Air-Raid Shelters at Hardwick House

One of a row of air-raid shelters at Hardwick House, Whitchurch, near Reading, UK (here on Google Maps).  When I first walked past them, several years ago, I didn't realize there was more than one; maybe they were more overgrown then.  Actually, there are four, in a line parallel to the Whitchurch-to-Mapledurham track.  Here I suggested that they might have been a starfish site, but I now think that is wrong and it is more likely that they were air-raid shelters for people living or working at the House.  Maybe Hardwick House was occupied by a branch of the government or the military during the war?  Does anyone know?

All four shelters are identical in layout and construction.  Each has a little closet (a toilet?) next to the entrance door.  Each main room originally had a circular skylight with a metal ladder to it, though the westernmost one's ladder has been detached.  I understand that these skylights were emergency exits for use in case the main entrance was blocked by bomb damage.  The main rooms seem to be particularly, even unnecessarily, roomy.

Comments

[Aydin]

They don't appear to have been fortified enough to withstand a direct hit from a bomb.

[Tristram]

I think most air-raid shelters in WW2 Britain were designed more to stop shrapnel and flying debris, rather than withstand a direct hit. This was certainly the case with the common Anderson shelter.