Turnchapel Branch

[Dave_Hooe]

Thanks chaps … There’s a great 1949 photo that addresses Brian’s question perfectly. It shows a single wagon (5-plank I think) parked on the spur right up against the buffer as O2 #182 (still with the SR number) pulls into the station on 23-Jun-1949. The photo can be found both in Tony Kingdom’s Turnchapel Branch (page 29) and in Branch Lines Around Plymouth by Victor Mitchell and Keith Smith (photograph 94).

 

With the single wagon on the spur there would only just have been clearance for the O2 to use the run-round loop (for non push-pull operation), I think.

 

Mike Roach’s excellent photographic records on the Cornwall Railway Society web site allow some detail for the timbering to be marked out. So, from the nose to the buffer there were a total of 22 timbers/sleepers, Figure 83. I can't quite make out the position of the wagon wheels in the 1949 photo relative to the sleepers (due to shadows in the picture), and I haven't looked up typical wagon dimensions either, but the distance from the nose to sleeper 22 centreline comes out at around 51 or 52-ft according to the estimate in the plan of Figure 83. If I can find likely wagon dimensions, it would be possible to mark the wagon on the spur and check the clearance.

 

Cheers, Dave

 

Edited January 7, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[Nearholmer]

I read that little spur not to be a siding at all, but a trap, so the fact that a wagon could be squeezed into it was probably just luck, rather than intent.

[Dave_Hooe]

Yes, indeed, Kevin!  Definitely there for safety reasons.

 

It did cross my mind as to whether having a wagon on the spur might actually quite have been best practice. I suppose that the track at that end was fairly flat, despite the 1-in-80 downward gradient from the signal box to Turnchapel Wharves. So perhaps there would be no risk of the wagon running backwards onto the points in the loop. It’s not clear what the wagon was there for in the 1949 photo, but it looks to have been carrying some kind of equipment, perhaps akin to an electrical transformer.

 

I’ve only ever come across one photo of the loop in actual use. This is on page 238 of The Okehampton Line… by John Nicholas and George Reeve and shows a B4 (30102) pulling an assortment of open and covered goods wagons in May-1951 from Turnchapel Wharves and about to leave the loop and cross onto the bridge.

 

Makes me wonder whether traffic to and from Turnchapel Wharves or the Air Ministry sidings would have been routinely directed around the loop rather than through the platform line. If so, then I suppose the loop was effectively also a passing loop and the spur at its bridge end was really quite an important safety feature (?).

[Dave_Hooe]

On the subject of operational manoeuvres at Turnchapel, a short note in a 1931 newspaper hints at problems operating a service with a tender locomotive:

 

TURNCHAPEL BREAKDOWN

 

City-bound passengers from Turnchapel, Oreston and Plymstock were subjected to some delay by the breakdown early yesterday morning of one of the engines which work on the branch line. To deal with the situation an ordinary passenger engine with tender had to be requisitioned, and at first there was some little difficulty at the Turnchapel end when the return journeys had to be commenced.

–– Western Morning News, Wednesday 30-Dec-1931

 

Not sure why that would have been and whether there would have been any particular difficulty with the locomotive using the run-round loop.

 

I hope to post some more on track detail in a week or two.

[Dave_Hooe]

Here is some extra detail for the trackwork at the east end of Turnchapel Station (Figure 84).

 

I’ve not been able to locate any engineer’s drawings for the Station to date, so the layout in Figure 84 is based on estimates from maps combined with more precise information taken from the housing development survey for the Station site discussed in earlier posts (Plymouth City Council planning application reference 11/01250/FUL) as well as analysis from available photographs.

 

 

The best fit turnout combination for the east end of the Station (at least in my hands) was achieved in Martin Wynne’s Templot2 by modelling an REA C9 turnout for the passing loop coupled with an REA A5 turnout for the trap. This seems to give a good match to the available photographic record, with some of the most detailed photographs being those taken by Mike Roach (in 1961) and hosted on the Cornwall Railway Society website.

 

Excellent photographic detail is available for much of the platform loop too, allowing track panels to be defined relative to platform and other Station features. Starting from the toe of the sand drag at the west end of the platform loop and working towards the east end loop turnout, the platform loop structure was as follows (fishplates indicated by letters in parenthesis):

 

9-sleepers [A] 15 sleepers 18 sleepers [C] 19 sleepers [D] 18 sleepers [E] 18 sleepers [F] 18 sleepers [G]

 

Five of the track panels––BC, CD, DE, EF and FG (with only the latter detailed in full in Figure 84)––are likely to have been based on regular 45-ft rail lengths with 18 sleepers per panel. Similar 45-ft rail track panels were also used at Oreston Station, albeit that the track there was straight rather than curved. There is one odd feature in the CD track panel, however, where a 19^th sleeper was present, squeezed in close to fishplate ‘D’.

 

Site analysis suggests a more or less constant radius for the track between fishplates ‘B’ and ‘F’. Using the north east corner of the bridge parapet as a datum (x,y = 0,0), a reasonable estimate for the platform loop centreline is provided by an arc of radius 1046-ft from an origin at x,y = 46.3-ft,1030-ft relative to the parapet datum. From this arc origin (x,y = 46.3-ft,1030-ft) bearings to the track panel junctions are as follows:

[F] 190.910°

[E] 193.369°

[D] 195.828°

[C] 198.287°

200.747°

 

Passengers accessed the platform via the ramp at the east end of the Station. Photographic records show that the bottom of the ramp was close to the sleeper numbered -6 in the FG track panel shown in Figure 84. The top of the ramp was close to sleeper -14 in this same FG track panel. (The sleepers and timbers in Figure 84 have been numbered with respect to the nose of the trap turnout on timber #1.) Bearings for the bottom and top of the platform ramp, taken from the platform loop arc origin (x,y = 46.3-ft,1030-ft), are as follows:

[ramp bottom] 189.500°

[ramp top] 191.020°

 

The estimated length of the platform ramp is approximately 20-ft.

 

The point rodding ran along the inside of the platform loop (at the base of the platform) in the latter years of the line. The coupling mechanism for the east end trap lay close to fishplate ‘F’, just in front of a 3-ft 6-in wide recess beneath the platform, which is marked with a purple rectangle in Figure 84. There were seven of these recesses introduced beneath the platform in work that was carried out on the Station in 1939 (cf. discussion thread post #47 and Figure 23b). The stretcher bar at the toe of the east end trap was located between timbers numbered -18’ and -19’ in Figure 84. The coupling link passed beneath the platform loop between the sleepers numbered -17 and -18, with fishplate ‘F’ positioned between the sleepers numbered -16 and -17.

 

In summary, excellent photographic detail is available for much of the trackwork at the east end of the former Turnchapel Station. A combination of REA A5 and REA C9 turnouts seems to provide a very good fit for the east end trap and passing loop turnout respectively. The nose for the former was located on the timber defined as #1 in Figure 84 and the nose for the latter on timber #9. A signature feature of the trackwork here was a long continuous check rail on the inside of the platform loop line, running between timbers #1 and #30, thus extending into the space between the stock rail and the switch heel for the east end loop turnout. This long check rail was a feature of the pre-war trackwork as well as the post-war state. The east end trap, however, was originally present as a single catch, with installation of the full trap and buffered spur occurring sometime between 1939 and 1949. One area that is not very clearly defined is the toe of the east end loop turnout and structure close to the end of the bridge. 

 

Corrections, additions and comments welcome––my knowledge of permanent way engineering is limited. 

 

I hope to move on to signal box detail in a forthcoming post and also to chronicle some of the more human aspects relating to events in the history of the line.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[brianusa]

Dave, good to see you back with more info on this line. Its amazing what one learns over the years and the sad thing about it is that I passed by it all many moons ago but too young to know much about it. All I knew were the trains and that was enough for me at the time!

 

Brian

[Dave_Hooe]

Thanks Brian!

 

I'll also see if I can add some notes on the track at the west end in the future, though the available photographic material doesn't quite allow so much structural detail to be discerned.

 

It's interesting that the passing/run-round loop at Turnchapel Station seems to have comprised a more heterogeneous mixture of rail lengths than the platform loop. Photographs seem to show that it included three 12-sleeper panels –– so presumably 30-ft rails –– even in the last days of the line. It's clear that the Nov-1940 bombing destroyed significant amounts of the track, and the burning fuel oil reportedly ran all the way from the bridge to the tunnel leading to the Admiralty Wharves. But perhaps the 30-ft rails in the passing loop were a vestige from older track that was salvaged and relaid (?).

 

It would be interesting to see if there are any Southern Rail records buried some where in the National Archives to fill in more detail for the wartime events at Turnchapel. I've managed to track down some operational records from the near by RAF Mount Batten that cover the bombing at Turnchapel together with the memoires of one of the AFS men (who fought the oil depot fire and witnessed the exploding oil tanks) and also ambulance service accounts that relate to the AFS men who died there. I'll try to dig these out and upload them at some point in the future because they're all very relevant to the history of the Turnchapel Branch. The only Southern Rail records I've managed to locate so far are in SR Air Raid Log Books [National Archives: Rail 648/105]:

 

27^th November 1940

 

[10:20 pm] [From W.] [No 743] Turnchapel

 

At 9-0 pm a number of bombs were dropped on oil tanks situated off Coy’s property, near the signal box. The blast demolished the signal box but the signalman was not injured. The line has been closed between Plymstock & Turnchapel.

 

28^th November 1940

 

[12:05 am] [From W.] [No 743] Turnchapel

 

It is now reported that the bombs were dropped at 8-30 pm. The oil tanks were set on fire and are still burning. The line between Plymstock & Turnchapel is still closed.

