Abbeydale Road Bomb crater?

[Hjdary]

Help!!

 

I've been in a customers house today and she needs our help.

 

At some point during the war she can remember her mam taking her down Abbeydale road to Marden road (I think thats where she said) to look at a crater caused by a bomb, in to which a tram had fallen.

 

She then showed me a book in which there was a picture took in the eighties of the same area and in this image the whole street was flooded. She went on to say that the area had never flooded before and she thought there was a man made dip there now because of the bomb.

 

Over the years she has looked far and wide for a picture of the tram in the hole but has never found one and it is driving her mad...so much so she wondered if she had dreamt it!!

 

I told her about the internet and more importantly this site but she has no internet access (She does live in Dronfield you see...I think they still point at the moon up there) so I have promised to see what I cant find and print it off for her before my next visit.

 

So can you help...are there any shots of this with the tram in or not and are there any tales about this you have heard??

 

Thanks.

[hutch]

Looking at a map showing where bombs fell in the Abbeydale area,there appears to be some that fell around that location , but i have never seen a picture of one in a hole in the blitz all the bombed trams were in the town centre.

[keithwbb]

Help!!

 

I've been in a customers house today and she needs our help.

 

At some point during the war she can remember her mam taking her down Abbeydale road to Marden road (I think thats where she said) to look at a crater caused by a bomb, in to which a tram had fallen.

 

She then showed me a book in which there was a picture took in the eighties of the same area and in this image the whole street was flooded. She went on to say that the area had never flooded before and she thought there was a man made dip there now because of the bomb.

 

Over the years she has looked far and wide for a picture of the tram in the hole but has never found one and it is driving her mad...so much so she wondered if she had dreamt it!!

 

I told her about the internet and more importantly this site but she has no internet access (She does live in Dronfield you see...I think they still point at the moon up there) so I have promised to see what I cant find and print it off for her before my next visit.

 

So can you help...are there any shots of this with the tram in or not and are there any tales about this you have heard??

 

Thanks.

 

I lived at 635 Abbeydale road (opposite the bottom of Marden Road)at the time.The story goes that it was a parachute mine that landed there,that was the reason for there not being so much damage as a bomb blast.I think one also landed on the hill on yuor left as you go up Marden,as kids we used to play in the crater in the earth up there.

Hope this helps.

Keith.

[buck]

I lived at 635 Abbeydale road (opposite the bottom of Marden Road)at the time.The story goes that it was a parachute mine that landed there,that was the reason for there not being so much damage as a bomb blast.I think one also landed on the hill on yuor left as you go up Marden,as kids we used to play in the crater in the earth up there.

Hope this helps.

Keith.

It fell between Gatefield road and Marden road. The crater was quite deep, which is more the reason there wasn't a lot of subsequent surface damage around. My home in Tinsley wa severly damaged by a parachute mine exploding on open space behind the house the whole street suffered majotr roof damage with fallen walls and chimneys. Some of my relatives lived on Gatefield Road at the time.

[Hjdary]

Were any trams in the area ...or more to the point in the hole?

 

I have to say I would have thought not, as something so dramatic would have had a shot or two took of it such as the tram that was blown in half on the Wicker, but the lady I spoke to clearly stated that a tram was in the hole......she thought!

[helbco]

I'll ask my Mum tomorrow - she lived off Abbeydale before, during and after the war. She's never mentioned it to me before but..!

[Hopman]

It might be that the tram in a crater was in one location and the picture showed some background information (a shop name possibly?). The later photo may have shown another location but with the same shop name in shot. The two photos could be confused in the mind.

[cartav]

I can vaguely remember being shown the crater in Abbeydale Road & have pondered about it since. For sure, there were tales of it being a parachute mine, but I wonder if this was correct. A parachute mine was heavy ( around 4000lb), but it landed relatively slowly due to the parachute. As such, it might not have made much of a crater when it exploded, but could have been more akin to the RAF's blockbusters from which the blast travelled sideways and almost parallel to the ground. Although windows would have been shattered and roofs disturbed, there is little evidence of major structural damage to the old buildings in the area and they remain pretty much as they were built originally. As there was a crater, somewhere in the road in front of the stone built row of shops, it seems likely that this was caused by a heavy conventional bomb which would have penetrated the tarmac and directed much of the blast upwards rather than sideways. No others I know, who lived locally, can remember a tram in the hole.

 

However, we all remember later rumours about the destruction of the Stokes factory on Little London Rd. At the time, some said it was bombed, others reckoned a plane had crashed on it. Any ideas about what really happened & why there was a mystery about it all?

[helbco]

Hjdary

 

My Mother lived in a street parallel to Abbeydale Road during the war - even though she lived amongst the bombing she definitely hadn't heard the story of the tram falling into the crater! I know that lots of media was hushed up during the war but that wouldn't have stopped the neighbourhood gossip!

[Hjdary]

I think that the next time I pop in to Dronfield I'll print this page off and take it to my customer.

I think she mest have been mistaken about the tram but we can reassure her there was a crater

 

Thanks all