Castle Castings Civil Defense Siren
Datemid 20th Century
Object NameSiren
MediumCast alloy, cast iron, rubber.
ClassificationsWartime
Dimensions45 cm high by 58.5cm long and 41cm wide.
AcquisitionTransferred in 2015 from Urban Studies.
LocationView by Appointment
Object numberABDMS094887
About MeElectro-mechanical civil defence or air raid siren. Manufactured by Castle Castings with a Brooks Compton and Hawker Siddeley AC motor.
The British Government had only one contract for air raid sirens running up to and late into the Second World War and that was with Gents of Leicester. They produced cast iron bodied sirens with alloy rotors and towards the end of the war these began to fatigue and fail.
At that point contracts were put out to northern manufactures including Castle Castings. The original Castle Casting siren had a motor solely produced by Brooks Compton with Hawker Siddeley taking over later.
From this information we can ascertain that this siren is likely to be 1944/45 in date.
After the Second World War a civil defence siren network continued to be maintained in case of nuclear attack. With the end of the Cold War it was decommissioned in 1993.
World War 2