 

[11:40 am] [From W.] [No 743] Turnchapel

 

Fire is still raging, making it impossible, owing to the intense heat, to use the station. Parapet of underbridge, immediately the Plymouth Friary side of the station, has collapsed & steps leading from road to station demolished.

 

The signal box frame is damaged.

 

The Military commandeered all ’buses in the neighbourhood during the raid & it was not possible to cover the services between Plymstock & Turnchapel during the night.

 

One Western National Bus was offered this morning and will operate in lieu of train service as required.

 

29^th November 1940

 

[7:55 am] [From W.] [No 743] Turnchapel

 

At 6.43 am the Yealmpton Police reported that the fire from the oil tanks had now spread to the swing bridge, which is the property of this Coy. Plymouth Fire Brigade are in attendance.

 

[11:00 am] [From Western] [No 743] Turnchapel

 

Another oil tank blew up this morning. Burning oil flowing around station buildings from which everything has been removed. Oil has flowed over railway into Hooe Lake & burning oil on surface has set alight swing bridge. Immediate vicinity including village has been evacuated & bus service is terminating at Higher Hooe.

 

[12:55 pm] [From CE] Turnchapel

 

All six oil tanks are now on fire. Station burnt down. Rails twisted. Sleepers burnt. Rails on the swingbridge are twisted and four 54’ timbers damaged. Fire brigade withdrawn owing to danger.

 

 

These log entries, though very terse, convey some of the tension in the unfolding events at Turnchapel from 27-Nov-1940 as well as the damage to the Station and bridge. Presumably the 54-ft bridge timbers mentioned would not have been trivial to replace.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[brianusa]

Most know of the fires and the fuel tanks but not so much detail, whether rail related or not. Most interesting, Dave.

 

Brian.

[Dave_Hooe]

I haven’t had much time to add to these Turnchapel Branch pages of late but, as today is Remembrance Sunday, perhaps now is a fitting point to pick up the theme from post #107 and expand the historical record relating to the Nov-1940 bombing before returning to track and signal box detail etc. I’ve gathered together some historical accounts that record the Nov-1940 bombing and impact on the local community around Turnchapel Station to add in the next few posts. There are places where the records are not quite accurate or need some commentary, and so I’ve annotated them in the posts that follow. 

 

The first account (below) is quote from Bernard Darwin’s 1946 book, War on the Line – the Story of the Southern Railway in War-Time. In a description of events at Plymouth, Mr Darwin recorded the following:

 

“First then let us go to the little station of Turnchapel, where in November, 1940, there was fought an extraordinary and long drawn out battle against fire. Some description of the battlefield is necessary to the understanding of it. Turnchapel is on a branch line from Plymouth Friary Station which crosses by a three span bridge an inlet of Cattewater, called Hooe Lake. There is only one platform, at the back of which is a high rocky bank. Behind this bank is a hollow in which are several Admiralty oil tanks. On the opposite side of the track is another bank a good deal lower, and beyond this is land occupied by the RAF. After passing through the station the line runs to a tunnel communicating with the Admiralty Depot.

 

“On the night of November 27th a German plane dropped four bombs: two fell harmlessly in the lake, one on the bridge, and one on an oil tank behind the rocky bank [NOTE 1]. The bomb on the bridge damaged the parapet and the signal box, and buried the signalman under the ruins of a shelter[NOTE 2], from which he was dug out unhurt. The oil tank burst instantly into flames. The fire raged all through the night, and a signalman and a porter seeing the danger to the station saved all the records at considerable risk to themselves. Next day the heat was so great that the water from the hose pipes evaporated before it could reach the flames, and deadly fumes made the work of fire fighting exceedingly dangerous. And then on the night following, that of Friday the 29th [NOTE 3], the other tanks joined in the fray. The oil in them boiled over, and one exploded, scattering burning oil in all directions. Three AFS men were killed [NOTE 4], and the others saved themselves by jumping into the water.

 

“The blazing oil poured in a torrent over the rocky bank and down on to the station, obliterating it on the instant. it was like a living and malign thing, a river of fire struggling and tossing to break its way out from between its banks. It flooded the track for a length of 150 yards; it ran on to the bridge in one direction, and as far as the tunnel in the other. It climbed and crossed the lower bank on the further side of the track and so invaded the RAF, but luckily did no harm there. Next it fell on to the road leading to the station, flooded that and flowed on into the other river - of water. The channel is here 100 feet wide, but the oil took that in its fiery stride and set alight to a timber yard on the far side. Some of the blazing timber was thrown into the water and the rest was moved and saved.

 

“It was not till the night of Sunday, December 1st, that the fire was at last put out. The station buildings had vanished, lamp standards and automatic machines survived as cripples, furiously twisted by the flames; the rails of the track were bent into fantastic shapes and the signal box which had partially withstood the bomb was now utterly destroyed. Yet in under a fortnight there was a temporary signal box and a newly laid track and freight trains were running; by the 16th passenger service was again normal.”

— from Bernard Darwin, War on the Line – the Story of the Southern Railway in War-Time(first published 1946, reprinted 1984; Middleton Press, ISBN 090652010X)

 

[NOTE 1] For location map see Figure 1 (earlier post). Detailed pictures of the oil fuel compound and a description of the oil tanks has been given in preceding posts.

 

[NOTE 2] The location of the shelter is currently unknown and is not marked on the maps, but the position of the signal box that was destroyed is shown in Figure 85. For the station steps to have been demolished (as per SR records – see post #107), the second bomb strike was most likely just off the end of the bridge on the northern side of the line, as marked in Figure 85. 

 

[NOTE 3] Slight date mix up here. After the bombing on the Wednesday evening (November 27^th) the fire fighting continued all through Thursday and the following night (November 28^th), with the first tank eruption occurring at around 05:30 on the morning of Friday 29^th. It was in this eruption that the two AFS men were killed.

 

[NOTE 4] Two AFS men were killed (not three) –– John Callicott and Robert Widger. Local newspaper records are given in later posts. 

 

 

 

 

[Dave_Hooe]

The next account of the Nov-1940 bombing (quoted below) was recorded in H P Twyford’s 1945 book, It Came to Our Door. H P Twyford was war correspondent for the local newspapers, the Western Morning Newsand the Evening Herald. A revision of this book by local historian Chris Robinson was published in 2005 (Pen & Ink Publishing, ISBN 0954348036).

 

Contemporary newspaper accounts of the events were not able to cover the damage to Turnchapel Station itself and the military facilities, but they did record some of the collateral damage and deaths in the local community; these accounts are given in posts that follow.

 

“Intermittent raids during about eight hours of last night resulted in Plymouth having its first big air raid fire — the oil tanks at Mount Batten [NOTE 1]. The fire lasted five days. The trouble started about 7-30 [NOTE 2] last evening, when an enemy machine, flying through heavy barrage, swept low over the city end dropped four flares. These were slightly to the west of Mount Batten. Almost immediately one of the big hangars at Mount Batten was set blazing by a high explosive. This made the Air Station the target for the night. Within a few minutes another bomber, screaming down on this target got a direct hit on one of the oil tanks [NOTE 3].

 

Immediately there was started a conflagration which was to keep Plymouth very uneasy for the next few days. The city and surrounding district were illuminated in the lurid glare from this fire, which, looked down on from the surrounding heights, was like a Dante's Inferno. It was so light from this fire at night people on the Barbican and on the Hoe could easily read their watches.

 

This blaze naturally attracted further attacks and many more bombs were plastered on the district. Oreston, Turnchapel, Plymstock, the Cattewater, the Barbican even as far away as Peverell and Crownhill, all came into the attack.

 

One Sunderland flying-boat at its moorings caught fire and was burnt out [NOTE 4]. Ten people were killed at Oreston [NOTE 5], where four houses were demolished. All that was left of two families were the two husbands, both of whom were injured and taken to hospital [NOTE 6]. In Plymouth two men were killed and two seriously injured. It was estimated that more than one hundred German aircraft were engaged in this raid. It was also considered that about one hundred tons of bombs and thousands of incendiaries were dropped. The incendiaries came down in such showers that Staddon Heights looked at from a distance was like a fairyland. What with these, the shriek and crash of high explosives, the shattering fire of the anti-aircraft guns and this night was the most fantastic and fearsome that Plymouth had yet experienced [NOTE 7]. The blaze at the tanks continued and extended during the next day, when, in fighting this fire battle, two Plymouth members of the Auxiliary Fire Service lost their lives and four others were injured. Special “foam” appliances were sent down from London.” [NOTE 8]

— from H P Twyford (revised Chris Robinson), It Came to Our Door (Pen & Ink Publishing, ISBN 0954348036)

 

[NOTE 1] The ‘oil tanks at Mount Batten’ noted here is actually a reference to the Admiralty oil fuel tanks at Turnchapel.

 

[NOTE 2] The commencement of the air raid (18h27 on Wednesday November 27^th, 1940) is very clearly documented, but accounts differ as to the when the oil tanks were actually hit, as will be evident in the posts that follow.

 

[NOTE 3] The direct hit was probably Tank ‘E’ (Figure 85).

 

[NOTE 4] See also detail in next post (RAF Operations record book). 

 

[NOTE 5] The ten people who died were in Hooe (not Oreston); the location of the houses that took the hits is described in the posts that follow. 

 

[NOTE 6] The two men referred to here were Mr Charles and My Burgoyne of Fanshawe Cottage, Hooe. 

