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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2005-07 > 1122660260


From: "Colleen" <>
Subject: Re: Bombed out, then what?
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 19:04:20 +0100
References: <000301c593aa$85877e60$0200a8c0@Vaio> <000f01c59461$1c9013b0$8201a8c0@Mumsie>


I'm surprised that so many of the people who were buried beneath the ruins
of bombed buildings as our respective family were, Caroline, came out of it
relatively unscathed - though some poor souls didn't, of course. My mother
and grandmother said their lives were saved by a heavy, old fashioned
wardrobe which remained intact and was blown on top of them and the rubble
around them, making a sort of safe pocket which kept further rubble off of
them. They made good furniuture in those days!

Colleen


----- Original Message -----
From: "Caroline" <>


> My mother and grandmother were also trapped in the wreckage of their house
> in Lake House Road, Wanstead after a rocket fell in the back garden in one
> of the last attacks of the war. They had been sleeping in a Morrison
> shelter in the kitchen just before breakfast. My mother had been evacuated
> with the Post Office to Harrogate, but her elderly mother insisted on
> returning to check the house and it was on one of these occasions that the
> rocket hit. My 'caring' uncle packed them back to Harrogate the same day
> on the train. The house was rebuilt fairly quickly after the war and my
> mother (and later my father, sister and I) lived there until 1978. It was
> a frequent occurrence to find bits of my mother's china etc when digging
> in the garden !! Only one piece of china - a lovely Royal Worcester vase -
> had remained intact after the bomb.


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