The entrance of these shelters remind me of the old subway at Sittingbourne station that I used to use with my parents either coming back from London or going to Sheerness by train. Anyone else remember it? After buying your ticket from the ticket office (with its own open fireplace) you step onto platform 1 and the subway was to the right of the door. It had advert posters on the steps and once inside the subway it looked a bit like a bomb shelter. You came out of the subway onto Platforms two and three. My favourite memory is going to London on steam trains with my parents in the very early to mid 1960’s. Always a treat when we got a cubicle on the train all to our own. Those slam door corridor carriages were so much fun. They always gave me the choice of taking the bridge or the subway and I usually chose the subway unless The Golden Arrow was due in, then I would choose the bridge of course for a great view (my dad lifted me up to see through the bridge windows. Ah, happy days. They filled in the subway in the late 60’s I always wonder if it was all filled in or is beneath the rails a subway still intact with just the ends filled in? Mmm, I wonder if the old adverts still there. From the days when every railway station was named ‘Bovril’.
And every January trip to London finished with going to the London Palladium to see the Pantomime to see Tommy Steele, Englebert Humperdinck, Cliff Richard & The Shadows and Jimmy Tarbuck. One trip my dad even called in an old favour and got us VIP tickets to the premiere of Thunderbirds The Movie. A real life size Fab 1 drove past us and The band of the Royal Marines played the TB theme as we went in. We only had a circle seat. All the stalls was reserved for celebrities. Oh what an exciting day that was. I still have my model of the studio built Zero X model used in the movie. I was one lucky little boy!
I remember there being a tunnel at the bottom of the hillside behind Woodcoombe sports club before Eurolink was developed that far along castle road , probably mid 80’s. As kids we used to explore there and were able to go in about 10 yards or so before you came to the blocked end so could go no further . Rightly or wrongly we presumed it to be an air raid tunnel
Gary has commented that there were large underground shelters at the College Road site (then Kent Farm Institute?) Of course there were also - as recently unearthed - underground shelters at the new Borden Grammar School site too.
Peter Morgan started a Community Service club at Westlands when I was there. I went and leaned sign language and helped at the Deaf & bling]d club held in the Labour Club in Park Road.on alternative Fridays and on the other Fridays did an old lady’s garden in Borden Lane. One day she asked me to clear a rough patch and dig it. I was digging and found a concrete slab I moved it and found a set of concrete steps. When she brought out my orange squash she said, ‘Oh, you’ve found our old air raid shelter. Seal it back up. I assume it is still there.
I was wondering what those slabs were at Trottshall gardens/Bell Road! I theorised that they were remnants of slopes leading up to demolished buildings, so kind of right. I would really like to have a look inside of them.
I used to think that 50 years ago. I always wondered if they left posters up in there. I thought the same thing about the subway at Sittingbourne Station. It used to be to the right of the door out onto the platform and at the other end of the subway you came up on the Sheerness bound platform. They had advertising boards in the subway. Are they buried deep beneath the rails?
My mum told me she was coming out of work in the war on the night a bomb hit Pullens garage. In fact she told me almost every time we drove past it. Which was often, because my dad bought bottles of Calor gas from a shop near Ufton Lane opposite the Covent. Parrafin and Calor gas in the boot of his car transported across Sittingbourne and Borden on top of a tank of petrol. What could possibly go wrong? One lit East Kent Gazzette on the back seat and we would both be up there with Neil and Buzz on the moon. That’s if a Vauxhall Viva Mk 1 could ever make it through Earth’s atmosphere without its plastic seats melting.
I went to South Avenue Infants & Junior School in the 1970s. The Junior School building was not long built and all the children in the school were evacuated quite a few times due to old local rumours that there was an unexploded Second World War bomb underneath where they had built the school. I don't know how these rumours came about or if South Avenue was ever bombed during the Second World War. Or maybe the school just had some crazy neighbours. Was any of Sittingbourne bombed during the war and if so where?
The Museum published a book about Sittingbourne in the Second World War a few years ago (see our web site) and most of the incidents, mostly 1940, are reported there. Bombs fell in Bapchild and Musrston 4th Sept - 2 killed. Bombs in Park Rd, Cockeshell Walk, West Street Sept 29th 8 killed. Bombs in Shortlands Rd, Murston 5th Nov - 5 killed. Bombs in Park Rd 5th December 4 killed.
