Sheltering from bombs: Graffiti in Ramsgate tunnels
The urge to embellish a wall with a name, a comment or a cartoon was as strong 70 years ago as today, although pencils, rather than aerosols, were used on the soft chalk of Ellington School’s air raid shelter.
In April 2010 groundworks for a housing development on the site of the former Ellington Girl’s School, Ramsgate, breached the roof of an entrance tunnel leading into a set of tunnels beneath the former school. The school buildings were demolished in early 2010. The site had already been the subject of an evaluation carried out by Canterbury Archaeological Trust and a watching brief was being maintained during the groundworks. The Trust was commissioned to carry out a survey of the tunnels, their fittings and of the significant amount of graffiti they contained. They also carried out a brief documentary study to place them in their historic context.
The well-preserved tunnels are thought to belong to an air raid shelter dating to the end of the First World War. It is unlikely, however, that they saw much, if any, use at this time.
Provision of shelters was made towards the end of the war in response to Zeppelin raids and naval bombardments, but many were not completed until late 1918. The graffiti present within the shelter indicates fairly extensive use during the Second World War. Although much of it is indicative of use by the school, there is some indication that the wider community also used the facility.
The shelter was of simple form with two tunnels, lined by benches, linked by cross passages terminating in toilet cubicles, marked girls and boys. Three stairways entered the c.12m-deep tunnels, corresponding to the Boys’, Girls’ and Infants’ departments of the school. Two vertical shafts cut from the surface are thought to represent construction shafts, excavated to the required depth and the tunnels cut from their bases. This method of construction is apparently typical of First World War chalk-cut tunnels observed elsewhere. The method follows the mining methods employed by colliers and it is suggested that men from the Kent collieries were drafted in to carry out the tunnel construction.
The tunnels are chalk-cut with no lining, shoring or supporting arches, except at the south-west entrance where a concrete lining was present. They average 1.3m wide by 2m high, with local variations, most notably in the height, as the roof appears to have been cut following natural seams within the chalk. The side walls are near vertical or slightly bowed out, to a height of c.1.5m, then slope in to meet a flat or concave roof c.1m wide. Tool marks, from round-bladed shovels, trenching tools and picks, are evident on all the surfaces. Traces of fittings survive, such as stair risers, bench support brackets, toilet cubicles, electrical (light) fittings and candle ledges. These are generally in poor condition.
The tunnels contain many graffiti, dating, for the most part, from between late 1943 and late 1946. Due to the sealing of the tunnels after the war, these are relatively free from later additions, and thus provide an interesting ‘snapshot’ of the time. Already, however, at least six individuals have contributed new graffiti, since the rediscovery of the shelter in April! The more significant historic examples were recorded, together with a representative sample of the remaining graffiti in order to characterise its nature.
Most of the graffiti were simply incised or in pencil, probably brought into the shelters to continue an interrupted lesson. In contrast to what might be found in today’s school spaces, the toilets contained almost none, perhaps due to the confined space!
Pictures and patterns abound; human faces and their variants were common motifs. As one might expect, many of the graffiti comprise the names, or more usually initials, of individuals using the shelter, sometimes accompanied by other details including their age, form, and the year, or even the precise date, of the inscription. Together, these provide some useful clues to the use of the shelter. The great majority were of 1944, with only two for 1945. It would be interesting to compare the graffiti giving a precise date with details of known raids on Ramsgate – 12 dates are given in 1944. Several graffiti commemorated D-Day on 6 June 1944.
One ‘Mable Jenner’ inscribed her name twice, once aged sixteen and again at seventeen – on both occasions using the same slightly unusual spelling of her first name, and reversing the ‘N’s in her surname. Assuming she existed, Mable Jenner was above the normal school-leaving age when she carved her name, perhaps reflecting the use of the shelter by members of the public outside of school hours.
One group of graffiti reveals the antipathy of a faction at Ellington School towards the pupils of St George’s School, Ramsgate. An inscription asserts: ‘St Georges are stacked painted chads’, whilst another provides what was presumably intended as a generalized portrait of a St George’s pupil, with crazed expression, curiously formed upper lip, and thin, untidy hair. St George’s School pupils were typically from wealthier families than Ellington’s. By 1942 the term ‘stacked’ was well-established within American slang, meaning ‘shapely,’ with regard to the female figure. By 1944 it may well have been known in Kent. The term ‘painted’ often referred to the use of cosmetics, frequently with some disreputable implication.
Perhaps the most striking of the pictorial graffiti are two depictions of the American cartoon character ‘Popeye’, closely similar except in size and probably copied directly from a comic strip. To the larger depiction, someone has added Popeye’s signature tobacco pipe, albeit disproportionately small.
Among the inanimate objects depicted, maritime and military themes seem to have predominated, including an anchor, a small steamship and a field cannon with spoked wheels. This is unlike any artillery in use during the Second World War, or probably even during the First. It is most likely, therefore, a historical depiction. Swastikas are present in abundance, together with a number of simplified union jacks.
Collections of strange symbols are evident, perhaps representing some kind of phonographical shorthand. Girls at the school may well have studied stenography in preparation for secretarial careers – especially, perhaps, considering Ramsgate’s historical links with that science. The script has not been decoded.
The tunnels are being resealed, leaving them in a stable state with the graffiti preserved.
CAT would like to thank developers ISG Jackson and the sub-contractors, Cliffe, for their assistance during these works. Particular thanks are expressed to ISG Jackson for arranging confined spaces training. Thanks are also extended to Rod LeGear and the Kent Underground Research Group for their assistance and comments.