One day, as he tried to park his car, he stumbled upon what he believed was a flowerbed. The wheels of his car got stuck and he heard strange cracking noises coming from the driveway.
“Well, this day couldn’t get any worse,” he thought to himself.
When he kneeled down to further inspect the issue, Marks noticed that the pavers of the driveway had cracked and the driver started to give in. The sound of the cracking pavers led to an astounding discovery.
Once he removed all the dirt, he noticed a piece of metal underneath. Unaware of what could be hiding under the driveway, Marks gripped the metal piece and tried to pull it out, but to no avail. He then went around in order to learn more of the mysterious object.
Not knowing what to do next, he called his father for help and both of them managed to cart away lots of densely-packed mud which eventually led to an opening. There was an old rusty ladder there, and the two men climbed down eager to learn where it would lead them.
“My dad saw it and instantly said it’s an air raid shelter,” Marks said. “We googled it and found there are quite a few in this area.”
It appeared that the shelter they discovered in Marks’ garden was built during the WW II.
“The previous owner must have known it was there and when he built the house and put a garden in… he must have filled it in,” Marks explained.
These shelters were to protect people from bombing during the war. It is believed they were invented by a man named Sir John Anderson.
“One of the walls has been bricked up. I’m 90 percent sure we won’t find out any more rooms but we don’t know. They might have bricked up one of the walls when the house was built to make way for the foundations,” Marks said. “If that’s the case we’ll just have to leave it,” he added.
Once he posted photos of his discovery, his story went viral.
Marks and his father plan on restoring the shelter because they believe it is an important historical monument. According to them, no matter if that period of history is behind, it shouldn’t be forgotten because it lets us see a glimpse of those times.
