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Baedekker Raids

The parentals are fixing up the house: and I\’ve just been looking (a few days back) at the results of the Baedekker Raids on Bath.

One stick of bombs went across the avenue where the ancestral spires are: haveing looked at where the bombs fell, you can now see it, if you see what I mean. There are two post war houses in an avenue of Edwardian ones: the two new ones on opposite sides of said avenue. And the third of the stick landed on the tennis court in the middle, destroying the pavilion.

Hmm, OK, so the connection? In the fixing up of the house the builders have found that the window frames facing that tennis court have all been pushed in: in essence, we\’ve had draughts coming through since 1942 as a result of the bomb blast.

Not a big or major problem, fixed with a bit of sealant. But the idea that I am sitting here listening to a builder repairing war damage from 58 68 (see comments) years ago (or, actually, listening to him drinking tea in between repairing such damage) is, umm, a little odd.

7 thoughts on “Baedekker Raids”

  1. A few years ago a neighbour proposed burning down his old garden shed but his wife insisted he dismantle it instead. In doing so he found a German incendiary bomb. She arrived home to find the police and bomb disposal squad in occupation.

  2. I’ve always liked to think that the Nazis bombed Bath because they had an outdated view of English hygiene…

    Now zey vill all zmell zehr ztinky, jah?

  3. Baedeker, not Baedekker. The latter is what they said at the funeral of the singer of ‘It Mek’ and ‘007 (Shanty Town)’.

  4. Had the same experience when we refurbed a place in Ilford. Judging by the scrape marks on the walls the roof must have lifted about 6″ when a rocket landed nearby, taking out half a dozen nearby houses. But it must have gone up & down in one piece because there were no signs at all of repair. Shouldn’t think anyone even knew. It had done all sorts of damage to the roof timbers though. Mystery how the entire lot hadn’t collapsed in the intervening 50 odd years

  5. We had to replace a pillar in the bay window in my old bedroom a few years back because the house had been shifted off its foundations by a bomb that landed a few hundred feet away and killed a family in their house. There’s a crack running up the side of the neighbours’ house which is where the blast shadow fell. And when my parents bought the house (in 1978), the window in the kitchen was ‘R’ (for rough) glass which was all you could get in wartime.

    Amazing how long the effects of these things last.

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