A FAMILY was shocked to find an underground air raid shelter buried beneath their back garden in Worcester.

Builders were digging the foundations of an extension to the detached house in Northwick, Worcester, when they hit the concrete roof of a subterranean bunker used as an air raid shelter during the Second World War.

Our photographs show a steep set of stairs descending into the darkness in a brick-built bunker which could once have sheltered a family from the bombs of the Luftwaffe when the air raid sirens howled in the blackout Britain of the 1940s.

 

Francesca Beighton, 32, said she was shocked to think the bunker, discovered on Wednesday, had been there under her feet without her knowledge.

Boards were laid across the gaping hole to stop people falling down around 8ft into the gloomy shelter.

Mrs Beighton has two children, Freddie, four, and Ella, two, with Freddie showing a particular interest in the secret shelter beneath their feet.

Mrs Beighton said: “I had no idea it was under our lawn. It’s mad. I spent the whole day saying ‘I can’t believe it’. My son is four and for him it’s like a den. I think it’s brilliant.

“I have invited neighbours from over the road to see it. It’s a piece of history. There’s even a garden roller down there. We don’t want to fill it in as it’s part of history.”

Kev Hart of JK Hart Building Ltd was operating the digger when he hit the concrete roof which he estimated was around nine and a half inches thick.

He said: “Les (Turner, one of the builders) looked in and his face was a picture. I said ‘what is it?’ Then I said ‘I think it’s an air raid shelter’ as a joke. But it turned out that it was.”

When they removed the concrete lid there was a stale smell and builders Les Turner and Damien Johnson were left wondering how long the secret bunker had been left undisturbed.

Mr Hart added: “I was expecting to find gas masks hung on the walls.”

Their plan is to concrete up to the edge of the bunker for the extension to the kitchen and dining area after calling building control for advice.

A lintel will go over the top of the shelter itself, preserving it for posterity.