Guest Harry May Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 I know Bristol was badly bombed during World War 2. There were 78 air assaults. The first one was on the night of the 25th of November 1940 and the last was in August 1942. Over 3,000 houses were destroyed in this time and 90,000 buildings damaged. During these raids I know Ashton Gate was hit badly - I think several of the stands were destroyed. Does anyone have anymore information ? In which raid was the Gate hit ? Which stands were destroyed ? Thanks Caldicot Red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompo Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 The ground wasn't damaged in the blitz. We played a war time friendly against Millwall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Ern Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Although I wasn't around at the time,contrary to poular belief,I have it on good authority that part of the Grandstand (Williams) was damaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorset_Cider Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Although I wasn't around at the time,contrary to poular belief,I have it on good authority that part of the Grandstand (Williams) was damaged. I have asked the oracle (My Dad)........ and he agree's with you He even has some Bristol City books with pictures of the damage and such. He said that the Williams may have been called the 'West Stand' back then and went about half way along the length of the pitch, from the (now) Wedlock end. On the other side of the pitch the stand also got hit....... He is going to dig the books out for me so I can let you know a bit more, unless someone comes on and gives you all the details Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompo Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Eastville was also hit by several bombs but Rovers were actually very pleased with the improvements they made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fct Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Ha ha ha nice one Tompo!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eviltaxman Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 The ground wasn't damaged in the blitz. We played a war time friendly against Millwall. No damage?? I assume we must have been playing away!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompo Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 No damage?? I assume we must have been playing away!! No we were home hence the damage being caused by our friends from the Isle of Dogs and not German bombs. This forum needs an Irony Indicator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fct Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 I got that one tompo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eviltaxman Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 This forum needs an Irony Indicator. Sorry... having a thicko day today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
city3rovers2 Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 According to possibly the best book about Bristol City ever written, The Bristol Babe, the grandstand (known as the Number One Grandstand) was bombed in January 1941. Apparently fans were annoyed that this stand had been destroyed, as the stand on the other side of the ground, known as the Cow Shed, was untouched, but a crap stand. In April 1941, around the 11th or 12th, the Germans bombed the Gate again, but both bombs landed on the pitch, resulting in the cancellation of the game against Bath City the next day. Sadly this raid killed the former Bristol City player Sandy Torrence (Hate to say it, but I've never heard of him.) That's all I can find out. Hope it helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcfc seattle Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 This forum needs an Irony Indicator. ooo could it be a little thermeter like thing, that automatically sences irony or sarcasm and lets you know? Com'n betcha Tom could come up with one. probably a difficult algorthym to write though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Mosquito Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Dopey Nazis, I heard that the Rolls Royce aircraft factory, just North of Bristol in Filton, was untouched by Nazi German bombers. What was the point in bombing the Gas and City grounds when bombing the aircraft factory would have been say 50,000 times more effective in winning the war for Germany? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheshire_red Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 My Grandfather was an engineer at Rolls Royce and therefore was unable to serve in the war because his skills were too important to the war effort (one could say he therefore served!). Anway the point of the post is that he was also an air raid warden and was positioned on one of the tobacco warehouses (which were used for anything but during the war) and a bomb hit the warehouse and threw him off. He landed on top of a large pile of sand which was used to put fires out. For donkeys years after he suffered from very painful stomach ulcers and continually suffered from stomach pains. It was only a short time before he died in the late 80's that they realised that his intestines had completely turned around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myoudale Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 sorry might be a really dumb question by why are you trying to find out this information ? cheers mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Harry May Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Mike, Why am I trying to find this out ? A variety of reasons really. I live in South Wales , but I am 3rd generation City. My great-grandfather was from Bedminster and served at Gallopolli in the First World War , his son -my Grandad - was City through and through. He was worked at the tobacco factory in the 1930s ,and he was at the famous Portsmouth game. Shortly before the outbreak of the second World War he joined the royal navy. So , my great grandad ( who had been sunk on HMS Goliath at Gallopolli ) was on air raid duty whilst his son ( my grandad ) fought in the Battle of the Atlantic. It was at this time that Bedminster was decimated. I do n't think that any of us ( fortunate to be born in peace time ) can truly imagine what that was really like. As part of my daughter's GCSE in history, she has to do course work on the home front - hence the question etc. Caldicot Red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cider head Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 IT WAS VERY MUCH HIT IN THE WAR... (no other stand is on record as being hit by a war time air raid only the grandstand). HOPE THIS HELPS.... the grand stand then known as the number one grandstand was bombed on the night