Hello!
I'm Maitias Hafey and
I've recently moved to London, England from Sydney, Australia, with my
Mummy, my Daddy, my big Sister Eilis and my big Brother Liam. I've been lots of places with my family since we've been over here, but the one I enjoyed most of all was going to Chislehurst Caves with Mummy, Eilis and Liam.
There are about 22
miles of man-made
caves, which have a history of
approximately 8000 years. There's evidence of their being
occupied at separate
times by the Saxons, the Druids, and the
Romans. The caves were mined for their flint and chalk, both of
which are very valuable commodities. Flint had been used from the
earliest times for the making of tools, and later for firelighters, and
chalk yields lime, which is used in paint and plaster. More
recently the caves were used for underground concerts, and as bomb
shelters during WW2. 
Lots of different TV
shows have been filmed in Chislehurst Caves, most notably (to our
family), "The Mutants", a Doctor Who adventure during the tenure of Jon
Pertwee.This is a photo that can be seen on the wall of the Reception Area at Chislehurst Caves.
As previously mentioned, during WW2 Chislehurst Caves was used as a bomb shelter. It was viewed as being somewhere easily accessible for the residents of London, and during it's time as a shelter it was completely wired for lights and other electrical uses. In the 1950s, the British Government decided that the Caves were not going to be of any further interest, and so took out all the wiring! Hmmm... So, now, tours are conducted by torchlight!
The Caves in WW2 had shops, a fully functional hospital, a Church, bedding areas, and a stage for entertainments.
In fact, it was pretty much a very well-set up village on its own merits. Nobody died in the caves during the evacuation, so no funerals were held in the Church,
and no weddings were
performed there, but a baby was born in the hospital, and she was
subsequently Christened in the Church, with the gorgeous name of
"Cavina". Cavina put up with it for 18 years, and then
immediately went to the Registery of Births Marriages and Deaths and
had herself renamed!I can thoroughly recommend Chislehurst Caves to anyone coming down this way, it's well worth the effort. It's not far from Chislehurst Railway Station, and there's directions from there. Alternately, coming from Chislehurst, the 162 bus goes right past the Station, so you can catch that, as we did.
I hope you like my website! Keep checking it out as I'm sure to update it again soon (and maybe even have some more photos of me in it!).