NEW - 26-04-2008

I was very interested in your recent article [Portsmouth NEWS 12-04-2008] regarding the tunnel shelters. During the war years when I was a small child we were visiting the shelters every night as a family. The memories are very plain for me as my Father who was an accomplished pianist was in charge of the entertainment. He was quite well known in Portsmouth. His name was Charles Oakley. He spent a lot of his time arranging the entertainment, and the concerts he organised in the tunnel shelters used to go down very well. We had a proper little theatre with a stage etc and spent some very enjoyable evenings. I remember there was also a chap who played the accordion by the name of Alfie who was very well known in Portsmouth. Although there was a war on times were much happier than what they are now.

Maureen Collins - April 2008

NEW - 06-05-2006

As a small child during the war, I lived with my parents in Brecon Avenue, Drayton. On one occasion my mother took me to the 'Tunnel Shelters' to avoid the bombing. As I remember, the tunnels were about the size of a Nissan hut with bunk beds each side running the length, three high. I particularly remember the noise of screaming kids which went on all night and of course the lights were kept on, so I don't think either of us got much sleep. I think my mother was also concerned about cleanliness, but I doubt if I would have noticed at about four years old. That was the only visit we made, as my mother declared that she would rather die in her own bed than go through that hell again!

Local folklore said that the chalk excavated from these tunnels was used to build the Eastern Road extension where it joined the A27 (as was) at Farlington. The road at this point is certainly on a raised embankment, so it could well be true. I do remember being wheeled in my pushchair to see the roadworks and remember that everything was covered in white dust. These must be about my earliest memories.

When I was at school in the late 1940s a school friend named Fielding lived in a house in the Cliffdale pit and to told me had found a way of getting into the shelters through a ventilation shaft [yes, these shafts still existed then] as all the entrances had been sealed up. We climbed in and it was largely as I remembered, but of course it was pitch dark and I was really worried about losing our way and not being able to get out again, particularly as nobody knew where we were. Frankly, it was a bit too scary and I was glad to get out again.

Alan Lambert - May 2007

NEW - 12-11-2006

We have talked to my mother-in-law and she says she visited Portsmouth with her sister probably about April/May 1945 before VE day. She is sure of this because at the time of their visit she and her sister were still both single women and her sister married a Portsmouth soldier just before the war ended. They were visiting their Grandmother who had remained in Portsmouth throughout the war.

My M-in-L says that they went through a wooden door into the tunnel and there were bunks along the wall, but without any bedding at all, the tunnels by then not being used. There was a long table which they were told was used as a canteen table and she says that they were charged 6d to have a look round. Although she has been back to Portsmouth lots of times she only visited the tunnels just the once. She worked at the Twilfitt factory in Portsmouth at the beginning of the war and says both then and as children they regularly pushed their cycles up 'the hill' and freewheeled them down again. They often went to fairs held on the hill before the war so she was very familiar with the area at that time.
 

It would be interesting for us and consolation for my M-in L to know of anyone else recalling a tour of the tunnel around the spring of 1945.

Anne Collins - November 2006

[If anyone remembers these tours then please email me]

NEW - 15-01-2005