After the Bombs in Coventry: From Farmland to the City

Bomb damaged Coventry Cathedral.
Warwickshire County Record Office reference PH(N) 600/279/1

Born and raised in a farm in Winterborne, far away from the built-up areas in Warwickshire, we acquired the assistance of land-girls to help run our farm, which was needed due the absence of the farm-men that went to fight for our country. On the Christmas of 1944; Irene, one of the land army girls took me to her home in Birmingham.

Shock

During the stay we took a bus down to Coventry, I don’t know exactly where but I certainly remember the devastation and the shock I felt seeing all the buildings flattened and the windows smashed and to hear about the people killed who had lived in those very houses not too long before.

Not living near a town, I found this to be a big shock. All I had ever seen of the bombs so far was when my dad put me on his shoulders at our home in Gloucestershire and pointed out the red glow in the sky and told me that it was in fact the city of Bath burning after the Germans targeted the city. The destruction in Bath however could not be compared to the massive impact the German bombs had on the city of Coventry.

Pure chaos on the streets

Most people today know all about the bombing of Coventry Cathedral and the town centre but it was the pure chaos left behind on the residential streets of the city that has stayed with me ever since.

This story was created as part of an intergenerational digital inclusion project, in conjunction with Orbit Heart of England, with the assistance of students from Southam College.

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