World Wars : local involvement

[pattie]

Just been reading the details of the bombs and remembered my mum telling me about it. She lived in the white cottage on the hairpin bend at Hermitage Green Winwick and the story she told me was that the pilot had been caught with one of the ack-ack guns (not sure where but I think Padgate) and as a result he was forced to jetison his load in order to gain height to get away. The first bomb came down in the farmers fields in front of the Hermit Pub scattering potatoes in all directions (gathered in by the rationed locals) he then dropped the rest of the bombs as he flew over Wargrave hitting the house there and killing its residents (now buried in Wargrave Cemetery.) I remember my dad having a piece of the shrapnel he collected from the event.

[Steven]

I was talking to someone over xmas, who mentioned that in the mid 1970s they knew there was an air raid shelter in the garden of the house on the corner of Crow lane and Cross Lane

I have made this image, showing an X where the location was described to me..

x-air-raid-shelter.jpg

It was described as being in the trees, just inside the fence, nearto the side that joins to the small walled public area thats on the actual corner of Crwo Lane / Cross Road

I am not suggesting anyone go exploring without permission, but if anyone knows the owner of the bungalow, maybe they could ask if the Shelter does still exist?

Steven Dowd

[Sheila Johnson]

Hi Steven That Bungalow was the doctor's at one time named Dr Lathom could it be that the shelter would have been built for that reason.

[Steven]

I am not sure that the bungalow existed ? it doesnt look that old, maybe if the shelter did exist in that spot, it might be something todo with the Library or Tech


Steven Dowd

[tom83]

You can see this Bunker from the road, when you are waiting for the traffic lights. Its actually very small, I would imagine it was an Anderson Shelter built for a family, rather than a communial bunker for the college and Library.

As a child, we would play dares to go in, and scare ourselves stupid.

[ps68060]

My grandparents had a nice solid brick build bunker in their back garden in Oak Avenue. It had a thick concrete roof and a thick door closest to the house. On the other end a window had been added where the emergency exit used to be. It was always cool in their and my grandad used it as a shed.

I hadn't seen the photos of Wargrave road before. Are there any photos of tanks at the Vulcan ?

[tom83]

Hi, there is a post on the forum somewhere with some pictures of the Tanks running through Vulcan Village.

I have a Scrap book rescued from the Vulcan Foundry with some stuff about the Canadian 'Matilda' Tanks in it.

[Markd33]

I used to play in the shelter on the corner of crow lane\cross lane when we were kids it seemed very small though( wine cellar?) but we still had loads of fun there...............until someone locked it .Dont know if its still there or filled in though. I also served my apprenticeship at the vulcan (maintenance) and remember old books in the generator house highlighting problems in the torpedo room ! and several photos of tanks etc dont know what happend to them though. Best place for pictures used to be the Vulcan pub, hope this helps