German bombs resulted in head injury – and chocolate
THE attached photograph is of the remains of All Saints Church, which stood on Walsall Road in Darlaston.
It was destroyed by enemy bombing during World War II.
My family lived at 33 Witton Street at the time and my father was on fire watching duty on the night the bomb dropped. He was standing on the pavement at the bottom of our entry and he told me that he heard the bomb coming down, right opposite the church, and there was a whooshing sound as the church rose into the air complete, and then imploded in on itself, falling back down in pieces into the huge crater the bomb had made.
The next morning the lectern was recovered in one piece and is to this day in St Lawrence’s Parish Church in Darlaston.
I was only a toddler at the time, but when the older children in our street climbed into the mess, I had to scramble after them.
Accident
Naturally I came to grief and I have a mark on my forehead from when I fell and hit my head on a piece of masonry – it can be seen in the photograph, on the right, almost balancing on the rubble.
My mother rushed me up to Dr Mcnamee on the Walsall Road – his house is still there today.
I was given my first Cadbury chocolate by the doctor because I didn’t cry when he stitched my wound!
When the new church was built in the 1950s, it would have cost too much to have the crater filled in, and so it was capped over. Today there is a small door in the cellar which can be opened to reveal what’s left of the crater. I’m sure the vicar would show it to anyone who is interested. Access is through a door at the left hand side of the altar.