 

[NOTE 7] This raid, in which Turnchapel Station was destroyed, stood out in the wartime history of Plymouth because it presaged the blitz that destroyed Plymouth City Centre in Spring 1941. It’s difficult to appreciate the intensity of the raid on 27-Nov-1940, but, as we’ll see in later posts, the hail of falling shrapnel led the Burgoyne and Charles families in Hooe to stay in their shared house (instead of heading for a shelter), a decision that was to cost them their lives. This particular raid was to become etched into the memories of the Plymouthians who experienced it. Indeed, the orange glow at night (Twyford’s ‘lurid glare’) is one of my own dad’s earliest memories as a very young boy growing in the Greenbank area of the city.

 

[NOTE 8] Chris Robinson’s book also includes a number of photographs related to this air raid. One of these, taken (after the fire had been extinguished) from the NW corner of the naval fuel oil compound (with Bayly’s timber yard in the background) shows the crumpled remains of Tanks ‘A’ and ‘E’. The heat-softened steel plates of the tanks are severely buckled. Interestingly Tank ‘B’ is seen to be largely intact in this photo. One local source, who was a lad of 12 at the time, remembers climbing Burrow Hill in Plymstock to look out across the burning oil depot at Turnchapel. This gentleman commented that one of the tanks was indeed left more or less intact after the fire––it may have been water filled he thought––and seemed ‘merely to boil’ (so possibly Tank ‘B’); his dad worked for a petrochemical company operating on the Plymouth side of the Cattewater and they were worried about the blazing oil crossing the Cattewater to the Cattedown side. This same gentleman also recollected seeing a high-flying aircraft circling the area the day before––possibly on a pre-raid reconnaissance. A number of Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance photos of the area surfaced after WW2, and show that naval fuel oil depot next to Turnchapel Station was a marked target. One (grainy) example is shown in Figure 86. Another (clearer) example is also available from coloptics.com, where the six oil tanks of the Admiralty installation can be seen in crisp detail together with the relatively newly constructed Air Ministry rail sidings compound; the path of the Turnchapel Branch all the way to Plymstock and over the Laira Bridge is clearly discernible in the coloptics.com image.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave_Hooe]

Local resident, Henry J Hurrell, recorded the Nov-1940 bombing and other wartime events in his diary, including the damage to Turnchapel Station and its hasty reconstruction:

 

“3^rdSeptember, 1939: Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany at 11:15.”

 

“2^ndJune, 1940: Arrival of 600 French and other troops from Dunkirk at Turnchapel Station.”

 

“26^thAugust, 1940: 13 high explosive bombs and 15 incendiaries dropped in Hooe. Damage done to two of Mr Rowe’s flats and craters in fields from Stadden to Hexton Hill.”

 

“5^thOctober, 1940: Air raid shelters erection commenced at Hooe.”

 

“27^thNovember, 1940: One alert at 3.50 p.m. and one raid from 6.30 p.m. till 2.30 a.m. W. Burgoyne’s house and Nos. 5 and 6 of Rowe’s flats down. Bomb craters in Mr. Harris’s orchard, Harwoods and two at Mr. Ball’s. Oil tanks at Turnchapel on fire lasting till Sunday. Damage done to Munt Batten. Two people, Mr. and Mrs. Farrow [sic. Farrall], killed in Mr. Rowe’s flats, Mrs. Burgoyne, Betty and Derrick and Mrs. Charles and four children killed downstairs, making a total of 10 dead.”

 

“28^thNovember, 1940: Bombs dropped at Prince Rock, also Jennycliffe Gate [sic.], also Hooe Church Yard. Voluntary evacuation of children and adults to Plymstock and Goosewell Schools at night owing to danger from blazing oil tanks––one explodes during the night and Hooe Lake catches fire – and two during day. All village evacuated to Plympton at night until Sunday night.”

 

“8^thDecember, 1940: Strong gangs of men working at Turnchapel Station relaying lines and timbers in Station and first part of Bridge, damage caused by fire from oil tanks on November 27^th– no trains since.”

 

“16^thDecember, 1940: Trains start to run off Turnchapel branch line.”

 

–– Henry J Hurrell’s diary quoted in Arthur Clamp’s Hooe and Turnchapel Remembered

 

The house in which the Burgoynes and Charles died was Fanshawe Cottage, sometimes spelt without the ‘e’ as ‘Fanshaw’. The locations of Fanshawe Cottage and Mr Rowe’s flats in relation to Turnchapel Station and naval oil fuel depot are marked on the map in Figure 87. Rowe’s flats were also sometimes referred to as Fanshawe Terrace, sometimes causing a bit of confusion in historical records due to interchangeability. 

 

 

 

 

The dust jacket of Gerald Wasley’s book Plymouth A Shattered City(1991, Halsgrove, ISBN 978841142722) features an iconic image (inset in Figure 87) taken by Plymouth photographer Stanley Green with two young boys looking across the ruins of Fanshawe Cottage towards the Royal Oak and a plume of smoke marking the oil depot fire next to Turnchapel Station. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[Dave_Hooe]

The Nov-1940 bombing took place overnight on Wednesday 27^th/ Thursday 28^thand so didn’t make it into the Western Morning News for Thursday 28^thwhich went to press at 4 a.m. Consequently, the first newspaper accounts of the bombing were published in the Western Evening Herald (WEH) and Cornish Evening Herald on Thursday 28^thand these were followed by Western Morning News coverage on Friday 29^th. The WEH account is given below.

 

A.R.P. Men In Dusk To 2.30 a.m. Raid Tell Of Worst Night Of War.

 

TWO MOTHER, SIX CHILDREN, AMONG TEN KILLED IN SOUTH-WEST.

 

Firemen Fight Blaze As H.E Bombs Fall.

 

Ten civilians—a mother and four children, another mother and two children, and a husband and wife—were killed in a neighbouring village when a South-West Coast town last night had its most intensive raid of the war.

 

The greatest tragedy was at one house, which received a direct hit, and where two families were living. Here it was that two mothers and six children, all under fourteen years of age, were killed, and the two husbands sustained serious injuries. The casualties at this house were:

 

Mr. Charles (injured), Mrs S. M. L. Charles, Pat and Susan (twins aged 2½), Lulu (aged 4), and Pauline (aged 5), all killed.

 

Mr. W. Burgoyne (injured), Mrs. Burgoyne, Betty Burgoyne (14), and Derek Burgoyne (7), killed.

 

In another house in the neighbourhood Mr. and Mrs. Robert Farrell (both about 48) [sic. Farrall] were killed.

 

This raid, beginning about 6.30, lasted for eight hours, and after the first shower of H.E. and incendiary bombs had been scattered over the district from a number of raiding ’planes, fires were started which enabled successive waves of attackers to continue indiscriminately to drop bombs in the same area.

 

The attacking machines were met by intense anti-aircraft fire, and the sky was constantly pierced by the searchlights. Thus harassed, the attack was more or less kept off the town, and it was the surrounding districts, which included this particular village, that suffered the damage.

 

As far as the civil side of the town was concerned there were no casualties, nor was there any very material damage to property.

 

Incendiary bombs were strewn over many residential districts, but very prompt action by the residents and the auxiliary forces prevented any serious consequences.

 

The area surrounding the village where three or four houses were demolished and the casualties sustained had what was described by one resident as an “absolute night of terror” and “the worst I have experienced since being in France during the last war.”

 

The raiders were aided by luck which attended the dropping of their first salvo, for the consequences acted as a signpost for the subsequent raids.

 

ONLY WALL LEFT.

 

The house in which the Burgoyne and Charles families lived was completely demolished, only one end wall being left standing. The rest had collapsed like a pack of cards, and it was under this pile of debris that the victims were buried.

 

In the ordinary way these people had always gone to their shelter at the far end of the garden during the raids, but last night, with shrapnel falling like hail, and bombs dropping, they remained in the house.

 

It was a fatal decision, for the shelter remains intact, and, in fact, neighbouring people found refuge there for the rest of the night.

 

The next house, which stands in its own gardens received the full blast of the explosion, and Mr. W. P. Partridge, who lodges there with Mrs. W. Woods and two young schoolboys[Note 1], told a “Herald” reporter how he was standing at the door and Mr. Burgoyne was also at his door.

 

Mr. Burgoyne invited him to go their shelter, “but the shrapnel was falling all around, and it was too risky. Suddenly there was the whistle of a bomb. I could tell it was coming in our direction.

 

“Mrs. Woods, the two children, and myself dived into the cupboard under the stairs. It saved our lives, for while the windows were blown in, the doors flung off their hinges and the whole building cracked from top to bottom, we were safe. But the bomb had completely wrecked the Burgoynes’ house, and I knew at once it was a pretty bad business.”

 

SHELTER WAS SAFE.

 

“It was a tragedy that they did not use their shelter, for as you see, there it is, standing perfectly safe, and we spent the rest of the night there. I have never known in all the previous raids when the Burgoynes have not used their shelter.”

 

The A.R.P. services and police worked magnificently, although the raid continued and bombs were dropping all over the place, to say nothing of the danger from shrapnel.

 

PATHETIC SIGHTS.

 

There were many pathetic sights at this house when daylight came. Pieces of broken furniture, beds, and even the children’s books scattered about.

 

Some distance away another bomb struck two semi-detached houses, where Mr. and Mrs. Farrell were killed.

 

They had been living in the downstairs flat, the upstairs being occupied by Mrs. F. Bobbier and her five-years-old daughter, Thelma.

 

Mr. Bobbier was away at work. Their neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Matthews, and Sergt. F. Kennard with his wife and three children, were sheltering in the cupboard under the stairs.

 

“We made our own air-raid shelter,” said Mr. Matthews, “and as a rule we went out there. Last night, for some reason, we thought we would stay in-doors. It was a good job for us that we did.”

 

He pointed to tons of earth churned up from the crater caused by the H.E. bomb. The shelter could not be found, and was still invisible, although several feet of earth had been dug away from it.

 

SHE HEARD SHOUT.

