A FAMILY'S DEFENCE
See also
Shelters
and More Shelters
Great
War Shelters
Dover suffered both bombing and shelling during the second World
War. Many families took shelter in the caves, others had
air-raid shelters supplied to them, such as the Anderson.
Families also constructed their own shelters, and here is one.
|
 |
Just outside the back door of the
house, the father of the family had dug this shelter
into the chalk of the downs. The door is small and
narrow - there is just room for one person at a time to
crawl in. |
|
Inside the shelter is just as narrow
and low - and it's also very dark! The shelter stretches
some ten feet back into the hillside, and several
members of the family would sleep here during night-time
raids. |
 |
|
 |
But this isn't any ordinary
drain-hole cover. Made by Dolbear and Johnson of Dover,
it conceals a secret. |
| Shelters should always have two exits at least, in
case fallen masonry should block one. Underneath the
cover, beyond the line of the house, is another exit
from the shelter, at the far end, beyond the line of the
house. It extends some eight feet down into the ground.
Here's Maggie, looking up. Having spent just a few
minutes in the shelter, she can vouch that Dovorians
during the war were very brave indeed! |
 |
See also
Shelters
and More Shelters
with grateful thanks to Dawn Parkinson,
granddaughter of Henry Beatty
pictures, Simon Chambers
