Cardiff Castle Air Raid Shelters

I own Cardiff Castle.  OK, strictly speaking it's me and everyone else who lives in the City of Cardiff.  It was left to Cardiff by the Marquis of Bute.  Then someone probably asked 'Why do I have to pay to get into the castle when I already own it?'.  Fair point.  So nowadays all citizens of Cardiff have free access to much of Cardiff Castle, provided that is they have purchased a  Cardiff Key for £5 which is valid three years.  So not strictly free I guess, and it's not a key either, it's a bit of plastic with your photo on it.  Anyhow, in an effort to go somewhere in Cardiff Castle we hadn't visited previously we headed for the wartime shelters. 

The Air Raid Shelters in Cardiff Castle

When the castle was still in the ownership of the Marquis of Bute he kindly let the citizens of Cardiff take shelter there when the WWII air raid sirens sounded.  Bomb shelters were traditionally underground but someone pointed out that the castle walls are pretty thick and anyone hiding in the passageways between the walls were likely to be fairly well protected.  In order for people to avoid having to enter over the drawbridge route, and I guess have to pay the entrance fee, they drove holes in the castle walls and constructed wooden ramps up to the shelters. It was even nicer of the Marquis to allow this to happen to his beloved castle, but then again he and his workers had already spent many years knocking it around so a bit more remodelling work wouldn't make much difference. 

The wooden ramp built into the wall of Cardiff Castle in WWII

I don't suppose I'm the first person to think that if 1800 people could shelter here in WWII then wouldn't the place be equally good today to help get Cardiff's homeless off the streets on cold winter nights.  The castle passageways were however bitterly cold and I quickly changed my mind about that being a viable option. 

A wartime kitchen - not keeping up with the washing up.

The exhibition is somewhat basic.  There are some photos of wartime Cardiff, the damage incurred by the raids and the ARP (air raid precaution) staff involved but none of it is labelled. Equally frustrating is the ear deafening noise of aeroplanes, bomb blasts and sirens that museums such as this feel is essential to emit from loudspeakers dotted around.  No it's not!  To me it is sombre and sad and I would prefer to experience it in peace or if necessary with some appropriate sombre and sad music playing quietly in the background. 

Bomb damage to one of the streets off Albany Road, Cardiff

The passage walls are lined with posters of the time encouraging people not to waste resources, not to gossip as there may be spies around and to grow your own vegetables.  There is a reproduced Anderson shelter built into the passageway. A couple of days later when wandering around Newport I passed an Anderson shelter preserved in someone's back garden.  I guess there aren't many remaining nowadays as most people would have been only too glad to see them removed when peace came.

A preserved Anderson shelter in Newport.

I'm lucky enough to be too young to have lived the war but recall my mother talking about her childhood here in Cardiff.  They used to have an Anderson shelter in the garden but I also remember her talking about sheltering under the stairs when the sirens went off.  She said that the theory was that the stairs often survived when a house was bombed so it was the safest place to be.  Maybe that was before their Anderson shelter arrived.

Some of those helping to protect Cardiff citizens in WWII

My grandfather wouldn't have been have been with the rest of the family in the shelter as he was an ARP warden.  His job was to patrol the local area to ensure people were complying with the blackout restrictions and check for any light escaping around the blinds.  I guess he was also involved in the aftermath of the raids but he didn't talk to us about that aspect. 

My grandmother was a primary school teacher.  Again she didn't talk to us grandchildren about wartime experiences.  I doubt they wanted to be reminded about it..  My mother however told me that my grandmother's saddest experience was going into school when they reopened after the raids and seeing the empty seats of the children that had been killed. 

Bomb shelter exhibition

I often tend to forget that Cardiff was a Luftwaffe target. In Coventry, where I used to live for many years, it seemed to be more often discussed.  That's probably because Coventry was very badly impacted and the shell of the old Coventry Cathedral still stands in the city centre as a reminder.  Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff was also hit but subsequently repaired.

Damage to Llandaff Cathedral

Some 355 people were killed during the air raids on Cardiff and 500 seriously injured.  Given the number of properties that were destroyed or damaged it is staggering that the number is so low.  Schools, the infirmary, ships in the docks and a cinema were hit as well as many houses.  Those air raid sirens and shelters must have done a good job. 

Bomb damage to Albany Road, Cardiff.

Perhaps the biggest raid of the war on Cardiff was on the night of January 2nd 1941.  It was a clear moonlit night.  First to fall were many incendiary bombs hitting places including the Castle grounds.  Fires around the city lit up the night sky. This was followed by a rounds of heavy bombs that caused widespread damage.  A large bomb fell on the gasworks in Grangetown.  Some 165 people were killed that night and it took the city sometime to recover.  The air raid went on for some ten hours in total.  It must have been a horrifying experience to live through.    

Newspaper headlines from Jan 3rd 1941

The exhibition at Cardiff Castle concentrated mainly of wartime life, the food shortages and alike.  It's largely geared towards children and serves to teach them about our history.  It did motivate me to go away and read up some more about the raids but mainly made me thankful that at least as far as our country is concerned it is a largely peaceful era though sadly not for many in other countries. 

