Memories of wartime on West Street
- GVHeritage Groups
- Dec 8, 2024
- 1 min read
The Bristol Blitz during of 1940/41 was fierce. The raid of 24 November lasted over six hours. 148 bombers dropped 1,540 tonnes of high explosives and over 12,000 incendiary bombs down on the city. Within an hour over 70 fires were raging.
According to the Malago Society: "the Victorian terraces of Bedminster received a pounding in the blitz out of all proportion to their strategic and economic importance; it was just Bedminster's misfortune to be on the flight path between the Dorset coast and the main enemy targets - Temple Meads goods sidings and the Filton aeroplane factories".
Shirley Small talking about wartime West Street
Dot Morgan talking about some wartime memories
The West Street neighbourhood also lost many men who served overseas. The deaths of Albert Elms, Alfred Hush and Henry Snook are recorded on a plaque in Salem Chapel.
Post war, the many bomb sites became exciting places to play. Eventually the destroyed terraced houses between Sion Road and South Street were cleared and South Street Park was created. The mounds of rubble, now grassed over, still exist.