 

Apparently Mr. and Mrs. Farrell had been sheltering in the stair cupboard in their house, too, but in this cupboard was a gas meter, which they did not turn off.

 

As the bomb fell and exploded, Mrs. Bobbier heard them shouting to her to ask if she could turn the gas off, as they were trapped and could not get out. She heard no more.

 

Then her neighbours shouted into her, and a moment later she crawled through a hole in the roof, carrying her little girl in her arms. Mr. Bobbier, who had spoken to his wife, said that she thought Mr. and Mrs. Farrell must have died almost immediately after speaking to her.

 

Meanwhile, the other house was very badly damaged. The walls were completely cracked from the roof to the foundations.

 

In the dark Mr. and Mrs. Matthews and Mrs. Kennard, with her three children, aged 3, 6 and 12, were stumbling over broken masonry in an endeavour to get away before any of the debris fell on them. 

 

Eventually Sergt. Kennard took them down to the school shelter in the village and came back to help the demolition workers and rescue squad.

 

Both Mrs. Kennard and Mrs. Bobbier and the children are quite unharmed, though suffering from shock and bruises. 

 

–– The Western Evening Herald: Thursday, November 28^th, 1940

 

 

[NOTE 1] The ‘two young schoolboys’ referred to here are quite likely to be the two boys featured in the Stanley Green photo inset of Figure 87. These boys were lodging in ‘Chantry’ (marked on the map in Figure 87) which is the house referred to as ‘the house next door’ in this WEH article.

[Dave_Hooe]

The Western Morning News edition of Friday 29^thNovember, 1940 provides an additional historical record of the Nov-1940 bombing that claimed the lives of Burgoynes, Charles and Mr and Mrs Farrall:

 

ENEMY ’PLANES OVER THREE S.W. TOWNS

 

Bombs Dropped Last Night

 

PEOPLE TRAPPED IN HOUSES

 

Area Has Few Scars After Longest Raid

 

Enemy ’planes were last night [Nov-28/29]over three South-West towns. 

 

One of these towns the previous night [Nov-27/28]had experienced its heaviest raid of the war, but last night the Nazis were later in coming, and in the early stages did not press home their attacks with the persistence of the previous night. 

 

A.A. guns were occasionally heard, but was not of an intense character for some time.

 

Late last night two high-explosive bombs fell in a residential district of another South-West town. It is believed that some people were trapped in their houses. At the time of going to Press, efforts to free them were continuing.

 

Bombs were heard to fall when enemy aircraft were over the third area, a South-West coastal region, but the location could not be ascertained. 

 

SEARCH IN DEBRIS

 

Explosions Felt Over Wide Area

 

Working feverishly amid the tumbled debris in the stygian blackness of the early hours of this morning, A.R.P. personnel were striving to unearth civilians in a South-West town. Two high-explosive bombs of large calibre concussed with mighty blast over a wide area. A number of houses in an extensive district felt the full force of the explosions. Two people were killed and a number seriously injured. Some were not hurt seriously, and after being rushed to hospital were allowed to return to their homes. 

 

A number of dwellings, however, were uninhabitable. The occupants were taken to an institute. 

 

Four people, it is feared, lie buried beneath the debris. At the time of going to press we were unable to say to what extent their efforts had been successful. 

 

One eye-witness told “The Western Morning News” that he watched the two bombs falling to the ground. 

 

Despite the late hour, crowds gathered to inspect the damage, and ropes had to be run out to keep them in check. 

 

DIRECT HIT ON HOUSE

 

Husband And Wife Trapped And Killed

 

The South-West town’s heaviest raid on Wednesday night lasted from early the evening to the small hours of yesterday morning. 

 

Although the town issued with few scars, eleven people, including six children, were killed in a village in the area. 

 

The town had two more raids yesterday morning, but no incidents were reported. Incendiary bombs fell on two other villages, without any casualties being reported. There was machine-gunning when a Nazi ’plane flew over the Isles of Scilly yesterday morning. Here again there were no casualties. 

 

MANY BOMBS DROPPED

 

In one village in the South-West of England a husband and wife [William Ewart Farrall (48), Lottie Farrall (47); Fanshawe Terrace]were trapped and killed when their house received a direct hit. They were sheltering under the stairs and were unable to turn off the gas. 

 

There were number of casualties in this village.

 

A large number of bombs were dropped on the town in question. One fell on open ground, but did no damage, apart from some neighbouring windows being broken by blast. Surface shelters a few yards from the bomb crater were undamaged. 

 

Others fell in neighbouring fields and gardens and did no damage. The border of one road in the district yesterday bore unmistakable scars—half a dozen bomb craters of considerable size. 

 

In the village which was struck a detached house, standing in its own garden, was shared by the Burgoynes and Charles. It received a direct hit at the start of the raid. The two families were completely buried when the house came down like a pack of cards. 

 

ONLY TWO SAVED

 

Although police and air raid services worked frantically to extricate the victims, only Mr. Charles and Mr. Burgoyne were alive. The remainder of the two families were crushed to death under tons of debris. 

 

Here was an instance where, had the occupants taken their usual precaution of going to their solid shelter at the far end of the garden, they would probably have been saved. It had always been their custom to do this, but owing to the intensity of the raid and the shrapnel from anti-aircraft guns, which was falling like hail, they decided on the protection of the house. 

 

This remarkable act of fate was described to “The Western Morning News” by Mr. W. P. Partridge, who resides next door at Chantry, which also stands detached in its own garden.

 

“I was standing at my door and Mr. Burgoyne was at his back door [Note 1]when the raid started. Bombs were exploding and shrapnel was falling. Mr. Burgoyne called to me and asked if I would like to go over to their shelter, but the raid was too intense and we did not move. 

 

DIVE FOR SHELTER

 

“Suddenly I heard a terrific whistling, and I knew a bomb was going to fall near us. I dived back into the house, and Mrs Matthews [sic., Mrs W. Woods (??) according to WEH account]and two little boys, who are also living in the house, plunged for shelter under the stairs. It saved our lives. 

 

“The bomb fell close to me, and I heard Burgoynes’ house crashing. Our windows and doors were blown in; the walls were cracked from roof to floor, and debris flung about, but we were unhurt.” 

 

A.R.P. workers, police, and Service men worked frantically to get to the trapped families. Daylight revealed a scene of great tragedy, and nothing was more pathetic than to see the remnants of this home, even kiddies’ picture-books strewn amidst the debris. 

 

Yards away another tragedy of the raid was enacted. For it was here as the home came crashing down under a direct hit that Mr. and Mrs. Robert Farrell [sic. Farrall]met their death. 

 

CLIMB THROUGH ROOF

 

They had occupied the ground flat and were trapped in the cupboard under stairs and unable turn off the gas. Upstairs Mr and Mrs. F. Bobbier and their five-years-old daughter Thelma had lived. Mr. Bobbier was at work and his wife and daughter had a miraculous escape and were finally able to climb through the roof to safety. 

 

Neighbours of the Bobbiers Mr and Mrs E J Matthews, Sergt F Kennard and his wife and three children owed their lives to sheltering in the cupboard under the stairs instead of going to their garden shelter. It had always been their custom to go to the shelter, but for some reason this time they decided to stay indoors. “And it was a good job for us,” said Mr. Matthews, “for after the explosion the shelter could not be found, being buried under masses of earth. [Note 2]”

 

–– The Western Morning News: Friday 29^thNovember, 1940

 

[NOTE 1] ‘Chantry’ is still standing today and is shown in Figure 88 together with the site of Fanshawe Cottage, which is now occupied by ‘Wilmin’ (No 5 Lake Road). It’s easy to envisage Mr. Partridge standing at his door speaking to Mr Burgoyne because the doors would have been more or less facing. Perhaps Partridge was watching the smoke from the oil depot fire when the bomb struck (the timing of the bomb strikes is not exactly clear). 

 

 

Figure 88.tiff

 

[NOTE 2] Pictures of the bomb damage at ‘Mr Rowe’s flats’ in Hooe Road are shown in Figure 89, where the photograph shown top right was from an earlier bombing incident on Monday August 26^th, 1940. This earlier bombing explains the newspaper capture on the middle picture:

 

“AT DIFFERENT TIMES. – The house nearer the camera was recently struck by a bomb. Now enemy ’planes have visited this village in the South-West and bombed the house next door.”

 

The pictures top left and in the middle show the collapsed house in which Mr and Mrs Farrall died. They were trapped under the stairs and died from carbon monoxide poisoning from ruptured gas pipes supplying town gas. This prompted a recommendation carried by the Western Morning News sometime later that the public should turn off the gas mains at property boundaries during air raids, to which a somewhat caustic response was made in a letter from a member of public a few days later enquiring how they were expected to do this safely during the middle of a raid.

 

Local historian Ivy Cox had just moved into Mr Rowe’s flats shortly before the earlier bombing on Monday August 26^th, 1940. She recollected the incident as follows:

 

“My sister, who had a three week old baby, and I decided to take a flat in Fanshawe Cottages [sic. Fanshawe terrace]Hooe. We moved in on the Wednesday and got bombed out on the Monday. We went round the sale rooms and bought furniture, but we did not have time to get anything straight. My mother, who had walked up from Plymstock, told me not to be frightened when I return to the flat as a bomb had dropped in the garden knocking the front of the house out but that my sister and baby were alright.

 

“We used to get under the stairs during the raids, and, had I been in the flat that night, the huge pieces of the bomb which went through the gas cupboard and into the bedroom could have killed me. As it was, it missed Nellie and the baby but they were covered in plaster. Some people a couple of homes down were killed by gas in their cupboard [a reference the Farralls].

