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Priory Road Uxb May 2017

Astoness said:
UXB discoverd in priory road aston
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We had two unexploded bombs fall near our house. The first made a hole in the pavement at the bottom of the road and people in houses near it had to go to relatives. All the kids in the street still had to go to school and when we came home the bomb had gone leaving just a hole for us to look in.
The second bomb dropped in the road next to us and everyone in that road had to get out and stay in our school and we had the day off. With nothing to do we decided to creep through the back gardens to have a look at the German bomb. The road was deserted so we crept up to a large stack of sandbags on someone's front garden and saw the bomb through a gap partially embedded in a lawn.
 
What was at the location at which the bomb fell in the 1940s, anyone know? Now it is some sort of construction site, but where did it fall on the 1940s map? Residential or industrial area or waste ground?

Maurice
 
My sister in law Edna lived in Priory Rd when she married in 1959 for 15 years blissfully unaware of a UXB nearby (now lives near me in Chelmsley Wood). Eric
 
hi eric its amazing to think of what is beneath our feet...fancy your sister living so close to the UXB..do you know what number she lived at?

hi maurice i have posted links but according to where the red circle is on the mail site pinpointing the location of the bomb it looks to be between a row of houses and the priory works shown below,,according to reports the site has never been devoloped

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=52.5072&lon=-1.8710&layers=6&b=1
 
Hi astonb6, my office is just inside the cordoned-off area so I couldn't go to work today. It's a big b..... isn't it? 500lb I think. Who knows what else is down there that hasn't been unearthed. Were they aiming for the factories or the city centre do you think?

devonjim -sorry, I can never tell where I am on those aerial shots. All I know is it's down the Lichfield Road, coming from Spaghetti, to the King Edward VII, lovely pub they have just demolished, fork right, towards Aston Villa and it's down there. We travel on the train a lot and we've remarked on the amount of excavation that's been going on between Priory Road and the railway line.
 
looking at the map the viaduct is very close pen...so a day off for you today..bet thats upset you lol

lyn
 
Thanks, Lyn, that was a bit of luck, effectively waste ground. And I see according to your map there is a "Tank"guarding it! :) Sorry, couldn't help that! :) :) :)

Maurice
 
maurice i checked the barra site and no reports of injuries or deaths for priory road so yes a lot of luck

lyn
 
thanks froth see post 225 re priory works...ive been mulling this over and taking into account that there were houses in priory road i cant see how a bomb that size can land un noticed and be left there...i think erics sister in law and others were very fortunate that the bomb did not go off when they were living in priory road..
 
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I missed post 225.
I thought that about the bomb, it would have made a big hole even if it didn't explode. It would have done considerable damage to them houses if it had exploded.
 
Apparently they're going to do a controlled explosion in situ so I'm waiting for the big bang.Would there be one? Last I heard they are building a cocoon of sand around it.
 
Frothblower said:
I missed post 225.
I thought that about the bomb, it would have made a big hole even if it didn't explode. It would have done considerable damage to them houses if it had exploded.
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it certainly would have froth...

pen looks like its too dangerous to move the bomb then...i dont know about these things even though i used to watch danger UXB:D but i would think that if its encased in sand that would muffle the noise but it will be interesting to see just how loud it is...i am waiting for eric to ask his sister in law what number she lived at in the 1950s ive got a feeling she was very close to the bomb
 
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They used to let the kids look at them in the old days ....:D:D:D
index.php
 
I want a big bang! to reward us for all the chaos on the roads we've had to endure over the last two days
 
i just find it fascinating that the horrors of the blitz have been bought to mind again..i know that back then we did not have the traffic we have now but what a daunting task it must have been for the bomb disposal experts of the day to try and make safe what must have been many unexploded bombs...once again i take my hat off to all who lived through it..
 
just read that an attempt will be made to make the bomb safe at 2 pm so not long..
 
The loudest bomb explosion I ever heard took out a block of houses in Bradfield Rd, about 300 yards from where I lived in Grindleford Rd. On the c1947 image below, the missing block can be seen, and I've marked where our air raid shelter was. The sirens had sounded but we usually had about half an hour before the bombers came over and we were still eating our tea in the house when there was an almighty bang which shook our house and a lot of soot dropped down the chimney. The bombed houses were rebuilt and can be seen on Google Earth.
Image1.jpg
Image from 'britainfromabove'
 
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