Only homeowners know how hard it is to make your place tidy and clean. It takes forever as there are tasks to do always like painting walls, fixing doors, or weeding the backyard. All of us only worry about what we see, as in, what’s going on above ground.
None of us worry about foundations mainly because we can’t see and we think what is there to worry about foundations. But it was not the case with this man. He was not in a position to ignore as his plunged driveway unveiled some mysterious secret.
Uncovering a secret
Most of the time, we tend to notice our need for some improvements when we are walking around the house. Sometimes the doors and gates need some oiling, the walls need to be painted and your driveway needs to be paved again.
Indeed, people can do these repairs, according to their wishes, according to their planned time frame. But one can’t really ignore if a driveway is collapsed. You should immediately repair it. This man decided to have a look at the large hole that appeared in his driveway before paving it. He had no idea that it would change his life.
A working man
This fascinating incident took place in 2016 to a man named Simon Marks. He was just a normal person who was living in Luton, England and he was 37-years-old. He was a computer support worker who did a 9-5 shift.
So he left his house in the morning and returned in the evening. He was following this routine every single day and it was normalized for him. But out of all these ordinary days of his life, just one day became extraordinary since he discovered a secret.
A Saturday morning
He was lucky as it didn’t happen on a working day. It happened on a Saturday afternoon while he was about to drive through his driveway to meet his friends. When he tried to reverse his car, a Vauxhall Zafira onto the street, he felt something was wrong.
The car started to shudder all at once and he had no idea what was going on. He tried to drive his car forward, but he felt that the wheels were stuck. He tried his best to move the car, but it didn’t work. What was going on with his car? Was it broken?
The giant hole
So Simon decided to get out of his car and to see what was going on. After observing, he understood that there was nothing wrong with the car. There was a big hole that appeared on his driveway and the wheels had stuck in it.
It was the first time Simon had to encounter something like this, so he couldn’t think of what he should do next. He got scared that the hole would get bigger and his house would fall into it. So he took a photo of the hole and sent it to his father.
Checking it out
Simon asked his father to come and help him and while he was waiting for his father, he wanted to peek a little. He was careful enough not to get too close as there was a risk of the hole getting so big.
Above all, Simon had no idea why this happened all of a sudden. So he wanted to know why. He took some stones and cleared the way. He inspected the hole well and he saw that it has been not just a hole.
A ladder
He removed some of the massive stones to have a better look. He expected to see the stones and soil at the bottom of the hole. But it was not an empty hole. As in, there was something in the hole. He looked more and noticed a ladder!
Simon was flabbergasted to see the ladder. He couldn’t understand why there was a ladder underneath his house. Simon didn’t want to go inside without his dad, but he tried to check what’s there underneath.
The selfie stick
The hole was too deep and Simon couldn’t see what was in there in the depth without help. He thought for a while and realized what could help him. He went into the house again and brought his selfie stick.
He kept his phone at the end of the selfie stick and opened the camera. He gradually put the selfie stick down to the hole and he was expecting that he would be able to get a clear image of what was in there at the bottom. Yet, it was too dark to see.
Two hands
We all have heard that two hands are better than one. Simon was too happy when his father came. He hoped that he could finally get to know what’s in the hole and both of them were so excited and at the same time anxious.
They understood that their plan wouldn’t work when they climbed down the ladder. They couldn’t reveal the mystery as there was a wall of mud. They were not ready to give up because of a mud wall. Instead, they cleared the mud out of their way.
Doing it by hand
Astonishingly, Simon and his father didn’t want any help from the diggers or machinery to clear the mud wall. They used their bare hands and some basic tools like trowels and shovels. They piled the mud on the ground.
The more the pile got bigger, the more the hole underneath Simon’s driveway got bigger. Not long, they could understand what was there underneath and for what had been used. They were shocked by the truth and the surrounding area was also startled by it.
The housing history
To understand the story well, we just have to peep into the history of Simon Mark’s house. The previous owners of the house were an old couple. Marks purchased the house for £400,000 ($518,000).
The first owners of the house were also the couple and they had built the house by themselves. Simon thought that they might have an idea about the lair underneath the house. But they hadn’t mentioned anything to Simon when he bought it.
