Hi all !!
Big thanx to our own Slim Jim for the heads up on this one !! After reading his post a couple of weeks back and hearing of the death of a shelterer about to enter the caves during ww11 i was intrigued. As a trip to Dover was on the cards anyway i thought a visit here would be essential. So, after a quick discussion with Mrs Fluffy (Tubbs) a plan was hatched. After a quick recce, and managing to avoid the 40,000 lorries queing outside as part of Operation Stack we were in !!
Basically Scotts Caves consist of very little - a couple of tunnels joined by smaller tunnels and a few offshoot 'cupboards' one of which contains a well that used to serve the nearby barracks !! Called Scott's Caves as it was part of Scott & Son's Dyeing and cleaning business in the busy Snargate Street area of Dover. Presumably these caves at the rear of their premises were for storage. During the second world war they became one of the many air raid shelters used by the civilian population in Hells Corner !! After the war they were earmarked by the admiralty as storage for inflammable materials owned by the Navy. Latterly they have become a dumping ground for all manner of useless items dicarded by owners of the business units in the vacinity !
So, on with the pics
On entering the caves you are greeted by a dead end passage with offshoots partly lined with brick - this is the unlined dead end section of that passage.
From this passage are a couple of store rooms
Nothing too exciting but a good opportunity to practise some torch waving !!
From this a short spur tunnel connects to the second large gallery.
This has its own small store
And a partly bricked up entrance that leads to an abandoned well
Owing to its size its virtually impossible to photo but here is the entry to it with and without the lights on. I would say at a very rough guess that the pipework extends downward for about 20 feet and upwards for nearly 100 feet.
Also in this gallery area are a couple of interesting items that managed to get caught in the torch beam .... firstly a split insulator
.... and secondly a mystery object !! I've seen a few of these but have no idea of what they were for. It looks like it used to carry a bearing which housed a shaft !! There is evidence of oil staining on the brickwork but i have no idea ... Does anyone else?
After exploring the caves we headed home BUT i was still intrigued by the death of the shelterer. So, after a little bit of research, i came up with some info which brought home the human side of the story and the amazing resilience of the British people some seventy years ago. Basically in 1940 Emily Foster was a resident of Dover and lived at 72 St James Street. One day a bomb exploded which severely damaged her house ..... 'I was up the stairs, scrubbing the top floor. The next thing i know i was lying in St James Street, so i just picked myself up and walked away !!' Says the quote in 'Hells Corner 1940' by HRP Boorman. Unfortunately where she walked away to was Scott's Caves which she made into her unofficial home. Here she must have felt as safe as was possible until an air raid on December 4th 1940 created a chalk fall which buried her as she was entering the darkness. Her body laying undiscovered for a few days underneath the chalk. She was buried -with as far as i can tell little or no family or friends - sixteen days after her demise in St James' cemetary Dover. She was 54. Reading of her plight stirred my emotion and i decided that we had to track down her grave and pay our respects to someone whose life was taken nearly seventy years ago in tragic but all too familiar circumstances. It took fifteen minutes to find her grave and only seconds to realise that this woman is now probably forgotten by all. Just another statistic of war !! After leaving a flower by her headstone we were gone, but the experience and her name will remain with us .... !
Thanks for reading !!
Big thanx to our own Slim Jim for the heads up on this one !! After reading his post a couple of weeks back and hearing of the death of a shelterer about to enter the caves during ww11 i was intrigued. As a trip to Dover was on the cards anyway i thought a visit here would be essential. So, after a quick discussion with Mrs Fluffy (Tubbs) a plan was hatched. After a quick recce, and managing to avoid the 40,000 lorries queing outside as part of Operation Stack we were in !!
Basically Scotts Caves consist of very little - a couple of tunnels joined by smaller tunnels and a few offshoot 'cupboards' one of which contains a well that used to serve the nearby barracks !! Called Scott's Caves as it was part of Scott & Son's Dyeing and cleaning business in the busy Snargate Street area of Dover. Presumably these caves at the rear of their premises were for storage. During the second world war they became one of the many air raid shelters used by the civilian population in Hells Corner !! After the war they were earmarked by the admiralty as storage for inflammable materials owned by the Navy. Latterly they have become a dumping ground for all manner of useless items dicarded by owners of the business units in the vacinity !
So, on with the pics
On entering the caves you are greeted by a dead end passage with offshoots partly lined with brick - this is the unlined dead end section of that passage.
From this passage are a couple of store rooms
Nothing too exciting but a good opportunity to practise some torch waving !!
From this a short spur tunnel connects to the second large gallery.
This has its own small store
And a partly bricked up entrance that leads to an abandoned well
Owing to its size its virtually impossible to photo but here is the entry to it with and without the lights on. I would say at a very rough guess that the pipework extends downward for about 20 feet and upwards for nearly 100 feet.
Also in this gallery area are a couple of interesting items that managed to get caught in the torch beam .... firstly a split insulator
.... and secondly a mystery object !! I've seen a few of these but have no idea of what they were for. It looks like it used to carry a bearing which housed a shaft !! There is evidence of oil staining on the brickwork but i have no idea ... Does anyone else?
After exploring the caves we headed home BUT i was still intrigued by the death of the shelterer. So, after a little bit of research, i came up with some info which brought home the human side of the story and the amazing resilience of the British people some seventy years ago. Basically in 1940 Emily Foster was a resident of Dover and lived at 72 St James Street. One day a bomb exploded which severely damaged her house ..... 'I was up the stairs, scrubbing the top floor. The next thing i know i was lying in St James Street, so i just picked myself up and walked away !!' Says the quote in 'Hells Corner 1940' by HRP Boorman. Unfortunately where she walked away to was Scott's Caves which she made into her unofficial home. Here she must have felt as safe as was possible until an air raid on December 4th 1940 created a chalk fall which buried her as she was entering the darkness. Her body laying undiscovered for a few days underneath the chalk. She was buried -with as far as i can tell little or no family or friends - sixteen days after her demise in St James' cemetary Dover. She was 54. Reading of her plight stirred my emotion and i decided that we had to track down her grave and pay our respects to someone whose life was taken nearly seventy years ago in tragic but all too familiar circumstances. It took fifteen minutes to find her grave and only seconds to realise that this woman is now probably forgotten by all. Just another statistic of war !! After leaving a flower by her headstone we were gone, but the experience and her name will remain with us .... !
Thanks for reading !!
