Simon Marks, 37, thought he had driven onto a flowerbed when he noticed his car’s wheels were trapped in a hole.
Looking at the damage he had caused to his car, he thought, “Well, this day couldn’t get any worse.”
Just as he was ready to take a closer look at the damage, he heard a terrible sound that made his heart race. What in the world was that?
View the tour of the shelter:
When Simon leaned down to take a closer look, he saw that the stones on the driveway had cracked, and the driveway gave way in front of him.
The pavers kept crackling, and it gave rise to a whole new realization.
The soil gave way easily, exposing a piece of metal underneath.
He opened it with just his hands and was able to take hold of it. He tried his hardest to draw it free, but to no avail.
He decided to investigate the region and try to solve as much of the mystery as he could around a mysterious object.
Simon called out to ask for help. The two of them carted off buckets full of compacted mud when his father arrived.
They eventually came across an opening, and they climbed down a dilapidated, rusty ladder to investigate the hole in the earth.
“My dad saw it and knew right away that it was an air raid shelter,” Simon said. “We looked it up on Google and there are a lot of them in this area.”
Simon did a lot of research on the internet and found that the bunker was built during World War II! “The previous owner must have known it was there and when he built the house and put a garden in… he must have filled it in,” Simon told the reporters.
During World War II, a man by the name of Sir John Anderson was tasked with devising a strategy to protect its citizens from the bombs and onslaught that they knew were coming.
It was his intention to build these underground defenses.
Bricks have been used to close off a wall. We don’t know, but I’m 99 percent positive that we won’t find any more chambers. They may have bricked up a wall during the construction of the house to make space for the foundations.
Simon told reporters. “If that’s the case, we’ll just have to leave it,” he said. However, the discovery gained widespread recognition quite quickly.
In order to preserve and restore the shelter, Simon and his father hope that it will eventually be acknowledged as an important historical site.
They argue that even though the war is long over, the moment shouldn’t be overlooked.
They want people to be able to come see this little physical reminder of those difficult times and have a quick understanding of that chapter in history.
Tell your loved ones about this amazing discovery, please!