I always think that air raid sirens should have been kept in place. It's like landlines being disconnected. What happenes if satellites are brought down ? Ps. I used to live in Trotts Hall Gardens and I remember Mum telling me about the air raid shelters there. Thank you for all your research on the subject
I remember the old siren outside the old fire station. We used to go to a barbers near Holy Trinity church and the barber (Bill) was a volunteer fireman. If the siren sounded he would throw everyone out lock the shop and run off down the road towards the fire station. I pity the poor bloke with half a haircut!!!! He used to ask men in front of me if they ‘wanted something for the weekend’ and out of embarrassment I guess, my dad would always say, ‘yes! A lawnmower or a bottle of shampoo for his car. Of course I knew what they bought….. packets of chewing gum…. Well that’s what they looked like to me.
Glad to see bomb shelters are still in Bell Road. Are the trees with named plaques still in Remembrance Avenue? I went to Ufton Lane Infant School 1962-64. They had one of those shelters. Do you remember the horse drinking trough at the end of Chalkwell Road. I used to stand looking at those gun holes at the bottom of Borden Lane whilst I waited for the 58 bus back to Borden after another day at Barrow Grove school. That’s “Barrow” not ‘Byker’ Never saw Ant and Dec at my school. But I did meet the Southern TV Day By Day crime reporter Peter Clark at Borden Fete. He was trying to win one of my dad’s pigs by bowling for it. He didn’t win it.
My grandad lived in Charlotte Street two doors away from The Forresters Arms, in which my mum worked as a barmaid, my nan worked as its cleaner and I sang in there for money on some Saturday nights. The landlord’s name? Johnnie Wond! TRUE! I know it sounds like an actor’s name you would read on a film poster in a 1970’s Soho cinema. But that was his real name! Honest! My dad always parked in that little cul de sac beside the pub which is now a road to a new housing estate where the mill used to be,
The entrance of these shelters remind me of the old subway at Sittingbourne station that I used to use with my parents either coming back from London or going to Sheerness by train. Anyone else remember it? After buying your ticket from the ticket office (with its own open fireplace) you step onto platform 1 and the subway was to the right of the door. It had advert posters on the steps and once inside the subway it looked a bit like a bomb shelter. You came out of the subway onto Platforms two and three. My favourite memory is going to London on steam trains with my parents in the very early to mid 1960’s. Always a treat when we got a cubicle on the train all to our own. Those slam door corridor carriages were so much fun. They always gave me the choice of taking the bridge or the subway and I usually chose the subway unless The Golden Arrow was due in, then I would choose the bridge of course for a great view (my dad lifted me up to see through the bridge windows. Ah, happy days. They filled in the subway in the late 60’s I always wonder if it was all filled in or is beneath the rails a subway still intact with just the ends filled in? Mmm, I wonder if the old adverts still there. From the days when every railway station was named ‘Bovril’.
And every January trip to London finished with going to the London Palladium to see the Pantomime to see Tommy Steele, Englebert Humperdinck, Cliff Richard & The Shadows and Jimmy Tarbuck. One trip my dad even called in an old favour and got us VIP tickets to the premiere of Thunderbirds The Movie. A real life size Fab 1 drove past us and The band of the Royal Marines played the TB theme as we went in. We only had a circle seat. All the stalls was reserved for celebrities. Oh what an exciting day that was. I still have my model of the studio built Zero X model used in the movie. I was one lucky little boy!
I remember there being a tunnel at the bottom of the hillside behind Woodcoombe sports club before Eurolink was developed that far along castle road , probably mid 80’s. As kids we used to explore there and were able to go in about 10 yards or so before you came to the blocked end so could go no further . Rightly or wrongly we presumed it to be an air raid tunnel
Are there any photos from inside the shelters like the one in Trotts Hall Gardens?
Not that we can find unfortunately
Gary has commented that there were large underground shelters at the College Road site (then Kent Farm Institute?) Of course there were also - as recently unearthed - underground shelters at the new Borden Grammar School site too.