An internet search
They worked hard and were able to clear a considerable amount of mud and eventually could see what the lair actually was. It was quite a big space. Simon had no idea what it was but his father felt that it was familiar.
Simon’s father, Gerald Marks walked around the mysterious lair and finally told Simon what he thought about. But, before jumping to any conclusions, he wanted to do some research and make sure something. He did quick internet research and finally understood what was space and why was it used for.
Pouring over information
Gerald was astonished by whatever was there underneath his son’s house. He was so curious whether his estimation was right. He wanted to make sure whether the documents of the house include this secret liar or not.
So he checked ordnance surveys, detailed development plans, and even asked the residents if they had similar structures. Because, if this lair was an old World War II relic, there should be more in the neighborhood. He began to do some research regarding this to confirm his thoughts.
An air-raid shelter
We all know that during World War II, many towns and cities became the victim of the bombs of enemies. Sir John Anderson, was assigned a mission to keep people safe. The secret lair underneath Simons’s house was an air-raid shelter.
These air raid shelters were made half underground, in a way that the enemies couldn’t find them. So when air raids happened, people went to the shelter to hide and protect themselves from the raids. Nonetheless, what was there underneath Simon’s house was not the only one.
Going underground
Not only air raid shelters, people who made them through the war made underground bunkers as well. The only purpose of building these air raids shelters or underground bunkers was to stay safe.
While some people stayed in the underground bunkers or air raid shelters, some other people tend to go into the subway stations in the city, to stay safe. Gerald suspected that what was there underneath Simon’s house was created for this reason.
A huge space
When Simon and Gerald were clearing mud, they had no idea what was coming next. They dug more into the hole and saw that the room was bigger than they expected. Astonishingly, it turned out that there were three rooms!
The ladder ended up in a small area. After that, they discovered that there was a doorway and there were two bigger rooms as well. Simon was flabbergasted to see how huge the rooms were and by the fact that it was there underneath his house for all this time.
Digging deeper
Simon and Gerald were doubtful whether these rooms were still safe now, but they couldn’t resist not digging it further. They dug deeper and found proof that it was built during the times of World War II.
They found an old newspaper in one of the rooms and it was an important discovery for them. Those people who lived during World war had to go through so many things, but they had however managed to live a normal life.
Something to drink
The newspaper wasn’t the only thing that they found in the rooms. They walked through the rooms and found an old bottle when they were investigating. They wondered what the bottle was.
They realized that the bottle might be a water bottle. Those who were in raid shelters didn’t know how many days they had to stay underground, so they might have several water bottles and food to survive. The bottle proved their hypothesis.
Made by hand
Simon and his father were so excited by what they found underneath. The discovery of the newspaper and the bottle proved what they were thinking about the house. Above all, they were so satisfied with the fact that the raid shelter stayed so strong for a long time.
There shouldn’t be professional builders at the time of World War II to build these air raid shelters. People had to build air raids all on their own, with their bare hands. All they did was piling up the bricks.
Another room?
Simon and Gerald had to spend several days to discover everything entirely. Even though they thought that it was the end, but they were wrong. While they were exploring underground, they found another brick wall.
It seemed like a usual brick wall similar to the other walls in the air-raid shelter. But, they felt that something was wrong with this particular wall. Simon realized that there was another room something behind the wall, but he didn’t want to harm the wall to look the other side.
A deep bunker
News about this mysterious discovery spread all over the town and people started getting excited and were interested in the air-raid shelter. Even the news stations wanted to know the truth and started to crowd near Simon’s house.
People were so curious about the depth of the hole and when they asked Simon, he said that they had dug five feet into the ground. And they realized that they had around five feet more to dig in. So in total, the air raid was ten feet deep!
Preserving the history
Indeed, there’s no possibility for Simon to keep a 10-foot deep hole in his driveway. But also, he realized the significance of history. Thus, it’s said that Simon, however, found a way to preserve the air raid shelter as much as he could.
He knew that what he found had a massive historical value and he wanted to let the future generations know about the World War and its impact on their small town because air raid shelters aren’t something that turns up in driveways regularly.