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Blitz Norton Lees And Nearby


duckweed

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I am told that Mundella School had a bomb in the playground. Also near the University playing fields there were bombs dropped. The only bombing map I have is not very specific. For instance it looks like Meersbrook Park was bombed and I think they should have been on Meersbrook Park Road.

I know 240 Derbyshire Land was bombed as John and Lydia Fox died there on 12th Dec 1940 but there must have been bombs that fell in gardens road etc that didn't cause a fatality so not on my list. Also someone in 62 Bishopscourt Road.

I read that someone was head warden for Meersbrook and hurt and had to change stations to Valley Road but it is not clear where he was before Valley Road. Did they mean he was at Meersbrook House?

Anyone know of any bombs that fell harmlessly?

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Anyone know of any bombs that fell harmlessly?

I don't know how true the story is but I was told that a bomb fell through the melting shop roof at Samuel Fox's and landed in an empty ingot mould.

When it hit the bottom of the mould it exploded and the mould somehow withstood the pressure and the blast went straight back up through the roof.

A very lucky escape for the people around. :o

HD

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There are pictures on the net, don't know where, of a garden in 76 Crawford Rd where a bomb landed. Think it was the home of Elizabeth Healey as she is in the pics

Birtles, Kathleen -46 yrs -13 Dec 1940 -64 Bishop's Court Rd, Sheffield,

Birtles, Peter - 17 yrs - 13 Dec 1940 -64 Bishop's Court Rd, Sheffield,

Birtles, Sheila Mary - 13 yrs -13 Dec 1940 -64 Bishop's Court Rd, Sheffield.

Durdey, Jack -34 -12 Dec 1940-32 Cockayne Pl

Durdey, Sarah -33 -12 Dec 1940-32 Cockayne Pl

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76 Crawford Road

There are pictures on the net, don't know where, of a garden in 76 Crawford Rd where a bomb landed. Think it was the home of Elizabeth Healey as she is in the pics

Birtles, Kathleen -46 yrs -13 Dec 1940 -64 Bishop's Court Rd, Sheffield,

Birtles, Peter - 17 yrs - 13 Dec 1940 -64 Bishop's Court Rd, Sheffield,

Birtles, Sheila Mary - 13 yrs -13 Dec 1940 -64 Bishop's Court Rd, Sheffield.

Durdey, Jack -34 -12 Dec 1940-32 Cockayne Pl

Durdey, Sarah -33 -12 Dec 1940-32 Cockayne Pl

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Thanks for that. I am trying to set up display for local school children and think if they can see the Blitz involved streets they live in or know well it might make it easier to understand.

I have found some very good eyewitness accounts off the BBCs people at War, but if anyone wants to add to it I will be very greatful.

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Found a CD Rom at Sheffield Archives and plotted incidents round Meersbrook Park up to Norton Park and it is quite something. Can't imagine what it must have been for the authorities dealings with them or the people living there. Not every bomb exploded and some places there was damage but no bomb found which is a scarey thought. Maybe some day someone will dig one up in their back garden,

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Not every bomb exploded and some places there was damage but no bomb found which is a scarey thought. Maybe some day someone will dig one up in their back garden,

There's an oft repeated tale about an old lady who was rescued from the ruins of her house at Crookes when a delayed-action bomb went off. I'm not sure if it's true or not.

Apparently when she was rescued it was apparent the bomb had gone off under the house.

They asked her if she had seen anything unusual.

She told them that she had seen a hole in the offshot kitchen ceiling.

She then mentioned that there was a hole through the pot sink.

and finally she told them that there was a hole in the floor under the sink.

They asked her why she hadn't done anything about it.

" I did" she said, "I put a board over it to stop the cat falling in "

If it isn't true it ought to be.

HD

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Found a CD Rom at Sheffield Archives and plotted incidents round Not every bomb exploded and some places there was damage but no bomb found which is a scarey thought. Maybe some day someone will dig one up in their back garden,

If you Google "London Unexploded Bombs" there are hundreds of them known there.

Some of them under front areas on busy streets. Many of them are on marshes or sewage farms.

