Bomb exploded at Chapmore End in 1984

Army called in to detonate World War II bomb

By Pam Cross

My husband had just left with the children to go camping for a few days when I heard a loud bang at my house in Bengeo. I was really frightened – as you are when it’s anything to do with your family. A neighbour went to investigate and told me the army was there and had detonated a bomb at Chapmore End. Luckily my husband was one of the last cars to have been let through before the explosion.

It was a World War II bomb that must have been uncovered whilst they were excavating at the gravel pits there.

If anyone knows any more about this incident or about any other bombs dropped in the area please add a comment below or add a new page.

This page was added on 19/04/2010.

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  • My family moved to the Avenue Bengeo in 1960 and my brother and I used to cycle around the crater above the tunnel. Many years later my wife Gina’s grandmother confirmed what had caused it, as the blast wave blew chimney soot all over her in her house in Molewood Road. The North end face of the tunnel is also shortened by some 40 metres, I don’t know if this was from another bomb strike or not

    By Mike Hembra (05/06/2019)
  • The crater next to the footpath going down to Molewood was from a V1 flying bomb that came down late summer 1943. The blast blew off the back door of our house in The Avenue, and broke several windows. I was just a few months old at the time and apparently I was asleep in my pram in the garden and slept through it. The closest house had only just been built for Mr and Mrs Newell, and the blast blew the roof off. George Newell was a surveyor, and later became the County Surveyor at County hall when my father was County Architect. I think there was possibly a picture in the local paper.
    The bomb came down almost directly over the Molewood railway tunnel which it is believed members of the royal family sometimes sheltered in during the blitz, in the royal train. I once walked through the tunnel with a couple of chums – it’s not very long but it’s on a curve so you can’t see if a train is coming!
    The crater disappeared when the old gravel pit area was enlarged for some new houses in around 1990

    By Jonathan Fardell (27/02/2018)
  • Unfortunately this is not the bomb I was talking about. There was/in a footpath going from Cowper Crescent to Molewood Road and it was on the left hand side going down the hill.

    By Sheila (25/11/2010)
  • As a child in the 1950s we would often walk along a path in Bengeo where there was a large crater, probably caused by a bomb. Does anyone have any pictures please?

    By Sheila (24/11/2010)