A Strange Tale of Coffins and Bird Skulls

A Strange Tale of Coffins and Bird Skulls

As most people will know Ramsgate has many tunnels and caves and as the publisher of a book about the main Ramsgate tunnel system, I occasionally come across snippets about the history of some of them.

This is the most bizarre yet, told to me by an eighty year old man who has lived in Ramsgate all his life, in 1938 when he was ten years old a time when the county was preparing for war and adult eyes were averted, a favourite haunt of local boys was the tunnels under the cemetery.

He described three large arches running far under the cemetery with a network of smaller tunnels and rooms, in places coffins had fallen through the ceiling from the cemetery above.

The greatest attraction to the boys was the bird room, by crawling under a very low part with a candle it was possible to get into a room where there were a lot of small square recesses cut into the wall, in each one was a birds skull