The German bombs were generally electrically fused with the power derived from charged capacitors, and perhaps safer in the long term than British bombs which had chemical fuses involving vials of acetone and acetate films.

I think the German Fire Service are still actively looking for and dealing with allied munitions.

In the UK I think we wait for them to go off and then deal with the consequences. :(

HD

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Mentioned on another topic, but every town and city was required to keep a record of every place where bombs fell, together with details of all unexploded bombs, real and suspected. Sheffield apparently has such a record, but can't remember where they put it, despite numerous requests over the years to find it.

Could Duckweeds CD Rom mean someone's found it at last?

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. Not every bomb exploded and some places there was damage but no bomb found which is a scarey thought. Maybe some day someone will dig one up in their back garden,

I vaguely remember a story in the Star from years back when many years after the war, an unexploded German bomb was found wedged between four chimney pots on a chimney stack in Pitsmoor.

Years ago I used to have a drink with an old chap who owned a great deal of rented property in Crookes and surrounding districts, he was related to the Spooners (long term landowners in S10).

He told me that immediately after the blitz he was organising repairs to some of his property on Western Road.

He sent his builder up a ladder to investigate a displaced chimney pot. The chap climbed up the roof ladder to the chimney, let out a scream and fell down the other roof slope and bounced off the offshot kitchen roof.

When they were loading him in the ambulance he told them that he had been rather surprised to find that a human leg was wedged between the chimney pots.

The civilian war dead record shows a number of casualties from a bomb which fell in the triangle between Springvale Road, Western Road and Crookes/Northfield Road.

HD

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Gruesome. Not a tale I can tell the children.

The CD lists when it was reported, type of bomb and roughly what damage. Some bombs fell on the golf course and weren't reported for some days after they fell.

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Gruesome. Not a tale I can tell the children.

The CD lists when it was reported, type of bomb and roughly what damage. Some bombs fell on the golf course and weren't reported for some days after they fell.

Hey Up ! Which golf course ?

You've got me worried now, living near to Hallamshire Golf Course. I know one fell at the end just past Lodge Lane, and another at Hallam Head.

If we hear a bump in the night and they discover an extra bunker on the sixth fairway we will know what happened.

Does the CD take a lot of finding down there ? I wonder if they might put it on the t'internet ?

HD

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My grandparents, Samuel and Abigail Brady lived on the corner of Mundella Place and Derbyshire Lane, before they died prior to WW2. Officially he was the caretaker but his wife was a matriarch, running a business (coal/greengroceries, etc) and I am sure she would have been very much involved in the school. My mother, Alice Brady, one of their children, were living with her husband Fred Roe,in the house on one of the blitz nights. My 3 year old brother was their only child at the time.

The house, it is said, had a direct hit and was reduced to rubble. However, the 3 of them had been sheltering in next door's reinforced cellar. They had to be retrieved through the cellar grate. My father returned from barrage balloon duty to see the bedroom curtains in a tree!

My Aunt who was in the cellar of her home at 233 Derbyshire lane, says that next door (where there was a garage, when I last visited UK from Sydney) also had a direct hit.

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2 hours ago, Dennis R said:

My grandparents, Samuel and Abigail Brady lived on the corner of Mundella Place and Derbyshire Lane, before they died prior to WW2. Officially he was the caretaker but his wife was a matriarch, running a business (coal/greengroceries, etc) and I am sure she would have been very much involved in the school. My mother, Alice Brady, one of their children, were living with her husband Fred Roe,in the house on one of the blitz nights. My 3 year old brother was their only child at the time.

The house, it is said, had a direct hit and was reduced to rubble. However, the 3 of them had been sheltering in next door's reinforced cellar. They had to be retrieved through the cellar grate. My father returned from barrage balloon duty to see the bedroom curtains in a tree!

My Aunt who was in the cellar of her home at 233 Derbyshire lane, says that next door (where there was a garage, when I last visited UK from Sydney) also had a direct hit.

Hi Dennis R, my Dad, Sister and Parents, lived on Crawford Rd. Dad once told me one night during the blitz, a bomb fell on a house up the top, and at least one hit the Cemetary, he said it was an almighty explosion though, so it must have been pretty big, or two hit at once, made a right mess !

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