The sad story of Harriett Fleming

Wye Valley Youth Hostel, Welsh Bicknor

It had been a splendid weekend. We had rented out Wye Valley Youth Hostel in Welsh Bicknor, near Goodrich.  It's become somewhat of a tradition of mine to rent a youth hostel in January, something to look forward to after Christmas and a great opportunity to meet up with friends.  As the years pass it's become less of a question of 'Where can we put the cot?' to 'Would you mind putting me down for a bottom bunk?' Vacating a hostel by the midday deadline on a Sunday used to be a struggle as people recovered from a very late Saturday night.  This year however, after a day of walking or cycling in the Forest of Dean, people were clambering for their beds before midnight and up to experience the lovely Spring like day on Sunday.    

St Margaret's Church and River Wye, Welsh Bicknor, from Wye Valley YHA

The Youth Hostel is the old rectory building adjacent to the idyllic St Margaret's church on the banks of the River Wye.  It is part of the Courtfield estate, rich in history.  A young King Henry V even lived here for a while after the death of his mother.   It must have been one heck of a rectory.  The hostel is on three floors and sleeps 46 not including the staff.  How much space does a rector need?  It's actually the 'new rectory' built in the 1800s.  The old rectory was adjacent to the church, which itself was also rebuilt in the 1858.  They had the sense to build the new rectory in an elevated position safe from any flooding. 

I took a peaceful stroll in the Sunday morning sunshine down to the River Wye and St Margaret's church. My eye was caught by one particular grave, not an ancient one and not a particularly attractive one.  It looks to be covered in concrete which has two holes in it as is the grave once had something on top of it.  The inscription is what interested me.  It reads:

In loving memory of HARRIETT, widow of John Fleming, Ninian Road, Cardiff

Died Dec 29th 1925, aged 60

Gravestones don't often have an address on and I began to wonder why this one did and why Harriett was buried here in Welsh Bicknor.  The obvious reason seemed to me to be the idyllic setting but was there more to it?  In the week after I got home I started researching Harriett Fleming.

Part of 1911 Census of John & Harriett Fleming, 3 Ninian Road, Cardiff

In the 1911 census I found Harriett and John Fleming living at 3 Ninian Road, Cardiff with three children and a servant.  John, aged 52 was a marine surveyor and born in Maryport, Cumberland.  On the census however it stated that John and Harriett had only been married six years and the children were 21, 18 and 15, so pointed towards them being step-children of Harriett rather than her children.  Harriett's birthplace was down as English Bicknor, just across the river from Welsh Bicknor.  There we are I though, mystery solved, she wished to be buried where she could look over to where she was born.  I almost left it there but felt pulled to do a bit more digging. 

3 Ninian Road, Cardiff, as it looks today.

In the 1901 census we find the John Fleming was living in Glossop Road, Cardiff with his first wife Jane, their three children, John's father William, born Holywood, County Down,  and a brother, also called William.  Jane died two years later in 1903 aged 43.  The following year John marries Harriett in Ross on Wye.

Will of John Fleming

In 1909 John Fleming makes a will, witnessed by a Doctor living next door at 1 Ninian Road and a solicitor.  Maybe his neighbour suggested that making a will was a good idea for in February 1912 John dies and leaves his estate to Harriett, and then on to his children.  Some two years later in 1914 we find Harriett has seemingly moved from Ninian Road and living at nearby Shirley Road. Did her three step-children move with her or were they still at 3 Ninian Road?  And why if she had moved out of Ninian Road in 1914, was the address on her gravestone when she died in 1925?  Time for some more research.

I tried to find out a bit more about Harriett's background.  I knew from the 1911 census that she had been born in the village of English Bicknor in around 1865.  I hadn't at this stage been able to find her marriage so didn't know her maiden name.  Luckily there was only one Harriett in the census records of the right age from English Bicknor and that was Harriett Keene, daughter of Roger Keene a farmer and another Harriet Keene and farming at Cowmeadow Farm.  in 1881 at the age of just 16 Harriett is a school teacher in English Bicknor.  Her parents, Roger and Harriet Keene, had many children and by 1891 had moved away from English Bicknor to another part of the Forest of Dean.  So it still left me wondering why she was buried across the river from her childhood home.

It was then that I found the probate record for Harriett which sadly stated that her body had been found in the River Wye at Welsh Bicknor six months after she had disappeared.   At the time of her disappearance she had been living in Cheltenham.  I'm not quite sure how you can tell the cause of death was drowning is a body has been in the water for six months. 

Probate of Harriett Fleming

Curious to know if I could find out any more I visited a local library, immediately across the road from 3 Ninian Road, the address on her gravestone.  I learnt how to access the newspapers online and found three articles, two explaining her disappearance and one the inquest. 

Inquest of Harriett Fleming nee Keene

The articles explain how Harriett was probably suffering from depression following the death of one of her sisters.  She had been living in Cheltenham but had decided to visit a brother, James Keene, the one closest in age to her and now running his own farm some eleven miles upstream from Welsh Bicknor.  She goes out for a walk but never returns.  A witness thinks he may have seen her on the bank of the flooded Wye and has a short conversation.  Her body is found tangled up in tree roots in the following June.  What a coincidence that her body should be found in the same place she was born some 60 years earlier.

Will of Harriett Fleming

The inquest into her death was held in the Rectory in Welsh Bicknor, the very building in which we were staying that weekend.  She had written a will just a few days before she disappeared whilst staying with her brother at Wier End Farm.  Her will appears to overwrite that of her late husband in that it leaves the bulk of her estate to brother James and her other brothers and sisters but also some to her step-children.    

Harriett Fleming mystery solved

A sad but interesting bit of research.  I'm still sort of left wondering why she was buried here.  Was it the fact that the family thought it was meant to be as her body was discovered here, next to her childhood home?