 

What a sight greeted me when I got home. We had an iron bedstead and the glass from the wardrobe was smashed on the bed and all the coats in the wardrobe had shrapnel holes all around the bottom to six inches up. I shortened the coats afterwards. Our furniture was stacked at the back of Fanshawe Cottages [sic. Fanshawe terrace]waiting for the council to see if we would get any compensation. I think we got 23/-.”

 

–– Arthur L Clamp, Plymstock during the Second World War 1939-1945

 

 

Figure 89.tiff

 

[Dave_Hooe]

Details of the destruction of the Turnchapel oil fuel depot and Turnchapel Station as well as the damage at Mount Batten were kept out of the contemporary news accounts. The only oblique reference to it at the time was in a newspaper headline ‘Nazis Claim Severe Tank Fire At Plymouth’ in The Western Morning News on Monday, December 2^nd, 1940. This was part of a column on damage at Southampton, but there was no accompanying detail for the Turnchapel destruction.

 

Only after the war was a newspaper account of the firefighting at Turnchapel reported:

 

Told Now For The First Time

 

BRAVE MEN FOUGHT FLAMES

 

TWO LOST THEIR LIVES

 

Five years ago last week, Plymouth lay for five days under a pall of black smoke from the great oil fire at Turnchapel.

 

The City’s canopy was seen from many miles away by day, and at night the glow of the flames lit every part of it.

 

Censorship forbade the publication of details at the time and the succeeding blitzes with their vastly greater material damage put this incident in the background.

 

Nevertheless, for the little group of men who strove to quell the blaze and deal with the casualties, no later raid was as vivid in the memory.

 

The siren went at 6.26 p.m. on the night of Wednesday, November 27, 1940. Mr Philip J. Parsons, superintendent of Plympton Rural District firemen, was soon tackling incendiaries at Plympton St. Mary’s School, and later helped at an incident at Mount Batten Air Station.

 

How it began

 

Some time between 7 and 8 p.m. Mr. Parsons was at Plymstock Station at Dean’s Cross when he received a message: “Oil tanks at Turnchapel alight.”

 

This is how he told the story of what happened to a “Western Independent” reporter: ––

 

“I left Plymstock with two pumps and immediately on reaching the tanks climbed up on the wall to find the two tanks nearest the river were burning.

 

“Four other tanks were then still intact, but, not in the same saucer of ground, they were in danger because one of the two on fire had been splintered by the bombs and the burning oil ran out and spread around them.

 

Terrific Heat

 

“It was low tide, but fortunately the Admiralty had built a sump, and we connected our hoses to this and ran them to the steps leading to the top of the wall, about 500 feet away.

 

“The heat was terrific. We had about ten or twelve men, all volunteers, from Plymstock and Plympton, and our first job was to keep the oil in the saucer from spreading the fire to the other tanks.

 

“The only extra help we had to mid-night was one pump from Plympton. Then Mr. Hedley Miller got more from Plymouth. I stayed until 10 o’clock the following morning. Then I went home for about an hour and a half in bed.

 

“We carried on, with additional help from outside, keeping the fire from spreading until Friday morning. Then came the first ‘boil-over.’

 

The Great Eruption

 

“I was standing in the roadway between the tanks and the sea at about 5-30 a.m. when suddenly a huge flame lept hundreds of feet into the air. There was an awful roar and then the burning oil came pouring out over the wall and ran down into Hooe Lake catching two fire boats alight.

 

“Much of our equipment was caught in the oil and two firemen [Thomas Callicott and Robert Widger]who were on the wall playing their hoses lost their lives.

 

“I managed to save the Plymstock engine by cutting through the hose and driving it away.

 

“After this all the other tanks caught fire, and there was little we could do except stand by until they burned themselves out. There was another ‘boil-over’ on the Friday evening, but this was not quite as bad.”

 

The Sixth Day

 

From the Wednesday night until the following Monday, December 2, when the fires were finally extinguished Mr. Parsons had only three of four hours sleep and he was in a state of collapse when brought home.

 

“I can’t speak too highly of the men I worked with of the ambulance men, who gave us grand assistance,” he concluded.

 

Plymouth and District Ambulance Service under their Director (Mr. Hedley Miller) despatched five ambulances to strategic points at Hooe and Turnchapel on the night of the outbreak and the crews dealt with casualties from H.E. bombs in the district as well as with firemen who received burns.

 

On the Road Mr. Miller narrowly missed being trapped by a falling telegraph pole when going for more re-inforcements for Mr. Parsons. One of his ambulances was so nearly bombed near Radford Park that its rear was flung into the air, but luckily it did not overturn.

 

Ambulance men, in co-operation with Mr. D.T.Y. Middleton (Inspector of Petroleum), pluckily rescued the body of one of the firemen trapped by the ‘boil-over.’

 

They also helped, with Plymouth St. John Ambulance nurses in evacuating a large proportion of the civil population each evening.

 

The Ambulance Service conveyed several firemen to the Prince of Wales’s Hospital suffering from burns, particularly after the ‘boil-over.’

 

The Burning Lake

 

The crews of the fire boats had narrow escapes. Some were just coming ashore and had to run for their lives, and those on board had to swim to the opposite bank which they just reached before the blazing oil completely covered the water. The fireboats exploded within three minutes. [Note 1]” 

 

[Note 1] A picture of one of the burnt out fire boats can be found on p 152 of Twyford’s It Came to our Door(revised Robinson).

[Dave_Hooe]

A further eye-witness account of the aftermath of the bombing at Turnchapel was provided in the reminiscences of Mr R F Brookes who served in the AFS:

 

Diary of a Fire Fighter in the Plymouth Blitz

R F Brooke’s A.F.S 1139

(provided by Mrs A E Booy)

 

“I was fully trained as an Auxiliary Fireman before the war started and was called up for Full Time Service at the outbreak. I was stationed at Greenbank Central Fire Station with five others and we had very little to do, outside of drills and cleaning the pumps. There were 11 other stations around the city and if a fire occurred in any part, the crew whose area it was, would attend it in order to assist the Regulars and at the same time gain some experience.

 

“On August 15th, 1940 I was called up for the Army and was put into the Royal Artillery. My initial training was done at Exeter and from there I was drafted to the 264 Battery (Coast Defence). this brought me back to Picklecombe Fort near Plymouth, where I was training as a Gunlayer and also as Medical Orderly for a new 392 Battery. I was just settling down to Army life when the Plymouth Fire Brigade asked for, and got, my discharge from the Army in order to rejoin the A.F.S. I was discharged from the Army and transferred to the Reserve (Class W.(T)T.A.), on November 1st, 1940, having served only 77 days.

 

“In two days I was back in the A.F.S. and also back to my old station and crew, which was being kept as a pool in case any other stations were undermanned through sickness or injury.

 

[Wednesday 27^th]

 

“On Friday, November 29^th[sic. Wednesday November 27^th], Plymouth had a severe bombing raid in which among other damage, Jerry set fire to an oil dump at Turnchapel. I was on day duty and came off at 18:00 hours, and while cycling home the sirens sounded so I had to return to Greenbank.

 

“Bombs were dropped almost immediately and the main objective seemed to be Cattedown, Mountbatten and Turnchapel. My crew were sent to Beaumont Villa near St Jude’s Church [very close to the Friary Station terminus to the Turnchapel Branch]where an incendiary was setting alight to the roof space, and while we were attending to it a terrific gun barrage started. Having dealt with this incident we returned to the Station, and as we arrived we heard several sticks of H.E.s dropped on Turnchapel Oil Dump.

 

“The Oil Dump immediately caught fire and at the same time a hangar with a Sunderland Flying Boat inside blazed up. Turnchapel appealed for assistance within half hour of the tanks burning, so six crews were sent to help. I was sent to another small fire and when I returned had to stand-by until 12:15 hours [00:15 on Thursday 28^th]when 40 of us were sent home until 06:00 hours, when we were to relieve those already at Turnchapel. After only 3 3/4 hours rest we went over to the fire and it was a terrible sight by now, there were two tanks afire [Tanks E and F]and we were trying to save the other four.  My crew were detailed to pump water and cool one of the centre tanks [Tank B or D], which we did until 20:00 hours when we were relieved.

 

“I got home at 20:40 and had a wash and a big meal, which was the first decent meal I had had for the day. Everybody was home and anxious to hear all the day's doings, so I told them the yarn and when I was nearly finished the sirens went again. Back I went to Greenbank and had to standby until 03:00 hours[Friday 29^th]. But luckily Jerry was only on a ‘look and see’ raid so nothing happened.

 

“During the night [early morning of Friday 29^th]an oil tank burst and the flaming oil overflowed the embankment, and this spread over the water burning out the two fire floats and burnt two A.F.S men [Thomas Callicott and Robert Widger]to death.

 

“On Friday morning I reported for normal duties and was given a job as a point policeman for the Fire Appliances which were arriving as a result of a regional help schemes. During that time volunteers to go to Turnchapel were asked for and I put my name down. We left Greenbank at 13:00 hrs. and went to the Oil Depot where we fitted two Dennis pumps onto a Dockyard Lighter and were towed out into the narrow channel alongside the fire. Very shortly another Lighter fitted in a similar way was put alongside of us and life-lines stretched to the shore. [see Figure 90]

 

“We had to wait for an hour for the speedboat and rowing-boat with which we were to pass the blaze with four lines of hose and meantime there was only two tanks left and one of those in immediate danger of exploding. The hose was piled into the rowing-boat and slowly run out as the speedboat towed us along. There was three of us in the boat, and we were working so that one of us passed the hose to the second and he, after undoing the straps, passed it to the third who held it while it ran out.

