Devonport Park Air Raid Shelters Part 2 - The Buried Time Capsule

Site Visited - April 2009


What is written below is the original 2009 account of the second installment of the air raid shelters in Devonport Park. At the age of around 10-12 (a long time ago), myself & a couple of mates used to walk down a disused railway line close to my Auntie's in Grimsby, to a piece of wasteland & derelict buildings from the days when huge cooling towers stood on the site of a power station. After several visits in the school holidays exploring our new playground, a little bit of scrabbling around in rubble led us to uncover an underground space - needless to say when we all arrived home that evening we were covered head to toe in dust.

That was my first real explore of a buried structure which turned out to be a WWII Stanton Type air raid shelter, strewn with broken benches & personal items like work boots. A little bit of cleaning up over the holidays & it became our new den that stayed hidden for a good year until another group of kids noticed us going in & it was no longer a secret. That stayed with me for life but I never ever thought that I would be doing something like that in my late thirties!


If you missed the first part of the discoveries at Devonport Park, click here to get the full picture.

Whilst the part demolition of the first shelter was taking place, we focused our attention on what was thought to be a second lying only a few feet away & although still buried, a section of concrete had been exposed. A small hole, where the electric cabling ran through a clay pipe to the adjoining shelter, provided us with the opportunity to insert a camera enabling us to get a glimpse of what lay behind. Here is the image of what we excitedly found....

....the first view confirming the existence of the second shelter, unseen & untouched for over 60 years. Underneath all the mud & rubble there would have been steps leading up & out into the park, this being the original entrance which was demolished not long after World War II. Here is the view from the outside.....

The huge mound of earth was the only obstacle preventing access to this shelter & this was to be used as infill for the neighbouring one, therefore exposing a little more of the original roof of the entrance. With concerns for the fate of this shelter & inspired by local residents who expressed their dismay in witnessing the previously discovered one being destroyed, a well thought plan was put together with the aim of documenting the buried passageways. Two weeks later the team was stood inside this WWII time capsule & being the first people to walk it's passageways since the late 1940's felt quite surreal. Within minutes we realised this was a smaller shelter being only one square section as opposed to two, & this would have been designed to hold around 200 people.

 The first look from inside the infilled entrance

Looking back on the infilled entrance

Fuseboxes

Cabling hangs from the roof, & corrugated sheet on the floor that was probably used for some blast shielding at the entrance to the shelter

1940's portrait

This meant something to the artist, but what does it portray?

Original light fittings

Translated as MC Drant May 29, 1944 2.35am Monday

Coin & marble artefacts

Looking down one of the passageways. The rubble in the mid section is from where the escape hatch would have been, & cables have fallen from their wooden fixings

Almost 2 hours was spent documenting the dimensions, graffiti, artefacts, & also observing a minutes silence in complete darkness in memory of the people who sought refuge there & are not with us today. It was then resealed with the hope that this wouldn't suffer the same fate as the one previously discovered. Only time would tell whether or not officials would eventually enter & survey this shelter to make a decision as to whether it was worthy enough to preserve.

Keep following for further developments!

Devonport Park Air Raid Shelters - Part 1

Site Documented - March/April 2009

This is where it all began providing the inspiration for the Hidden Plymouth Blog, with a website to follow in the future that will feature more in-depth on the visits to document & capture some of Plymouth's hidden heritage.  Back in late February 2009, whilst work was taking place on a new long awaited adventure playground for the park, groundworkers accidentally unearthed one of the parks five known World War II underground air raid shelters near to the Fore Street entrances. Although one of the escape hatches was found accidentally & came as a surprise to Plymouth City Council, it was common knowledge to local residents & historians that a shelter was located beneath the site where works was taking place. Indeed, original plans were for a survey of the shelter as part of the works on the new playground & ideas of possibly opening it up for public viewing but this seemed to all change once an access had been discovered.

Since relocating to Devonport in 2007 I had often walked above the locations of the shelters with my son explaining what lay beneath the mounds but little did i think I would be giving him a personal history lesson & guided tour of an important part of Plymouth's Blitz history that would be destroyed within a few weeks of discovery. I had often wondered why none of the air raid shelters in Plymouth had not been preserved & opened for public tours, so there was no way i was going to miss the opportunity to be one of only a few to document it's existence & walk it's passageways. There's nothing like stepping back into time,  into what is essentially a 'time capsule' from World War II, a safe haven for protection from the bombs that rained down from above. Tragically, some shelters in Plymouth took a direct hit with many lives lost but there is no doubt that their protection saved countless lives too. We have met a few people who have shared their childhood memories & personal experiences taking refuge in some of the Plymouth's shelters & will feature this in the near future.

 A few good friendships were formed during this time, our paths crossing thanks to a shared interest in documenting our heritage & online public forum Derelict Places . It also led to a chance meeting with well known local historian Steve Johnson AKA Cyberheritage, a man whose website i had visited many a time (& still do!), due to it's vast library of history & pictures of Plymouth. If you have never visited his online pages, then you don't know what you're missing, go check out Cyberheritage & see for yourself. This was the beginning of many adventures & discoveries to follow!

This was, to say the least, an awesome place to see & was also unique in the fact that it was split into two sections, one for the public & the other for Naval Personnel, presumably for security reasons. Artefacts found within included bottles, corn beef tin, buttons, a child's ring & a zippo lighter. 1940's grafitti also adorned the whitewashed concrete walls including Popeye, semi-naked ladies, a Swastika, & people's names & addresses. City of Plymouth Public Shelter Rules was found at the southern entrance of the shelter, along with original lighting, other posters & evidence of the gas curtains. Also found but removed before these images were taken was a pick axe which would have enabled the occupants to dig their way out in the event of the shelter taking a hit.

Middle entrance directing Naval Personnel into the military only section of the shelter

City of Plymouth Public Shelter Rules

                                    Popeye                                          

1940's alien's head grafitti

Corned beef or spam?

Hair comb

Considering this shelter had been buried for more than 60 years it was in surprisingly good condition, a little damp understandably, but was well worthy of preserving & opening for future public viewing & would have made an exciting opportunity for the community to get involved had it's fate not been sealed within a few days of discovery. Exactly why more effort was not made to preserve an important piece of our heritage is beyond me & many others who had to witness the destruction of around 80% of this shelter. Hundreds of public air raid shelters were constructed in Plymouth as part of World War II Air Raid Precaution plans, with few remaining today still buried underground or used as storage, but none are open to the public.

The demolition begins!

Above ground image showing half of the shelter's roof

Image taken below ground where the demolition began

With the demolition underway, it soon became apparent that a second shelter lying a few feet away could suffer the same fate, although this was still buried & only a small section of concrete had been exposed. Maybe this would be the shelter they preserve for future but for now we would just have to watch in dismay as yet another piece of heritage is destroyed. A few people were lucky enough to visit & document the shelter unofficially whilst it was "open" & we hope to show some of their images in the future updates. Keep following for Part 2!

Many thanks to Si for endless evenings of fun & laughter!