Memories to mushroom clouds and the Blitz in between (From Croydon Guardian)

Memories to mushroom clouds and the Blitz in between

6:20am Saturday 4th October 2008 in

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During the Second World War thousands of people made homeless during the blitz, sheltered in man-made chalk caves in Kenley and Chislehurst.

The caves in Kenley accommodated up to 6,000 people, giving a home to many whose houses had been devastated by bombs.

Derek Rose and his family were among those who slept in the caves each night after their house was destroyed in a bomb attack.

Both he and his sister Sylvia remember catching the 197 bus with their younger sister and their parents to the caves each evening.

There, they enjoyed playing on Riddlesdown with the other children until a siren called them all to bed. It was a change from their usual playgrounds, the rubble of bombed out houses.

Derek, 75 from Kenley, said: “I remember sleeping in tiered bunks, we were very close to the wall so we were touching the damp chalk. There was a musty smell all the time. As a child, it was all a bit exciting.”

The bunks were made of canvas and there were two or three of them stacked against the walls.

Sylvia, 73, said all that she can remember about them was how noisy they were.

“Every time you turned over they creaked dreadfully and I remember being kept awake by them,” she said.

“It seemed like fun as a child and we knew that no bombs could get into the caves, so we were safe.”

There was a place for a candle by each bed, but lights had to be out by 10pm every night.

Although one pitch kept their lights on all night and were known as “sinlight alley”.

“There was a big victory party in the caves after the war. Our house had been rebuilt by then but we went back to the caves for the party,” said Sylvia.

The idea for the Kenley caves may have been taken from the ancient Chislehurst caves which are also man-made tunnels dug into the chalk.

The Chislehurst caves date back to the 1200s and it is thought that they were mined for lime and flint. They are divided into three main sections, Saxon, Druid and Roman.

The Kenley caves are also man-made and dug into the chalk but their history is not as glamorous.

Some have theorised that they were built as bolt holes for local or regional government to hide out in during the war.

Rod Legear, from Ashtead, who has researched the caves thinks that this is unlikely.

“The Kenley shelters along the valley were purposely built as air raid shelters during the Second World War,” he said.

“It is possible that they were considered likely bolt holes for the local council in the event that the Cold War went nuclear, but I have not seen these particular caves mentioned in any archives relating to this.”

James Gardener is the current owner of the Chislehurst caves and he said that his father tried to farm mushrooms in the Kenley caves just after the war ended in 1947.

However, they became diseased and so he had to pack up his business in the 1950s.

The caves lay empty until they were taken over by an optics company in 1967, who found the constant temperature an ideal environment for engineering the optics.

• Do you have any memories of living in the caves during the war? Phone the Heritage desk on 0208 330 9559 or let us know in the comments section below.