A Miscellany of Memories: Page 27

Miscellaneous Memories

Mrs. Barbara Evans.

One day just before the war, a plane very much like a Tiger Moth tried to land on the field behind the College Houses. The pilot hit the telegraph line and crashed, right by the railway embankment.

Mr. Hallmark (Mrs. Cornes’ father) was cycling over the railway bridge when it happened, he dropped his bicycle and ran to try and help the pilot, the plane burst into flame and the pilot was killed.

I was told later that he was only nineteen years old and on his first solo flight.

The 12-30p.m. train from Crewe to Wellington had to halt at Tern Hill whilst the track was cleared.

The burnt-out plane was loaded onto a Queen Mary (a large low loader) and taken away that night.

One night I was coming off duty from the Fire Station. It was about ten o’clock. American soldiers were guarding all the entrances to the railway station. An ammunition train was staying overnight in the sidings. The German planes would follow the trains, so at night they used to pull into the sidings and shut the fire box down.

At the parks, on the Shrewsbury road, Wellington bombers and Lancaster bombers were parked during the war. They were all camouflaged. If Shawbury had been bombed they would have had reserve planes. It was called a Satellite Station.

Corporal dog handlers, with large Alsatian dogs, patrolled the planes twenty four hours a day.

On the edge of Tunstall Wood a Spitfire crashed.

Mr.Jim Rhodes.

I remember an elephant being kept overnight at The Village Farm. (where Castle Hill View now stands). We all went to look at this strange animal. There was no televisions in those days, so for most of us it was the first time we had seen one.

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