The other main use for the caves in living memory was as England's largest public air-raid shelter during World War II, housing perhaps 12,000 civilians during its peak of operations, and including its own church and hospital. There are still 1941-era disused washrooms, brick partitions and storerooms by the score in there, but many of them flitted by at the edge of the range of our hurricane lamps as our guide took us through the whole thing in about 40 minutes. There is also a replica of one of the three canteen rooms which were in service in the caves during WWII, built for a reunion a few years ago. The original wooden structures had long since rotted away in the damp, cold air underground (the caves are a steady 52 degrees Fahrenheit all year, and as we descended the short, shallow ramp at the start of the tour the warm Spring day around us just evaporated). The caves are arranged in three sectors, joined up by connecting tunnels built in 1941, and all the shadowy openings flitting by on either side as we passed through, leading to more tunnels and tunnels upon tunnels, retained their mystery as we passed through the inky blackness...or did they? In 1905 a Mr Nicholls, an archaeologist, explored the caves and published his "findings" that there was evidence of a Roman sector, a Saxon sector and a Druid sector to the caves, the Druid sector supposedly going back 3000 years and containing stone shelves for sacrifices. But he was instantly howled down by every other archaeologist in business at the time. This might have partly had something to do with the fact that there were still people alive at the time who could remember working in the caves AS CHALK MINERS, right up until the mid-1800s. The whole structure is one big chalkmine, with some areas dating back several centuries, but certainly not to Druid or Roman times. Mining ceased after the 1860s, the site again useful as an explosives store during WWI and as a public shelter during WWII.
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