DOVER'S SHELTERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 254, 30 December 1940, Page 3

DOVER'S SHELTERS

FITS CONSTRUCTED DURING NAPOLEONIC WARS IN USE OFFICER'S GOOD MEMORY A SO year old memory lias provided a large number of people in a suburb of Dover with deep air-raid shelters. The Town Council were discussing the provision of shelter accommodation for those people who have recently been suffering from indiscriminate bombing and shelling. The .location is a hilly one, and engineers had difficulty in deciding what form the shelters should talte. Major Martin, a town councillor, overcame the difficulties. He remembered, that in 1910, when serving as a Royal Artillery officer, his unit had used deep pits which had been dug into the hills as ammunition stores when Napoleon was threatening invasion. These pits have been sealed for many years and were overgrown with grass. Their very existence had been almost forgotten. But, leading a working party armed with picks, Major Martin soon had tliem reopened, and they are now in use as air-raid shelters. I visited these shelters and found them snug, comfortable and safe. Each is surrounded by 20ft of concrete.; and there is Git ol concicte plus 6ft of earth on top. I'n Dover proper there are caves and tunnelled shelters largely constructed by French prisoners, duiing the Napoleonic wars. With room for 20,000 people, they» run deep under the cliffs. Here Dover families can sleep secure from the largest bomb or .shell.