WW2 Air Raid Shelter under my garden!

[PinkMini]

Firstly thankyou to Kelly (VWchick) for telling us about this, there's no way we would have guessed what was under that teeny drain cover (now known to be an escape hatch) in my garden! My flat is in a big old school/college building which is presumably why this was built in the first place.

I think this has been posted before so I wouldn't ramble on...It was a spur of the moment kinda thing with VWChick, Skins and JayM plus a few other not on the forum, so not great photos but here goes...


Would you have guessed what was under here?! The entrance was a bit of a bitch!

And thanks to all the recent rain it wasn't exactly dry, but having discovered it, there was no way we weren't going in!

At the end of the tunnel, we came across this....it took me a few seconds to realise what it actually was before freaking out big time! Lol!

It's not actually as sinister as it seems :
"On Thursday 14th October 1999 Mrs Perl Merrett and her daughter Karen stepped back into time when they visited a World War II underground air raid in the picnic grounds of the **** Road Annexe of Plymouth." and "Perl lays her wreath underground to the memory of the civilian population of Blitzed wartime Plymouth. This wreath will remain here for a very long time, it's placed in an air-lock entrance to the underground air raid shelter, there already is a time capsule placed there in 1993 by Steve Johnson and the College of Further Education" (from Steve Johnson, Cyberheritage)

Thankfully my house was fairly close for a change of dry clothes

 

[Krypton]

wow, this is pretty cool. Especially as you had no idea it was there.

Jack

 

[PinkMini]

Cheers dude! Yeah it was a total shock, many a BBQ we have had on that exact "drain cover"

Crazy stuff!

I'd love to find out what was on the other side of the bricked up bits!

 

[Krypton]

Cheers dude! Yeah it was a total shock, many a BBQ we have had on that exact "drain cover"

Crazy stuff!

I'd love to find out what was on the other side of the bricked up bits!

Theres only one way to find out - take a sledge hammer to it!!!!!!!!

 

[PinkMini]

Very tempting....hehe!

 

[cogito]

Holy carp!

Now don't we all wish we had something like that in our garden?!

 

[v-w-chick]

im sooo glad we went to look
it was as kool as i fout.
abit sad i didnt go down, but we will again. just had new new boots on lol.

3 ppl died down there and it took a hit during the war thats why its been bricked up. so who knows wots behind there.

such good stuff.

 

[Badoosh]

The things you find in your back garden eh! Thanks for posting the pics up. Shame it's got so much water in there but at least this is another fine example of shelter that hasn't been demolished in Plymouth.

 

[DigitalNoise]

Wow, now that's prety cool! I'd love to move down to Plymouth, seems like these are everywhere!

 

[DigitalNoise]

Just found this whilst looking for something completely unrelated on the net...
Look familiar?

 

[kernowexpeditionary]

nice to see it again, i believe 3 people died behind that bricked up wall...

 

[kernowexpeditionary]

more pics here http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=4843

 

[Urban Mole]

Wow, Id love to have something like that in my garden, or my neighbors, or anywhere, Id still get in there, just like Kernow did
And Id also be doing something about that wall too...

 

[Urban Mole]

Found this on the above mentioned site by DN;

I wonder if they ever did break through it?

 

[kernowexpeditionary]

nah m8, that section is still bricked up,

 

[Badoosh]

Found this on the above mentioned site by DN;

I wonder if they ever did break through it?

As Kernow says it's still bricked up. Should it stay that way or left another generation of explorer to find out what lies behind....after all people did die when that part of the shelter took a hit!

Here's a to some of the pics when it was first unearthed since it's closure, all photos stated Kings are from this shelter;

http://www.cyberheritage.com/shelter/index2.html

Did you find much grafitti when you were down there Kernow?

 

[kernowexpeditionary]

tbh m8 i didnt see much, it was my first major shelter, entry was so dodgy and the water was really deep (it was feb and water was up to my waist in parts!) so i didnt really have chance to look as i just wanted to get in & out!

up for a revisit tho!

 

[graybags]

Shelter

I still have that very press cutting !

He didn't do things by halves, did Steve

that's a serious tunnelling tool !!

G

 

[Badoosh]

tbh m8 i didnt see much, it was my first major shelter, entry was so dodgy and the water was really deep (it was feb and water was up to my waist in parts!) so i didnt really have chance to look as i just wanted to get in & out!

up for a revisit tho!

Understandable, not exactly a walk in the park like Devonport! Interesting how it's so waterlogged in there given it's location. I'm wondering if the water ingress is from the blocked section. Maybe a water pump is needed for another visit, i think Pink Mini should organise a BBQ

 

[lilli]

Thats amazing