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A mum was shocked when she discovered a 50-metre underground passageway beneath her Kent garden – believed to be an elaborate air raid shelter.
Rebecca Hobson, 34, unearthed the giant tunnel which was beneath a paving slab after locals suggested there may be ‘something in the garden’ dating back to the Second World War.
After getting bored in lockdown, Rebecca and her partner Darren, 34, decided to search their back garden and found the opening to the tunnel.
Astonishing walk-through footage shows steps leading down into the shelter to reveal an abandoned passageway.
Rebecca, who moved into the three-bedroom terrace house 15 years ago, didn’t start exploring the passageway until this year, despite finding it in 2020.
And earlier this month, she decided to share photos and footage of the air raid shelter on TikTok, where the videos have since gone viral and left users amazed by their WW2-era find.
The massive shelter was discovered under a paving stone (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
Rebecca and her partner Darren found the shelter (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
Footage shows the passage continues to a dead end, where the building administrator said another entrance once stood.
The mum-of-two said when they uncovered the shelter, the duo found an old toy gun and lots of ‘rusty’ bottles and bowls inside.
Rebecca said at present she doesn’t know which war the shelter was used in and is still trying to dig up the history on the wartime site.
Newspaper cuttings revealed the shelter was built by volunteers during the Second World War to hold 200 women and children during the bombings and protect them from ‘the cruelties of Hitlerism’.
Rebecca, from a village near Folkestone, Kent, said: ‘When we moved into the house we had no idea about the air raid shelter being in our garden.
‘A few years later some of the locals said there might be something in the garden [from the war]. We’re still trying to dig into the history of it, but it’s still really interesting.
Stairs led down the deep tunnel, which was intended to house women and children (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
The couple have swept it and added lights (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
‘Our row of houses were built in the seventies and so we are assuming that the earth they dug out for the foundations [for these houses], covered up the tunnel.
‘We thought it was going to be really small [when we first discovered it] but it was amazing and we were so shocked by the size of it.’
Rebecca added: ‘The tunnel did lead to the end of the road to the edge of my neighbours garden but they were worried that they might get rats so they blocked their side up so you can only get in from our garden now.’
Since discovering the wartime shelter, the couple said they have cleaned out the passageway and added lights to it but don’t want to alter the building anymore as they want to maintain its history.
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Rebecca said her children were very excited to go inside wartime shelter and has since asked the local schools if they want to come and visit.
Rebecca said: ‘We’ve swept it all out as it was really mucky inside and we’ve added some lights inside so people can see inside. We don’t want to really change anything about it as it’s an amazing part of history.
‘We’ve asked the local school if they want to come and visit it and show the children. I feel very privileged that we have this bit of history in our garden.’
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