Operation Pig Ark - Uncovering an Anderson Shelter in 2019

In 2019 members of the SOFO Museum Team collected an Anderson shelter roof from a farm in Deddington, Oxfordshire, where it had been repurposed into a pig ark.

The metal was attached to large wooden blocks which were anchored to the ground, so our team had to carefully prise the metal away from the wood to free it. The roof was in several parts with some sheets held together loosely with the original bolts, so each panel had to be removed in a specific order. Eventually we were able to free the roof, and we loaded it into a trailer ready for transporting to the museum. The next step will be to conserve the metal to stop it rusting further.

It's amazing how many WW2-era installations can still be found amongst the modern landscape, not just in Oxfordshire, but across the UK - from pillboxes to pig arks like this one!

We hope to build the original shelter roof into a future museum display, which will sit nicely alongside the life-size shelter we hope to build if our Crowdfunder campaign is successful. If you'd like to find out more about the project, or would like to throw a donation our way, check out the project page here.