 

“We managed to get six lengths out and were right near the middle of the blaze when the expected but dreaded explosion came. Flaming oil shot 200 feet into the air and fell on top of us and it happened so quickly I hardly had time to think, so I automatically jumped overboard. I put the boat between me and the fire and hung on while the speedboat towed us clear. it went full speed ahead at such a rate that my boots and glasses were washed away and I was thankful that it could speed as the oil spread over the water and chased us. When we passed the bridge which was burning this time I fainted and let go of the boat, but luckily somebody noticed it and jumped in and saved me.

 

“I told the incident officer that I was burnt on the hands, so he sent me to hospital where they kept me for 4 days. After that I came out as an outpatient, suffering from shock and bad burns on my forehead, back of right hand and left thumb and eventually resumed work on January 6^th, 1941.”

 

– Plymouth and West Devon record Office 

– 3642/3736 Diary of a firefighter in the Plymouth Blitz

 

 

 

[Dave_Hooe]

Further information relating to the Farrall’s who died on Nov-27-1940 and the two AFS men subsequently lost their lives in tackling the conflagration at Turnchapel was recorded in St John’s and Plymouth and District Ambulance Service records for Nov-1940:

 

Wednesday November 27th 1940

 

Mass raid on port etc. Air raid warnings:  6-25 pm “yellow”, 6-25 pm “purple”, 6-26 pm sirens, 2-25 am “green”, 8 hours. A very serious raid. 

 

From Radford Hill to Turnchapel, HE bombs and fire bombs caught fire to oil tanks and seriously damaged some civilian property — many killed — we cooperated with Fire Brigades and ARP First Aid Parties (5 cars dispatched with special equipment staffed by Duty men and men called on duty specially). Sgt Niles and Corporal Bowdern overcome by coal gas, removed to P. of W. Greenbank [Prince of Wales hospital]and detained. From about 10-30 pm to 1-15 am this duty was carried out under constant bombing by enemy aircraft. At 2.30 am 2 cars were withdrawn from the area and at 7 am on ambulance was despatched [sic.]to relieve the 2 which had been at the scene all night. Relays of planes, reported in formation, for several hours. Director [Mr. Hedley Miller]had narrow escape from crashing telegraph pole — then from near bombing about a second later. [cf preceding post: 1945 newspaper interview with Mr. Parsons]

 

Incidents also at Plymouth in St Pauls Street, Stonehouse. {ROYAL MARINE BARRACKS OUT BUILDINGS. R. MARINES KILLED} St John co-operated with Plympton ARP Services and one man (rescue Party Worker Wright) was thought to be dead from coal gas poisoning — resuscitated by St John equipment. Subsequent Hspl Case. 2 Plympton ARP workers also received oxygen etc on the scene.

 

NOTE: about 50 craters between Down Thomas and Hooe.

 

Footnote: Amb Sister L. Farrell [sic. Farrall]of the Co-op Nsg Divn, together with her husband, was killed in the air raid on Hooe. Sgt Niles and Cpl Bowdern of Friary (?)Divn overcome by coal gas while trying to extricate bodies.

 

 

Thursday November 28th 1940

 

GREAT OIL TANKS FIRE, TURNCHAPEL. AMBULANCE DUTY MAINTAINED IN RELAYS. SECOND DAY. 

 

Second bombing of Hooe etc. Manor house caught by IBs and nearby house wrecked (St John car on scene and Mr Drake helped quell an IB) and one woman injured (Hspl Case) taken by ARP services.

 

Friday November 29th 1940

 

GREAT OIL TANKS FIRE, TURNCHAPEL. AMBULANCE DUTY MAINTAINED IN RELAYS. THIRD DAY. 

 

DUTY AT GREAT OIL TANKS FIRE, TURNCHAPEL

 

Casualties: killed in action

          A.F.S. Thomas J. Callicott (at side of tanks)

          A.F.S. Robert W. Widger (in Hooe Lake)

 

At about 5-30 a.m., owing possibly to the collapse of the fabric of one of the tanks, there was a huge overflow of blazing oil which engulfed many fire pumps and destroyed them. The flaming oil flowed into the Hooe Lake and burnt the two Plymouth Fire Floats. Two Firemen lost their lives and the body of one was rescued later in the morning at great risk by a St John Ambulance First Aid Party and the co-operation of Mr Middleton, Petroleum Inspector. The other was taken from the water burnt and drowned.

 

At 5-40 a.m. received message from duty men at fire for more assistance. Extra car with Director sent out at 6-0 a.m. Request received from City Fire Brigade for more help as another engine was going to the fire. A.3 sent 6-11 a.m. Call received from the Director for more ambulances. Mr Rodgman, Lady County Supt. Mrs Balsdon informed and Mrs Parry, Miss Crowle and Mrs Wills sent for Aid Post Duties (staff sent as they reported for normal duty: G. Williams, W. Cole).

 

County Commissioner set up a First Aid Post at Hooe Social Club and many cases were treated. Subsequently transported (12 Plymouth A.F.S. Men, 3 out of City A.F.S. Men and one Dockyardsman – Total 16 & A.R.P. casualty).

 

Messrs H. Cutcliffe and S. Burndett who were on duty at the fire when disaster overtook it had very narrow escapes. Mr Cutcliffe, however, helped one escaping fireman to his feet and helped another from the water. Mr Cutcliffe subsequently needed medical attention.

 

Six ambulances in all responded to the call, and there were in addition some casualties taken from Bayley’s [sic.]timber yard, opposite, by an A.F.S. Van.

 

Fire Supt. P. Parsons of Plympton Fire Brigade, who cut the hoses and saved a fire engine, injured his thigh at this or one of the other “boils-over” during the fire.

 

Saturday November 30th 1940

 

GREAT OIL TANKS FIRE, TURNCHAPEL. AMBULANCE DUTY MAINTAINED IN RELAYS. FOURTH DAY. 

 

Sunday December 1st 1940

 

GREAT OIL TANKS FIRE, TURNCHAPEL. AMBULANCE DUTY MAINTAINED IN RELAYS. FIFTH DAY. 

 

No further information on Hooe/Turnchapel situation, but at 4-14 pm they were called to a fire in a Hay Rick at Ramleigh Farm, Down Thomas caused by an oil incendiary bomb.

 

Monday December 2nd 1940

 

GREAT OIL TANKS FIRE, TURNCHAPEL. AMBULANCE DUTY MAINTAINED IN RELAYS. SIXTH DAY. 

 

 

Fire duty terminated p.m. and last St John Amb arrived back about 6.0 pm.

 

Tuesday December 3rd 1940

 

Hooe Bombing Victims

 

Funeral of the late ambulance sister L. Farrell [sic.](Co-op NSG DIVN) and her husband at Hooe. Large ambulance representation — nurses and men. Brigade flag used.

 

Oil tanks fire victims

 

Funeral of Aux Fireman Callicott 2 pm at Weston Mill. s/sgt Skinner repres. Mill. c/commr (at committee)

 

Funeral of Aux Fireman Widger at Sherwell 3 pm. Co-commr attended.

 

– Plymouth and West Devon record Office 

– 773/15 Plymouth Ambulance Service, Diary (1940)

 

The newspapers carried a number of announcements relating to condition of the casualties at Hooe and Turnchapel in the days that followed the Nov-1940 bombing and fire; they also reported on the funerals of those who lost their lives:

 

HOOE SHOWS ITS SYMPATHY

 

FUNERAL OF MOTHER AND TWO CHILDREN

 

Relatives, neighbours, and other sympathizers yesterday crowded the little hillside church at Hooe, near Plymouth, to pay their last tributes to a mother and her two children. The funeral was of Mrs. Queenie Burgoyne, aged 35; her daughter, Betty, aged 14; and her 6-years-old son, Derek.  Mr. W. Burgoyne, husband and father, is still in hospital as a result of his injuries. The approach to the church was lined with sympathizers, and as the three coffins were carried into the church one of Betty’s school friends, Irene, stood in the porch holding a wreath, attached to which was a school tie. The wreath was sent by the principals, staff, and pupils of Warran’s School, which Betty attended. There was a profusion of flowers, among them being tokens from the scholars of Hooe School, where little Derek was a pupil, and Hooe Church. The two children’s coffins were carried by young boys connected with the church.  After the service in the church, which was conducted by Rev. E. B. Bridger, the mother and her children were laid to rest in one grave. 

 

– The Western Morning News – Tuesday, December 3, 1940

 

William Burgoyne was still in hospital when Queenie, Betty and Derek were buried. He died at the age of 84 on Nov 16^th, 1981 and was laid to rest in the same grave as his wife and children in St John’s church yard at Hooe.

 

Gunner William Farrall of the Royal Artillery (and presumably his wife Lottie) were also laid to rest in the same church yard, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave.

 

Corporal Sydney Charles of the RAF also spent several days in hospital. There were no local newspaper obituaries for his wife and four children or funeral announcements. 

 

The funeral of AFS man Thomas Callicott was held on Tuesday, December 3, 1940: 

 

COLLEAGUES MOURN CITY A.F.S. MAN.

 

A young member of the Plymouth A.F.S., who lost his life in tragic circumstances, was buried at Weston Mill Cemetery today. Rev. T. Iles officiated. A.F.S. men escorted the cortège, and six of the dead man’s colleagues were bearers. Thirty-years-old Thomas John Callicott was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Callicott of 28 Parker-road, Beacon Park. He was employed as a baker and confectioner, and, in August 1938, volunteered for the A.F.S.

