Bournemouth At War / BOURNE VALLEY GAS WORKS Traditional Cache

Bournemouth has a great history. I have documented many famous people, major events and occurrences in previous geocaching series highlighting the history of Bournemouth. This series focuses on many of the key incidents and stories in the town when Bournemouth was at war. A complete list of all the caches in this series are bookmarked.

1941 saw some of the worst bombing to the town. With the war well and truly set in, there seemed no end in sight.



After a week of no bombing, 27th March 1941 was an eventful day. At 12:20pm, three high explosive bombs were dropped in Lowther and Methuen Roads, in Charminster, injuring three people and damaging 101 houses as well as a water main. A few moments later two unexploded bombs were discovered in Alma Road, causing the area to be evacuated. Just after, the worst incident for casualties so far in the Bournemouth/Poole area occurred at the Bourne Valley Gas Works.

At lunch time the work force was just starting their meal in the staff canteen, even though the Alert was sounded, whilst on the roof the Spotter watched for enemy planes. Due to the thick, low cloud, however, visibility was poor, so when a German plane appeared the Spotter was unable to give very much warning. Two bombs fell apparently aimed at the railway viaduct by the Gas Works. They both missed but hit the Gas Works instead. One completely destroyed a store and the other struck the canteen, plunging through the roof of the two storey building and ending up caught by its tail fins in the ceiling of the mess room. It hung there for a few seconds before exploding, killing 34 men and seriously injuring 16, plus 7 other minor wounds. Of the 34 killed, 15 were from Bournemouth.

Only slight damage was caused to the viaduct by machine gun bullets. It seemed that during the past month most of the raids had been directed towards the railways. West Station, Branksome viaduct, Cemetery Junction and a train had all been targets, but none of them hit.

A list of all those who lost their lives at the Gas Works including another account of that fateful day can be found at the link below.




Someone Screamed “Down! Down!” // Text Source