In 1939 George Courtauld was one of the biggest employers in the Essex town of Halstead, whose factory manufactured fabrics including the silks used in the war effort for parachutes.  He also built, for his workers, the largest surviving concentration of air raid shelters in England on land near to his factory, in order to keep his employees safe from air raids during WWII.

 

When the factory closed in 1982 the shelters that were once used to protect people needed to be protected themselves.  However this never happened and as a result today they are at risk from fly-tippers who litter the land, nature that is beginning to take over and land developers who only see the site as profit.

 

For this project I photographed each of these shelters to show their threat today, from generations who have come after the people the shelters were made to protect.  I wanted to be able to create this project to be able to tell people the story of the shelters, which remain a secret to many of the small town’s residents. 

 

These shelters are at risk of being a part of the past that may no longer be a part of the future, as development and human interference has them at constant risk.