World War Two

Brindle

When War broke out in September 1939, it was reported that “a busload of expectant mothers” who be received at the Parish Institute in the village. They were evacuated from Liverpool due to the possibility of imminent bombing but after a few days they returned to their homes as things were not as imminent as expected during ‘The Phoney War’ period of 1939 and early 1940.

Throughout the War, the ladies of the village would meet each Wednesday afternoon at the Institute to knit comforts for the troops. In early summer 1940, Brindle Home Guard was formed and the Army set up a camp at Dover Lane in the village.

There were sporadic air raids in the early part of the war and local people built air raid shelters - one can still be seen in the village today.

Locals contributed to the war effort. In 1940, the Chorley Guardian regularly reported on the ‘Brindle Spitfire Fund’, organised by Eddie Ambrose of Tullis Cottage. The village and the local Parochial School also raised considerable sums for War Bonds and National Savings schemes.

When America came into the War after December 1941, American troops were regularly seen in the village – on manoeuvres or frequenting the pubs. German and Italian Prisoners of War were also seen working in the fields and numerous Army vehicles were constantly travelling the lanes around the village.

During the war a man who lived at the end terrace on Bournes Row was arrested by the Police as “a German Spy”. Apparently he painted the end of his house a light colour (allegedly for the German Bombers to see) and a radio transmitter was supposedly found lodged up his chimney; what happen to him was not reported.

Source: Irene Bolton (nee. Makinson), Oak Bank, Brindle

As the War progressed and The Blitz returned to London with the German V1 and V2 rockets bombing campaign, several evacuees came to the village and school in the summer of 1944. Brindle did not escape the flying bombs, with a V1 flying bomb landing near Hewn Gate Farm on Christmas Eve 1944.

When War in Europe was finally declared at an end in May 1945, the local schools were given two days holiday. A few months later on the 10th October, the Parish Council minutes recorded that “a sum equal to two penny rate should be spent on the entertainment of the schoolchildren of the Parish”; this went ahead with ‘Victory Celebrations’ in the village on the 8th June 1946, despite the on-going rationing.

Many local men and women from the village fought in World War Two, including Ralph Power from Prospect Cottage, Gerald Wilson and Philip Stott from Top o’th’ Lane. Ralph Power and Philip Stott are also on a photograph of the Parochial School football team from 1935 - quite a number of them saw active service during the War.

Compared to the First World War, the village paid a light price for its involvement with just three men paying the ultimate sacrifice – Frank Pearson (killed in action in 1943), Joseph Baxendale (died in a Japanese PoW camp in 1943) and Arnold Holding (drowned in the English Channel in 1943).

The Memorials page giving details of the two churches in Brindle records several men who were killed in World War Two who lived outside the village at Gregson Lane and Hoghton. In the graveyards at Brindle St. James’ C of E and St. Joseph’s R.C. churches are a number of graves and commemorations - Kenneth Clithero, Vic Dew and William Jackson (all RAF personnel). Also there is Sgt. Major William Tuson, who was born in Brindle but lived in Whittle-le-Woods; he was killed in action in 1940 during the retreat to Dunkirk and is buried in northern France.