Air Raid in Cheadle Stockport

Air Raid Over Cheadle 1940
Cheadle is a small village located approximately 21/4 miles west of Stockport and 15 minutes drive from the city of Manchester. Before WW2 the population of Cheadle was 7,901. On the night of 24th December 1940 (the Manchester Blitz started the night before),

the Luftwaffe approached Stockport from the east. The planes are believed to have been twin-engined Heinkel bombers. As they approached Cheadle, they would have come under fire from a mobile anti-aircraft battery at the junction of Kingsway and Broadway. The target is believed to have been the Stockport Manufacturing Company’s factory on Demmings Lane, Cheadle where it made aircraft wings. Several incendiary bombs had been dropped, but then a 1000 pound landmine was released. These floated down on a small parachute so they landed softly and did not become embedded in the earth. It missed the factory by a quarter of a mile, landing directly on 49 Bulkeley Road.
Ronald Frederick Harrison, lived with his parents, Frederick and Florrie, at 43 Newboult Road - the next but one to Bulkeley Road. He saw the parachute falling and dashed outside to get a better look, before his father could stop him. As the bomb landed, he was in the passageway between 47 and 49 Bulkeley Road. Both buildings collapsed on him. Rescuers managed to free him, but he died, next day at Stockport Infirmary. He is buried in Cheadle & Gatley Cemetery.
Next door, at 51, Miss Nora Jackson, 51, was just collecting her pet bird before going to the public air raid shelter. She was killed instantly and is also buried in the Cemetery.
Opposite, at No. 20, Maria Brookes was hit in the stomach by a piano stool. She died next day at the Infirmary, aged 71, and is buried at St Matthews Church, Hayhead. Her husband, Rueben, was only slightly injured.
At the other end of the village, John Thomas Lydiatt spotted an incendiary bomb at the back of his shoe repair shop at 33 Wilmslow Road. He was going to tackle it but collapsed and died. He was 65. He is also buried in the Cemetery.
A few weeks later, the Luftwaffe was back over Cheadle. About 10pm on 4 February 1941, a lone bomber was heading east from Cheadle Heath. Whether it was chance or it aimed its last bomb at the “Boundary Bridge” area cannot be known. Certainly, it would have looked a good target - two factories near a railway line bridge. The bomb missed the factory by about 100 yards, landing in the back of 245 Stockport Road. In the dining room, Mrs Agnes Mary Roughton Bennison, aged 62 and her daughter, Kathleen Mary Bennison, 27, were sat knitting. They had the ‘flu and had decided to stay by the fire rather go to the air raid shelter in the back garden. As the bomb exploded, it blew in the back wall of the house, decapitating both women. Mrs Bennison’s husband, Walter, was one of the “fire watchers” out on duty that night and had to be restrained from going into the house.
Other fire watchers were also in the immediate vicinity. Robert Campbell, who lived with his wife, Ivy, at 243 Stockport Road, was killed instantly. He was 42. With him, was 39 year old Fred Miller, who lived at 241. He received a large wound to his side and died the next day at Stockport Infirmary. He is buried in Denton cemetery. The other three are buried in Cheadle & Gatley Cemetery.

The above named eight people are all named on the war memorial located in Cheadle Village. Cheadle is one of the few villages which named its air raid victims on the War Memorial located in Cheadle Village.

Information taken from: “Two Fatal Air Raids in Cheadle”, by John H Simmonds, 1992.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu