This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*
Now I never knew that a bomb had totally demolished the house two doors down from us.
But then why should I? The event occurred in 1916 and there was no one around to recount the tale.
Nor would I have ever known about it had a picture of the destroyed house not surfaced recently.
It was discovered by Tricia Leslie and was taken from the back of the house showing just part of the front wall and beyond it the houses on the opposite side of Well Hall Road.
When I first saw the image I was interested but it wasn’t till Daniel Murphy did some detective work that I made the connection with our house.
Looking at the original and comparing it with that stretch of Well Hall today, the unmistakable block of houses opposite gives the location perfectly.
In 1918 it was the home of Mr Frederick John Ward but I have yet not be able to discover if he was there when the bomb fell, nor have I found a newspaper record of the event but the Greenwich Heritage Centre I bet will be able to help.
All of which makes it a nice bit of detective work on the part of Tricia and Daniel and leaves me only to comment that the fire place shown in the ruined house was identical to the one in our front room, but then that was only to be expected, given that to keep costs down the Ministry had quite rightly bought interior fittings in bulk.
Still it’s odd seeing it there and even more so because I in the past I have stood in that very front room where the bomb fell.
But just as I finished the story Tricia discovered it had been a Zeppelin raid on August 25 1916 resulting in all three members of the Allen family being killed. All were buried in St John's churchyard.
Which was a result but not what I had wanted.
Location;Well Hall, Eltham, London
Pictures; Well Hall Road, 2015, courtesy of Daniel Murphy
*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall
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| That bombed house, 2015 |
But then why should I? The event occurred in 1916 and there was no one around to recount the tale.
Nor would I have ever known about it had a picture of the destroyed house not surfaced recently.
It was discovered by Tricia Leslie and was taken from the back of the house showing just part of the front wall and beyond it the houses on the opposite side of Well Hall Road.
When I first saw the image I was interested but it wasn’t till Daniel Murphy did some detective work that I made the connection with our house.
Looking at the original and comparing it with that stretch of Well Hall today, the unmistakable block of houses opposite gives the location perfectly.
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| The houses opposite which offered up the clues |
All of which makes it a nice bit of detective work on the part of Tricia and Daniel and leaves me only to comment that the fire place shown in the ruined house was identical to the one in our front room, but then that was only to be expected, given that to keep costs down the Ministry had quite rightly bought interior fittings in bulk.
Still it’s odd seeing it there and even more so because I in the past I have stood in that very front room where the bomb fell.
But just as I finished the story Tricia discovered it had been a Zeppelin raid on August 25 1916 resulting in all three members of the Allen family being killed. All were buried in St John's churchyard.
Which was a result but not what I had wanted.
Location;Well Hall, Eltham, London
Pictures; Well Hall Road, 2015, courtesy of Daniel Murphy
*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall
Knew Zeppelins bombed Great Britain in WW2. This story is first tangible one I recall reading about casualties. RIP 3 victims
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