Plymouth Blitz Tours

It's been a long time since our last blog post, so we thought we better make it a good one!

It's been a long time in the planning and now Hidden Heritage have announced one of their latest exclusive tours in the historic maritime City of Plymouth. Launching in January 2015, Plymouth Blitz Tours will be an interactive experience, taking you on walks around the relics of Second World War sites in Plymouth, inspired by the people who were there who have shared their memories and helped us to build a better understanding of what time was like during the war.

In 2011, Hidden Plymouth assisted BBC Spotlight for the 70th Anniversary of the Plymouth Blitz, visiting Maker Camp on the Rame Peninsula, and descending into one of the former underground Public Air Raid Shelters, a true time capsule from the 1940's.

Now, it's time to finally take you, the people of Plymouth and visitors from around the globe with us on a journey into the past.

Proceeds from tours will be going back to The Plymouth Blitz Project, an online archive that was created with strong support from Hidden Plymouth and Steve Johnson at Cyberheritage, who have shared a great deal of Plymouth History to a worldwide audience online, and now exclusively, to those of you who wish to learn more, with history walks taking you on the journey of this great City that rose from the rubble, beginning with A Plan for Plymouth in 1943 to become Britain's Ocean City today.

Our aim has always been to have some form of Plymouth Blitz Experience, and this year we have moved one step closer to making that a reality, just in time for the 75th Anniversary we hope! #PlymBlitz75

Walls of History

At many of the historic military sites & air raid shelters, we have been lucky enough to document pencil graffiti & etchings, some dating back more than 100 years. Written on whitewashed & eroded walls - names, company units, humour & drawings fill an otherwise vacant space leaving a clue for us to hopefully build a better picture & history of the location.

WWII graffiti beneath Bovisand Fort casemates

Graffiti dating back to November 1914,  four months after the start of World War I

Dedication to a Captain on the walls of a former prison cell

With many sites documented now lost to demolition, these images live on with an important purpose - a reminder of the occupants of the time. What happened to the people in later years? The Private who etched his name in pencil at an underground fuel store in 1914 for example - Was he to see battle in the fields of the Somme? Or the ladies of the NAAFI, names written in chalk adorning a section of school air raid shelter - What was to be their fate during the remainder of the Plymouth Blitz?

A prisoner in a fort prison cell left his mark in December 1914, where it still remains evident today

Initials inside a fort tunnel

WWII graffiti months before the German surrender

Air raid shelters around the city have thrown up some of the finest pencil scrawls from shelters around the UK, with sketches including Churchill, Hitler, Luftwaffe aircraft, names & addresses. Many quality drawings adorn humid walls, the artist unknown in many cases, but leaving their historic imprint for future generations to discover & document, making otherwise unseen places accessible to the public via photographs. Amount of graffiti in shelters does vary with one containing very little left, or drawings that had simply worn away through time. Or, in the case of a shelter we documented last year that had the most drawings I have personally seen, stunningly preserved & after 4 hours of documenting what we found, the chances are there will still be more that we had missed, waiting to be discovered by the next researcher.

HMS Javelin

Support Plymouth Warships Week

Luftwaffe dropping parachute bombs

Crossed out scrawls

Mary had a little lamb....

Victory to the British Empire - We did win!

I often wonder what the person was experiencing at the time of their scrawls in the shelter. Were they filled with fear of the chaotic bombardment that rained on the city? Or calm in their thoughts with the mind being occupied with their drawing? There are, in my opinion, works of art on some of the walls showing true skill of the person sketching & must have taken a great amount of effort & time. We look forward to bringing you more findings over the coming months. If you have any photos taken from other locations please feel free to get in touch!

Recognise this chap?

National Fire Service

Sinister looking gas mask sketch

Standing almost three feet high, this stunning depiction of a worker

Boot sketch

Look out for another feature on the blog coming soon.....Shelter Art of WWII.

The All Clear

Our first limited print is available from February entitled The All Clear. It depicts a modern view of how colours were used inside an air raid shelter. The green of the all clear overshadowing the red fading of an air raid in progress, & the bright light of a would-be ARP warden protruding through the blackout to calmly direct you outside......but to what?

Stories tell of emerging after a heavy raid close-by & being confronted with total devastation. Homes flattened from direct hits & on fire from incendiary devices that fell in their thousands. This underground warren of passageways hold many stories that have never come to light & through the Faces of Plymouth Blitz, we will bring you new unpublished accounts from the people who were there.

If you would like yours or a family members history to be part of a massive online archive, please get in touch via info@hiddenplymouth.co.uk