of 16th january 1941 by the Luftwaffe who dropped bombs on Bristol that night ,and was the only stand damaged during the war, building restrictions in post-war britain meant that it was 1951 before a permit was issued for the club to build a new grandstand (hence the picture In 1949 below). work began in the summer of 1951 on the new grandstand a steel shortage and lack of funds delayed completion untill 1953, when the supporters club made a £3,000 donation towards the cost. the city directors in return, leased the supporters club space beneath the stand for it's first permanent home, this was, incidentally, citys third supporters club and was formed in 1949. the first was formed in citys st johns lane days but did not survive long, after opposition from some board members. the second was founded in 1919, but how long it lasted is unknown, by the start of league football again in 1946 no such organisation was operating. the east end was badly damaged in 1916 by gales and in december the following year was demolished after being declared unsafe. it was not untill 1928 that the cover was replaced, paid for by money which city recived from the transfers of albert keating and clarrie bourton, who both were sold to blackburn for a combined fee of £3,650... the east end has had many names over the years ''the covered end'' ''winterstoke road end'' ''wiliams stand'' but it was Originally called ''The Keating stand''......... A view of the number one grandstand which was bombed in 1941. this picture shows a pre-season practice game between the reds and the blues on 12 august 1939, just 3 weeks before the season was abandoned upon out break of war... 1949 shows the grand stand all but gone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Harry May Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Cider head, Thanks very much for that. Much appreciated. Caldicot Red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fct Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Harry, the Goliath was a pre-Dreadnought battleship that was torpedoed and sank on the 12th May 1915 in the Dardanelles on the Gallipoli campaign, but I bet you already know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cider head Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Cider head, Thanks very much for that. Much appreciated. Caldicot Red. no problem, i enjoy looking back at old bristol city stuff although i'm still a young un' i still like to know a bit about the clubs history, i got a fair few books on the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cider head Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Harry, the Goliath was a pre-Dreadnought battleship that was torpedoed and sank on the 12th May 1915 in the Dardanelles on the Gallipoli campaign, but I bet you already know that. would that be the retro yellow subbers sinking that ship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myoudale Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Mike, Why am I trying to find this out ? A variety of reasons really. I live in South Wales , but I am 3rd generation City. My great-grandfather was from Bedminster and served at Gallopolli in the First World War , his son -my Grandad - was City through and through. He was worked at the tobacco factory in the 1930s ,and he was at the famous Portsmouth game. Shortly before the outbreak of the second World War he joined the royal navy. So , my great grandad ( who had been sunk on HMS Goliath at Gallopolli ) was on air raid duty whilst his son ( my grandad ) fought in the Battle of the Atlantic. It was at this time that Bedminster was decimated. I do n't think that any of us ( fortunate to be born in peace time ) can truly imagine what that was really like. As part of my daughter's GCSE in history, she has to do course work on the home front - hence the question etc. Caldicot Red. Cheers for the information Mate sounds good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
22A Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 I've just dug out a passage from Peter Godsiff's "Complete history of Bristol City" (It was published in 1979). It adds a human touch to the facts posted by others. One night in February 1941 Len Southway went to Ashton Gate to take training as usual, but found all the doors locked. As he attempted to climb through a window, he was halted by a policeman. "Don't go in, there are two or three unexploded bombs in the stand" he was told. later that night half the stand was destroyed. At the time Southway had an old car that he used to park beneath the stand. he thought that the odds against another bomb hitting the stand were so long he again left it under the undamaged part of the stand. The following night the remainder of the stand was hit. That was the end of Len's car. Red Goblin asks "What was the point in bombing the Gas and City grounds when bombing the aircraft factory would have been say 50,000 times more effective in winning the war for Germany?" A factory can be rebuilt. The football grounds were in residential areas and if you hit such an area, you kill or maim the actual workers which completely halts production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorset_Cider Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 I've just dug out a passage from Peter Godsiff's "Complete history of Bristol City" (It was published in 1979). It adds a human touch to the facts posted by others. One night in February 1941 Len Southway went to Ashton Gate to take training as usual, but found all the doors locked. As he attempted to climb through a window, he was halted by a policeman. "Don't go in, there are two or three unexploded bombs in the stand" he was told. later that night half the stand was destroyed. At the time Southway had an old car that he used to park beneath the stand. he thought that the odds against another bomb hitting the stand were so long he again left it under the undamaged part of the stand. The following night the remainder of the stand was hit. That was the end of Len's car. Red Goblin asks "What was the point in bombing the Gas and City grounds when bombing the aircraft factory would have been say 50,000 times more effective in winning the war for Germany?" A factory can be rebuilt. The football grounds were in residential areas and if you hit such an area, you kill or maim the actual workers which completely halts production. The other human factor.......... My Dad, his sister, my Gramps, Nan Bristol and many like them lived in Bristol during the Blitz and suffered the raids, as children in my Dads & auntie's case. Bombs fell on Bedminster they'll tell you and over Bristol in general. Next time your nippers are moaning just tell them the story of the kids that went before them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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