War bunker in the garden

In the garden of his house, Lee Moran and his daughter discovered a hidden World War II bunker. Although the existence of the shelter was publicly discussed, there was no tangible mention of it anywhere. And so it remained hidden for decades.

Because of the coronavirus, many people stayed at home and had time for things that normally don't get much space. This is the case for one man in the UK who discovered a World War II-era bunker in his extensive garden. For many years no one had come across it because it was hidden underground.

"I've had quite a lot of free time in recent weeks, so I've been working on the house and garden. It was there that I found a buried Second World War bunker which was about thirty centimetres underground," said Lee Moran, from Wrecclesham.

He boasted about the find on social media. "First we came across something concrete in the ground so we dug and dug. As well as the bunker itself, I found Royal Regiment badges from the First World War and National Fire Service badges from the Second World War. There were also lanterns from the 1960s," Lee said of what he found.

His wife grew up in the house and garden, living there with her parents since she was three years old. "My father-in-law and mother-in-law lived in the house for a total of 23 years. But 14 years ago they had to move. My wife and I bought the house and garden two years ago. I had heard rumours about an old bunker full of old motorcycles and other things, but no one was able to confirm it. When we repossessed the property, we went through the old documents but found nothing. Nor did we find any evidence anywhere else," Lee recalls.

So he started searching the garden with a metal detector and discovered some remarkable things, like a World War I badge and a huge old silver ring. "It was actually my daughter Kyrah who took up the challenge of finding the bunker and started digging. As she dug into the ground with her shovel, she came across a concrete slab. Together with friends, we then dug for long hours before we uncovered the top of the bunker," the current owner of the house recounted.

He also helped with the digging. It took weeks to uncover the entire roof, the staircase and to reach the first room, which contained many old things. Apart from the badges already mentioned, there was also a rare British three pence from 1941. "I found out that the bunker was used as a shelter from air raids," Lee noted.

A similar bunker was also found recently in the garden of a house in Shortheath Road. At first Lee thought the shelters were very similar. But the one previously discovered had a roof made of corrugated iron.

Sources: www.liphookherald.com