Exeter History

[heathy1]

Heathy, I like you. You're an interesting chap.

Was that you at the front of the BB just before final whistle with 2 daughters(?)

Yeah that was me, it was the first time ive ever took both at once to a game and the first time ive stood down the front! I couldnt see anything when the penalty was given!!

 

[heathy1]

As well as the blitz in May 1942,the city had several daylight hit & run raids(as did Exmouth)
On one of those raids my great grandfather was in his allotment opposite South Lawn Terrace & he was machine gunned & killed by a low level raider...

His name might be on the Exetermemories website killed list, it has all the names and more amazingly the ages of all those killed, quite shocking when you read about a 5 year old killed and the words no trace of body are next to it, you cant even start to imagine it, happened quite a few times

 

[C0CK-N0SE]

Bedford Circus was quite a jewel apparently. I don't think I've ever seen any pictures of it though.

Pulled down in the rebuild, though could of been saved.
So much of old Exeter has been lost to awful re-development
Prime example tesco metro/jjb building, what the......?

 

[urinal]

My Dad and his sister also got machine-gunned in Exeter during the war. Neither were hit but they had to dive into bushes to avoid being seen again

 

[Dobley]

I have no idea but I'm always amazed by how the top half of the highstreet took such a hammering while the target (cathedral) remained largely unscathed (IIRC one corner was damaged).

Luck as to who was flying the German sticks?

I'm pretty sure that I've read numerous accounts of World War II pilots (not nesseccerily of the Exeter Blitz) who purposefully avoided cathedrals and the like out of supertition or religous beliefs.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

His name might be on the Exetermemories website killed list, it has all the names and more amazingly the ages of all those killed, quite shocking when you read about a 5 year old killed and the words no trace of body are next to it, you cant even start to imagine it, happened quite a few times

Yes,my father has checked & he is on the list....

The 5 year old & some of their family were killed by a direct hit on a house at the bottom of Monks Rd(i think 182).....I used to live in Monks Rd & a few of the old residents told me the story..

 

[heathy1]

I walked up Portland street after football for the first time a few matches ago and was trying to work out where the bombs fell going by my photo's, wasnt very hard to spot!, also always look at the one house on Park road number 33 I think where a bomb fell through the roof but didnt explode, lucky buggers or not as the case maybe!

 

[newburygrecian]

A priest friend of mine lived at 100 Pennsylvania Road during the war. One night, his bedroom was fire-bombed. He survived as he had flu, so was down in the living room by the fire.

 

[Antony Moxey]

Just caught up with this thread. Heathy, just as a bit of trivial info, the church you refer in your OP - my mum was the last person ever Christened in that church, she was born in April 1941.

 

[heathy1]

I must admit I was quite dissappointed to find that it had just been pulled down for development, I was hoping for a bit more story, like I always wondered about the bit of road cut off from the main Blackboy road near the pub and the laundrette and that disused car garage place and weird brick a brac shop where you cut through to get to the ground, turns out that was the old Blackboy road before the Blitz hit and they made the roundabout after the war, just always thought 'whats the point of that?' turns out theres always a story