until the coming of the M1.
With regard to the shelter shown on Belle Isle Circus, this was actually the tram shelter for trams heading towards Hunslet/Leeds. The air raid shelters under Belle Isle Circus were further to the south diagonally from the tram shelter.

thank you all for the interest and help in this, it has puzzled me for a while. so it seems the mystery has been solved, although it does leave the question as to where the bunkers on the moor were, i know that the motorway follows mostly the old track of the miggy railway and at about moor road part of the moor has been sliced off for the slip road but there seems to be still be alot of it left, albeit flats built on it now, but the hill that runs along the back against the fence of the slip road was that always there or was it flat before the motorway was built and the hill is actually fill from the re landscaping for the motorway?

I have had a good think about where the air raid shelters on Hunslet Moor could have been and think I may have solved it. Please see map, I have coloured in green where I believe the shelters were.