A Wartime Cave Dweller

I wonder how many readers have lived in a cave, I have with my Mother and Father, I was 7, my sister Joyce was 5, sister Sylvia 3 and brother Ivan was 1.

We were living in The Crescent, West Wickham, Kent when we were bombed out the early days of the Battle of Britain in Sept 1940. The bomb fell right by the home made shelter that my father had made out of bed springs and sandbags dug deep into the ground. My father was a tall big man 17 stone in weight so when we bombed out he held the shelter up with his back. I can remember the firemen came and got us out of the shelter I sat and watched the search lights going around the sky while the firemen were getting the rest of the family out, the bomb crater was right beside the shelter.
We were lucky my father was there because he had just came home from duty as a war time policeman

Then we all went into the shelter in the park across the road after that we all went to live in a house in Whatley Road Penge London SE20 and about that time the family were given a patch work quilt each to put on our bed. I think they were presented by the local mayor at the time and we children were given a small toy I have still to this day got mine, it is a pencil in the shape of a street gas lamp post, the base made from a wooden cotton reel.

Because of the bombing we went to lived in Chislehurst Caves in Kent for a year or more. We slept in bunk beds and the water I can remember was chalky. My Mother used to queue up for teapot of tea and she heated baked beans and other things on a primus stove. We children used to do concerts inside .We put a row of flowers to show where the stage was .

We went home once a week to have a bath.It was not in a bathroom but a tin bath in front of the fire .Once when we went home the front of our house had been bombed and a lot of contents had been looted .

A few words about Chislehurst caves, which I have visited twice in later years. The stories told by the guides about the wartime residents are a little colourful from what I remember of it, I have since learnt that the caves go back to the time of Druids and are man made as they were formed by the extraction of chalk, particularly by the Ancient Britons and the Romans. They extend for many miles and it is easy to get lost in them. In places there are large chambers carved out of the chalk.

With an all year temperature of about 60 degrees, they were suitable for use as a shelter and in the first year of the war they were opened by the Lessee as a shelter mainly for women and children. At the height of the bombing up to 15,000 people were accommodated there.

Because of the large number of people, the Government took over and installed canteens, sanitary, hospital and washing facilities and over the years, a Church and entertainment such as dances and films. None of this was available whilst we were there.

The caves were very popular as a shelter and it is said that the Southern Railway used to display notices to tell travellers if the caves were full. You can still visit the caves.

Mum and Dad lost two homes though bombing. Sometime in 1941/2 we were evacuated to Longsight, Rushford Street, Manchester, at the time I was at school in Penge S E20 called Alexander Road Infants.
We were all split up when we were evacuated and then we all joined up because my Father came up and found a house.
My parents made friends with Mr and Mrs Brierly and I am still touch with two of their children.

We came home from Manchester to live in Anerley SE20 London to the VI doodle bugs and V2 rockets ,but I have survived and have been married for 50 years
There were happy memories but I think you blot out the bad.

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