A Tunnel from the Past

When war was declared I lived at Ramsgate in a Regency terraced house adjacaent to the Mayoral offices, and overlooking the harbour.

A few days after war was declared we received a letter addressed to The Occupant from a lady whose Grandfather had lived in the house during the first World War. She informed us that if we went into the second cellar in the basement, we would find a (blocked in) opening to a tunnel under the house. We duly looked in what we thought was the second cellar but there was no sign of any hole in the floor. Then we noticed that there was an unexplained distance between the first and second cellars. Down came the wall and lo and behold, there was the opening.

Our neighbour, the Borough Engineer, in return for allowing his staff to use the tunnel, had it opened up for us. This amazing tunnel carved out of the chalk about ten feet down from the basement floor, and therefore about 20 feet below road level, ran the entire length of the house, at standing-up height, and was perfectly dry.
There was a chamber about eight feet square with seats carved in the rock. Candles and matches and one or two other utilities were found in tins, dry and serviceable.
With an entrance ladder at both front and rear we scurried down every time the air raid siren sounded, but it was a long way down, and we could not hear the all clear, so the discipline fell into disuse after a short time.
A year or so later a bomb landed on the Borough Engineers property next door, demolishing it,. The cellar was unoccupied at the time. Nobody was killed.
I suppose it is there to this day.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.