The Rogerstone Directory - History Articles
A little girls story
This is about a little girl of only eight years who was caught up in the worst
incident that happened in Rogerstone in the Second World War. She was at home in
Park Avenue with her family and was, with her two sisters, being prepared for
bed at about nine o'clock on Tuesday 7th October 1941. This was taking place in
what we in Wales call the "back kitchen". Her mother was in charge and her
father was present, but Uncle Fred, a single lodger, was in the "middle room" as
modesty dictated in those days.
Her father would normally have been in bed in a front bedroom awaiting the time
to get up and report for duty as a railway guard on the Great Western.
Fortunately he had been disturbed by a very elderly lady neighbour who was
frightened by enemy activity in the area. His loss of sleep proved to be his
salvation as he decided against going back upstairs instead, using the time
before going to work to peel onions for pickling. It was that time of year.
Her mother at this point went out "the back" to retrieve some washing and,
looking up, saw a parachute descending with an unknown object suspended
underneath. She quickly returned to the back kitchen and the family took shelter
under the stairs. Almost immediately an almighty explosion demolished most of
Park Avenue and damaged many premises in the surrounding area. The object was a
parachute mine and it had landed virtually in our family's front forecourt.
Immediately the wardens attempted to search and account for the residents but as
you can imagine there was considerable confusion in the area with a fractured
gas main on fire in the middle of the street. As a result it was decided to
evacuate the girls through the back garden, in fact there was no other way out
as the front of the house had totally collapsed. This was done and a resident
living in the Uplands took the family to Cross Keys so that the girls were
spared any further trauma. They were looked after there by their grandparents
and later transferred to relatives in Blaina. Unfortunately, their father
suffered a broken leg probably from falling into an open manhole in the back
garden on the way out. The sad outcome was that the Uncle, aged only thirty
three, was much nearer to the explosion and sadly was killed instantly by the
blast. On hearing of the incident in Cross Keys his parents walked all the way
in the early hours to discover the awful truth.
Sixty years on and our little girl is an active lady with grand children of a
similar age to her's at the time of the Park Avenue incident. Memories of the
event remain with her to this day. It was a happy deliverance of a young family
sadly tinged with the sadness of losing a dear Uncle.
The small photograph was taken the following morning and shows on the right the
remains of the little girls home - literally just a pile of rubble with the party
walls of two houses standing up. The larger shot taken at the same time from the
same spot with three dazed residents perhaps looking for their belongings in the
wreckage of their treasured homes.
Both photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of the Western Mail and
Echo (Cardiff).
I have made extensive enquiries to try and identify the three ladies with out
success - if you have any ideas will you please let me know through Susan
Woolford the Editor.
Vernon Morgan - a member of the Rogerstone Local History Group
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