 

– The Western Evening Herald – Tuesday, December 3, 1940

 

The funeral of AFS man Robert Widger was also held on Tuesday, December 3, 1940: 

 

FIRE-FIGHTERS FORM GUARD OF HONOUR

PLYMOUTH FUNERALS OF A.F.S. MEMBERS

A detachment of members of Plymouth City Fire Brigade and members of the city A.F.S. formed a guard of honour as the coffin of Mr. Robert Wilfred Widger was carried into Sherwell Church, Plymouth, yesterday. Son of the late Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Widger, well known in the business of Messrs. G. Widger and Sons, Ltd., he was born at Plymouth, and educated at Devonport High School. On leaving he took a course of training in London, and then joined the firm as a traveller. He remained on the staff until September of this year, when he took up full-time service with the A.F.S.  In 1932 Mr. Widger was married at Sherwell Church to Miss Myrtle Roberts, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Roberts of The Gables. 12, Michael-road. Seymour Park, Plymouth. In addition to the widow, he leaves a son, Bernard, aged 6½. 

 

– The Western Morning News – Wednesday, December 4, 1940

 

A decade later part of the bomb that struck the oil fuel depot and initiated the conflagration that claimed the lives of Thomas Callicott and Robert Widger was found when the site was being cleared:

 

BOMB FIN FOUND: Workmen uncover war relic at Turnchapel

An R.N. bomb disposal squad from H.M.S. Defiance was called to Turnchapel yesterday, where workmen had uncovered part of a bomb. Employees of H.M. Dockyard were cleaning the compound which formerly enclosed oil. During the war a high explosive bomb hit one tank and the whole compound caught fire. The squad dug around the body, and seeing it to be only part of a bomb, it was removed from the hole. It was identified as the tailend a 500-pounder.

 

– The Western Morning News – Saturday, June 3, 1950

[Dave_Hooe]

As indicated in the preceding posts, the 27-Nov-1940 air raid that Turnchapel Station was caught up in commenced with hits on RAF Mount Batten, which hosted No 10 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force. There was a close connection between the Turnchapel Branch and the Air Force, forged by the need for aviation fuel to supply the flying boats at Mount Batten. 

 

Aviation fuel was stored in 10 tanks at Radford, marked as a target (‘B’) in the aerial reconnaissance photograph of Figure 86. These tanks were connected by a rather circuitous pipeline to Turnchapel Wharf with a pumping station close to “Sherrill’s Farm” (West Hooe Farm). Local resident, Henry J Hurrell, recorded the development of these facilities (together with a leak and fire) and other wartime events in his diary:

 

“October, 1938. Work commenced at Radford to build oil tanks underground for the Mount Batten Air Force. Wimpey’s of London contractors employing Irishmen.”

 

“23^rdFebruary, 1939: Motor excavator commenced to dig next to Sherrill’s Farm for a pumping station. One building already commenced about two weeks ago.”

 

“April, 1939: Wimpey’s of London commenced to remove the rubble bank by Turnchapel Station to make room for sidings. The rubble used to bury oil tanks at Radford.”

 

 “January, 1940: Early this month work on pipe line from Turnchapel Wharf to Radford completed and tested.”

 

“24^thAugust, 1940: Fire at Hooe Lake, petrol leaking from oil pipes. Special constables patrolling area stopping all cars and pedestrians and cautioning them against smoking. Pool petrol men salvaging petrol.”

 

–– Henry J Hurrell’s diary quoted in Arthur Clamp’s Hooe and Turnchapel Remembered

 

I’ve not figured out how the Air Ministry sidings at Turnchapel (pictured in Figure 23) were actually used or linked into this pipeline, but it’s clear from the above diary account that construction of the Air Ministry sidings was closely connected to the Radford tanks.

 

Although not mentioning Turnchapel Station directly, the RAF Operations Record Book for Mount Batten adds some extra detail for the 27-Nov-1940 air raid to further build up a picture of the events around the railway that night:

 

27/11/1940 [Air raids. 1546 – 1617 and 1827 – 0225 hours]

 

“At 1827 hours the sirens sounded the approach of a flight of enemy aircraft. An intense anti-aircraft barrage, accompanied by searchlights, was directed against the raiders. At 1840 hours the first salvo of bombs, consisting of 4 high explosive, an oil bomb and several incendiaries, was released. Of these, the oil bomb obtained a direct hit on one of the hangars. Aircraft N.9048, which had been beached late in the afternoon, caught fire immediately and was completely destroyed. Explosions severely damaged six Pegasus engines which were on stands in the hangar and other equipment suffered damage. The hangar was completely wrecked by the fire, only the framework standing. The fire was prevented from spreading to other buildings by a party of squadron personnel who also salvaged squadron documents, Orderly Room and Office equipment. There was only one casualty, No. 3902 Corporal WEST. H.A. W/T Operator, sustained a slight shoulder injury. He had been working in the Signals but on the edge of the tarmac and was struck by a piece of shrapnel whilst on his way to a shelter. One high explosive bomb exploded at the rear of the Sergeants’ Mess, within 30 yards of the spot where a high explosive bomb had landed during a previous raid. Damage to the Mess was slight and there were no casualties. One bomb landed in the water practically at the base of the Sergeants’ Mess Pier and two more landed in the Cattewater in close proximity to the station. In addition, several incendiary bombs fell in the water and on the hill above the station. The bomb which struck the hangar damaged the overhead power lines and the station was plunged into darkness. At this stage flights of bombers were arriving over the town every few minutes. Several bombs were dropped in the vicinity of the station, but it was not until 2015 hours that any further damage was done. A stick of high explosive bombs, four of which fell in the Cattewater, caused a fire on aircraft P.9601, which was at moorings. The port wing tip caught fire at first and the fire then spread to the front of the fuselage and along the starboard wing. The flames and the reflection from the aircraft illuminated the whole station and surrounding areas. The aircraft, which finally sank at its moorings with two A/S bombs, 4 depth charges and S.A.A. aboard, was completely wrecked and is awaiting write-off. The two airmen on the boat were only slightly injured. No. [blank]Corporal DOHERTY. F.H. W/T. Op. A.G. who was attempting to slip moorings, was blown into the water by the blast from the second bomb. He was picked up by a dinghy which circled the blazing aircraft. The other airman aboard the boat (ACI PERRY R.A.F.) was also picked up by this dinghy. Two other aircraft moored in the Cattewater (P.9605 and T.9047) were slightly damaged by flying shrapnel. Under the supervision of Squadron Leader W.H. GARING D.F.C. aircraft T.9047 was towed into Plymouth Sound by a pinnace and moored there as a safety measure.At 2108 hours [NOTE 1] a direct hit was obtained on an oil tank at Turnchapel, which is only a quarter of a mile from the station. The reflection from this fire illuminated the whole station and the surrounding districts. This fire eventually spread to nearby tanks and was not extinguished until 90 hours after the raid. An excellent target was provided for the aircraft which arrived later, and the oil tanks were continually attacked. As a result, several houses in the vicinity of HOOE were wrecked and several people were killed. In addition, a number of civilians were seriously injured [NOTE 2]. It was noticeable that the attacks were not so severe from 2100 hours onward. The flights of bombers came over at intervals of a quarter of an hour. At 0055 hours a high explosive bomb exploded outside the station armoury on the main station road. Fortunately the blast from the bomb went seaward and the only damage to the armoury was broken windows. A large crater was formed in the road outside the armoury. From this time onward the raiders arrived at half hourly intervals. At 0200 hours an incendiary bomb fell outside the Transmitting Hall of the W/T Station, Staddon Heights. One wireless aerial was brought down but no other damage was caused. There were no casualties. The all clear was sounded at 0225 hours. This ended the longest and heaviest raid yet experienced in this district. It was later discovered that Staddon Heights, overlooking the station, was covered with bomb craters of various sizes.”

–– RAF Operations Record Book for Mount Batten, National Archives AIR 27/149/23

 

[NOTE 1] There are disparities across accounts about the timing of the strike on the Admiralty fuel oil depot and Hooe Lake bridge. A 1945 newspaper interview (see preceding post) given by Mr Philip J. Parsons (superintendent of Plympton Rural District firemen) indicates that a call came through between 19h00 and 20h00 to say that the tanks were alight. Perhaps ‘2108’ in the operations record book was a mis-transcription of ‘19 08’ during a dictation as ‘9 08’ and entered as ‘2108’.

 

[NOTE 2] National Archives record AIR 28/570 adds that “Help was offered to, and accepted by, the local ARP organisation, from the Commanding Officer, and 2 officers and 50 men were sent to help generally”.

 

The following image from the Australian War Memorial archive, taken on 28-Nov-1940 shows the damage at RAF Mount Batten looking towards the burning oil fuel depot next to Turnchapel Station. The two large buildings in this photo are the hangars (referenced in the text above). These buildings are still present today, now converted for commercial activities. But the railway to Turnchapel is long since gone of course.

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[Dave_Hooe]

Not everyone will be into history –– so please overlook the above slew of posts, if they are not your ‘cup of tea’!

 

I’ve included them as a wider reference for anyone who may be interested in the more ‘human aspects’ interwoven into the history of the Turnchapel Branch, which was closely connected with the Armed Forces operations in the surrounding area. Moreover, today was Remembrance Sunday ... good to remember those lost in the struggle at Turnchapel.

 

There’s much more information to add on the railway line itself, and that may be useful to record in this thread in future posts.

Edited November 12, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[brianusa]

You've outdone yourself this time, Dave!  A lot of historical fact that I knew little of.  Sure, the fires were obvious but the associated destruction and deaths were not, at least to this five year old, so its all been interesting to learn and renew an acquaintance with the area. 

On a railway note, I see there is another small siding shown on the Down side between the station and the tunnel, similar to the one on the other end and looks about the same length.  I've never noticed it before, so is it perhaps a trap, as Kevin remarked earlier?

 

Brian.

[Dave_Hooe]

Hi Brian

 

Yes indeed -- a sand drag was installed at that end. 

