Blame the Luftwaffe!
Mystery of the dripping church roof is solved... 75 years later
FOR more than 75 years it has intrigued and irritated members of the congregation at St Peter’s.
Now a mysterious leak in the church roof seems to have been explained – after restorers found bullet holes from a Second World War air attack.
They are thought to have been caused by a German fighter plane coming over the Channel and have left water dripping inside ever since.
The attack split the main shaft supporting the church spire and left corresponding holes in the lead roof. They appear to have been repaired during the war but nobody checked the internal structure of the spire, which has moved over the past seven decades,
‘Lightning attack in the harbour’
resulting in a persistent leak.
The crack was discovered during restoration works at St Peter’s in Folkestone, Kent. Church leaders were initially unclear about what caused the damage to the 5in- square timber supports in the spire.
Now they believe bullets from a strafing attack by Luftwaffe planes hit the roof and splintered the central timber on exit.
The trajectory of the shots suggests the damage came from a plane coming in off the Channel from occupied France. Folkestone came under heavy attack during the war and the church is on an elevated clifftop position. Historians believe the Germans were either targeting the railway into the harbour, which runs close to the church, or an anti-aircraft placement on the top of the cliffs. Church- warden David Wilson said: ‘The split in the shaft has meant the steeple has been moving in high winds and letting the rain in under the lead-work. It is good to now know the cause and to be able to rectify it, even if it has taken some 75 years.’
Church records report a raid