Just a guess – WWII bomb damage between Norton & Billingham – a failed attempt to bomb ICI? From my fathers notes: The other bomb dropped nearer to our shelter. The bomb whistled on the way down. It got louder and louder and seemed to last for minutes but it would only have been for a few seconds. There was a very loud bang and the earth and shelter shook violently. We thought the bomb had dropped just outside but it was about 300 metres away. It left a huge crater a fortunately on open ground. No one was injured. (This information was kindly provided by Sarah Sheraton). Can you help?
May 1941. Norton, Stockton-on-Tees. My house 24 Keithlands Avenue was blasted as no. 26 had a direct hit from a bomb. I was in bed. Aged 2 and a half. The ceiling came down and windows were blown out. The door could not be opened because of the debris. I was carried down a ladder at the window by a fireman. I have not been able find any information about this.
Sheilah Gale nee Leng
This was one of three bombs – the other two fell on the barrage balloon site in South Road, where the fire station now is. According to German records, the target was ICI. Date was 11/12 May 1941. The St Peters Road area of Stockton and Hartburn were also badly hit on the same night.
My old home in Pine Street was hit with bomb damage during WW2, there is a concrete plaque in the loft showing the date of repair and the names of the people who repaired it. The apprentice was a chap called Rhodes who went on to run a big local company called Rhodes Roofing. I believe the damage was associated with a string of bombs that fell in a line from Kiethlands Ave, then Pine and Benson Street, the house in Benson Street was totally destroyed, then the rest of the bombs fell in a line across Billingham bottoms. The craters were still there when I was a kid in the 1960s
I was really interested to read the posts from from Sheilah Gale and Steve D. Surprisingly, given the closeness to the other bombs in South Road and Keithlands Ave, the Benson Street bomb was actually dropped on a different date – 02.05hrs on 19 Aug 1941. It was 500kg, killed seven people, and destroyed 25-41 and 32-36 Benson Street and 32 and 34 Pine Street. The post-war replacements are noticeably different from the rest of the Victorian street. For the record, the Keithlands Ave/South Road bombs fell on 11/12 May 1941 but these seem to have been much smaller than the Benson Street bomb – probably 50 or 250kg. I wonder if it was the barrage balloon which attracted attention on both occasions, or just coincidence?
I was a 2 year old at the time, and in the Anderson Shelter as it was our house that was bombed (number 26). We were relocated by ICI to a house in Billingham, as my dad worked for them.
Your Dad Ken was right quite a few bombs dropped on various parts of the Billingham Bottoms one just behind Dovedale Ave. I was out on the road when the bombs hit and wrecked the Old Mill and thought my end had come. The vibrations through the earth and the road lifted me clear each time, that was in Mill Lane, Ken would be as near. Not all attacks on ICI failed the factory area was hit at least a hundred times causing fires damage and loss of production. The area around Billingham, Haverton, Portrack and Norton also had damage and loss of life. Those of us around at that time will remember those nights too the end, Ken would be out next day after school looking for shrapnel a lot of which came from our own guns, a dangerous time indeed.
Betty, a police officer during WW2, who lived in Parklands Ave. at the time remembers the bombs being dropped in the evening in the dark. It was indeed at Billingham Bottoms. She also remembers that a bomb damaged a house in Sunnybrow Ave. just round the corner from where she lived in Parklands.