 

It’s marked in Figure 91a and would have trapped any errant stock towards the perimeter fence of the original pump house (dark blue) that was linked to the Admiralty oil fuel depot.

 

There was a significant gradient running down from the signal box near the bridge to the tunnel. Working regulations for Turnchapel stated:

 

“The gradient of the platform line, loop and single line is 1 in 80 falling from the signal box to the Admiralty Wharves and attention is directed to the requirements of Rule 151. Wagons left standing on the loop or platform line must be placed on the signal box side of the catch points in those lines. Wagons must not be allowed to stand on the single line between the catch points and the Admiralty Wharves.”

 

Based on the 2012 housing development survey, we can put some reasonably accurate spot heights on the track bed. The spot height of the track bed at the entrance to the tunnel running under Boringdon Road (labeled O1 in Figure 91a) was close to 5.20 m. Spot heights on the track bed at the turnout to the Air Ministry sidings correspond almost exactly to a 1-in-80 gradient.

 

In Figure 91a I’ve plotted a linear 1-in-80 gradient up the track bed from origin point ‘O1’ until it crosses until it reaches the height of the bridge at inflection point ‘I’. I’ve had to guess a bit on the vertical transition curve between the bridge and the 1-in-80 track down to the tunnel. I’ve marked two tangent points ‘T1’ and ‘T2’ for the start and end of this transition curve in Figure 91a (with a bit more detail in Figure 91b). I’ve made the assumption that the transition curve only begins (T1) after the two long switch blades coming off the bridge. This puts the transition curve start (T1) close to the pre-war signal box in fact.

 

I’ll try to post a table of coordinates for the prototype track bed and vertical transition curve that derive from this analysis in a future post.

 

In the meantime, here are a few first hand recollections that reference the Nov-1940 bombing discussed in the preceding posts. 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/16/a4106116.shtml

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/64/a4105964.shtml

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/82/a4664982.shtml

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/79/a6169179.shtml

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

Figure_91b tangent diagram.tiff

Edited November 17, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[Dave_Hooe]

And here’s some more information relating to the track fall from Turnchapel Station, extending to Turnchapel Wharves…

 

Figure 92 summarises some key spot heights:

 

Spot heights at the top and foot of the swing bridge parapet (respectively 7.68 m and 3.34 m) were taken from Barratt’s housing development survey –– Plymouth City Council planning case 11/01250/FUL (cf. post #20 in this thread).

 

A height for the track bed coming off the bridge is estimated at 8.04 m. This correlates with spot heights of between 7.80 m and 8.20 m recorded in the 11/01250/FUL site survey in the area above the bridge parapet, though the ground in that area was fairly rough and may have been modified by post-railway usage.

 

A nominal ground level of 8.00 m atop the bridge parapet is a reasonable estimate. The concrete floor of the former Admiralty oil fuel depot was surveyed (11/01250/FUL) with numerous spot heights at 8.40 m ± a few cm.

 

The spot height at origin O1(Boringdon Road tunnel mouth, 5.20 m) was also taken from the 11/01250/FUL planning survey. (The figure of 5.20 m is actually approximated from two spot heights of 5.17 m and 5.25 m that were recorded on either side of the tunnel entrance.)

 

The spot height for the wharf terminus (3.90 m) was taken from site coordinates included with another planning application (15/00606/FUL) submitted to Plymouth City Council for development of Turnchapel Wharves after it passed from Ministry of Defence ownership.

 

 

Figure_92.tiff

 

Note that the track bed height (5.20 m) at the entrance to the Boringdon Road tunnel was significantly higher than at the wharf terminus (3.90 m), meaning that the downhill gradient must have continued through the tunnel itself and into the MoD compound.

 

I haven’t managed to access survey information covering the ground profile throughout the Turnchapel Wharves compound, but it is reasonable to assume that the downward slope transitioned out to horizontal at least by the point it passed the urinal block, marked U in Figure 93.

 

In Figure 93 the blue track layout is based on a 1953 1:2500 OS plan. Using tools in Adobe Illustrator it is possible to estimate the curved path length of the rail line as follows:

 

Path length between bridge and point O1 (Boringdon Road tunnel entrance) via the platform loop = 274.2 m

 

Tunnel length (between points O1and O2) = 43.2 m

 

Path length between Boringdon Road tunnel exit (O2) and corner of the Turnchapel Wharves urinal block (U) = 122.5 m

 

Total path length between tunnel entrance (O1) and urinal block corner (U) is estimated at 165.7 m.

 

Note that the estimated 165.7 m railway path is more than sufficient to allow vertical transitioning to a flat wharf terminal surface at a height of 3.90 m.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[scottishlocos]

All

 

This is a wonderful topic not my region or era but the past few posts with the actual house numbers that were bombed generations lost and brave fireman has really brought it home especially as it was remembrance day last sunday

 

Dave

[Dave_Hooe]

Following on from the preceding post #121, some photos of the tunnel exit and residual track in the former Admiralty compound at Turnchapel Wharves have been posted by the good folks of the Cornwall Railway Society (CRS). 
 
The images below are from embedded links to the CRS site photographs.
 

[embedded link to Cornwall Railway Society Turnchapel and Yealmpton Branches section. Image © Keith Jenkin.] 
 
The above photo was taken by Keith on 31-Mar-1973 and shows a view of the tunnel exit looking in the direction that would take the viewer towards Turnchapel Station. The tunnel passes beneath No. 6 ‘The Row' on Boringdon Road. Records suggest that the tunnel had its impact on the house above, causing cracks! Thus, a rate surveyor’s notebook in 1901 records the following:
 

Jan 1901

No. 6 ‘The Row’ Turnchapel

Mrs W Greaney Rent £18 T. R. & J.

G Floor

Sit Rm

Kit

In Rear wash ho’

2 coal ho’

W.C.

1^stFloor

2 Rooms

Attic Rm

2 Rms

Poor roof

Walls cracked by Tunnel

 

–– Plymouth and West Devon Record Office 1023/264

 

[embedded link to Cornwall Railway Society Turnchapel and Yealmpton Branches section. Image © Colin Burges.] 
 
The above photo was taken more recently (2017), after the compound passed out of MoD hands. The tunnel mouth is now securely blocked up. House No 6 above is looking in great shape!
 

[embedded link to Cornwall Railway Society Turnchapel and Yealmpton Branches section. Image © Colin Burges.] 

This one was taken roughly from where the old urinal block used to be (marked at point U in Figure 93 of post #121). The reverse spur turnout shown in Figure 93 can be made out beneath the wheel of the blue van. That spur may actually have been a later addition on the original trackwork in the compound. It was not marked on the ADM 140/1484 Admiralty plan from 1911 (cf. Figure 49 and notes in post #56 for additional information on the history of the site). In the 1911 ADM 140/1484 (transposed into Figure 49) there appears instead to be a nascent turnout that had not been developed and that would have curved around at the back of the store houses. In some later maps this curved siding seems to be drawn in, but by 1954 the OS maps (on which Figure 93 is based) showed the reverse spur configuration corresponding to the residual trackwork in the photograph above.
 
 

[embedded link to Cornwall Railway Society Turnchapel and Yealmpton Branches section. Image © Colin Burges.] 
 
The above photo was taken a little further towards the wharf edge.
 
 

[embedded link to Cornwall Railway Society Turnchapel and Yealmpton Branches section. Image © Colin Burges.] 

And the last photo on the CRS site (above) is taken from a reverse angle, looking back towards the village of Turnchapel. Note that at some point the wharf was extended outwards into the Cattewater on the northwestern side (top left hand corner in Figure 93) and a double siding extended backwards towards the latrine block, parallel to this extended wharf edge. This is shown in the Google Maps aerial view of Figure 94.
 
 

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by Dave_Hooe

[brianusa]

This little line must surely be the most researched piece of track on the whole SR system! It must mean a lot to those familiar with the area. Thanks for the effort, Dave; is there any more to come?

 

Brian.

[Dave_Hooe]

Hi Brian

 

Yes, it would be good to build up a reference archive of the Branchline on this thread in a bit more detail, if possible.

 

 

I thought we might try and feature the pre-war signal box just off the end of the bridge in a future post.

 

 

Then there are the 3 large fuel tanks in the quarry immediately next to the Air Ministry sidings. I have a fair bit of information about the nature of those and also some information about the pipeline connectivity to the aviation fuel tanks at Radford. What’s missing is more of an operational understanding of how those Air Ministry sidings were actually used, networked with the tanks at Turnchapel and Radford and integrated into the operations of RAF Mount Batten. 

 

 

It would also be good to uncover more trackwork detail within the Air Ministry sidings compound itself.

 

 

There are some Admiralty/Air Ministry reports on wartime incidents involving Turnchapel Station that I know exist but haven’t been able to track down in the National Archives yet. 

 

 

It would be good to find actual plans of the swing bridge. I have a feeling that some material relating to the Hooe Lake bridge, possibly with plans from the 1890s, may have been archived with materials from the Southampton / Havant area. It would be good to look into that in the future.

 

 

It would also be good to reverse back over the bridge and pay a visit to Bayly’s. It may not be possible to unearth so much detail for the sidings and operations in the Bayly’s yard, though that site would probably also make an interesting modelling subject. I have found some early 1900s surveyor’s notes on the buildings etcover there.

 

 

Then there are the more human aspects from various incidents on the line such as the shooting of two sentries from the Turnchapel train as it neared Laira Bridge in October 1914 and the mysterious death of Margaret Godfrey, a young schoolmistress at Oreston, last seen getting off at Turnchapel one October evening in 1930 and subsequently found drowned at Jennycliff beach.

 

 

So, hopefully more to come gradually over forthcoming months!

 

 

Best wishes, Dave