Peter Morgan started a Community Service club at Westlands when I was there. I went and leaned sign language and helped at the Deaf & bling]d club held in the Labour Club in Park Road.on alternative Fridays and on the other Fridays did an old lady’s garden in Borden Lane. One day she asked me to clear a rough patch and dig it. I was digging and found a concrete slab I moved it and found a set of concrete steps. When she brought out my orange squash she said, ‘Oh, you’ve found our old air raid shelter. Seal it back up. I assume it is still there.
I was wondering what those slabs were at Trottshall gardens/Bell Road! I theorised that they were remnants of slopes leading up to demolished buildings, so kind of right. I would really like to have a look inside of them.
I used to think that 50 years ago. I always wondered if they left posters up in there. I thought the same thing about the subway at Sittingbourne Station. It used to be to the right of the door out onto the platform and at the other end of the subway you came up on the Sheerness bound platform. They had advertising boards in the subway. Are they buried deep beneath the rails?
My mum told me she was coming out of work in the war on the night a bomb hit Pullens garage. In fact she told me almost every time we drove past it. Which was often, because my dad bought bottles of Calor gas from a shop near Ufton Lane opposite the Covent. Parrafin and Calor gas in the boot of his car transported across Sittingbourne and Borden on top of a tank of petrol. What could possibly go wrong? One lit East Kent Gazzette on the back seat and we would both be up there with Neil and Buzz on the moon. That’s if a Vauxhall Viva Mk 1 could ever make it through Earth’s atmosphere without its plastic seats melting.
I went to South Avenue Infants & Junior School in the 1970s. The Junior School building was not long built and all the children in the school were evacuated quite a few times due to old local rumours that there was an unexploded Second World War bomb underneath where they had built the school. I don't know how these rumours came about or if South Avenue was ever bombed during the Second World War. Or maybe the school just had some crazy neighbours. Was any of Sittingbourne bombed during the war and if so where?
The Museum published a book about Sittingbourne in the Second World War a few years ago (see our web site) and most of the incidents, mostly 1940, are reported there. Bombs fell in Bapchild and Musrston 4th Sept - 2 killed. Bombs in Park Rd, Cockeshell Walk, West Street Sept 29th 8 killed. Bombs in Shortlands Rd, Murston 5th Nov - 5 killed. Bombs in Park Rd 5th December 4 killed.
I always think that air raid sirens should have been kept in place. It's like landlines being disconnected. What happenes if satellites are brought down ?
Ps. I used to live in Trotts Hall Gardens and I remember Mum telling me about the air raid shelters there.
Thank you for all your research on the subject
I remember the old siren outside the old fire station. We used to go to a barbers near Holy Trinity church and the barber (Bill) was a volunteer fireman. If the siren sounded he would throw everyone out lock the shop and run off down the road towards the fire station. I pity the poor bloke with half a haircut!!!! He used to ask men in front of me if they ‘wanted something for the weekend’ and out of embarrassment I guess, my dad would always say, ‘yes! A lawnmower or a bottle of shampoo for his car. Of course I knew what they bought….. packets of chewing gum…. Well that’s what they looked like to me.
There’s a bunker type building on Valenciennes road it was next door to were I lived
Glad to see bomb shelters are still in Bell Road. Are the trees with named plaques still in Remembrance Avenue? I went to Ufton Lane Infant School 1962-64. They had one of those shelters. Do you remember the horse drinking trough at the end of Chalkwell Road. I used to stand looking at those gun holes at the bottom of Borden Lane whilst I waited for the 58 bus back to Borden after another day at Barrow Grove school. That’s “Barrow” not ‘Byker’ Never saw Ant and Dec at my school. But I did meet the Southern TV Day By Day crime reporter Peter Clark at Borden Fete. He was trying to win one of my dad’s pigs by bowling for it. He didn’t win it.
Yes the Avenue of Remembrance still has a plaque at the bottom of each tree
My grandad lived in Charlotte Street two doors away from The Forresters Arms, in which my mum worked as a barmaid, my nan worked as its cleaner and I sang in there for money on some Saturday nights. The landlord’s name? Johnnie Wond! TRUE! I know it sounds like an actor’s name you would read on a film poster in a 1970’s Soho cinema. But that was his real name! Honest! My dad always parked in that little cul de sac beside the pub which is now a road to a new housing estate where the mill used to be,
Yes we think WOND John Henry Dec/1961 (from East Kent Gazette)