Most people, wrongly, refer to
the V1 bomb dropping on Gregson
Lane. It actually dropped in Brindle,
opposite Hewn Gate Farm and some
100 yards to Mintholme railway crossing.
The Northern Daily Telegraph
reported that: "On Christmas Eve
1944, Nazi planes over the North
Sea launched several of the missiles
(V1’s) – normally fired from land-bases
across the Channel – at the North
of England. Manchester was believed
to be their target. Another dropped
on the Hoghton area, wrecking two
farm cottages and burying, but not
injuring, their occupants – though
one of the families lost the chicken
they’d been cooking for Christmas
dinner".
The Fieseler Fi 103 / V1 ‘flying
bomb’ was air-launched from over
the North Sea by specially adapted
Heinkel 111 H-22s of the Luftwaffe
KG53 Squadron, based in the Netherlands.
It was one of 45 flying bombs launched
early in the morning of the 24th
December 1944, aimed at Manchester.
At least 15 hit the city with others
landing on Oldham, at Tottington
(near Bury) and one at Oswaldtwistle
near Accrington. The Brindle missile
was apparently the first of this
attack to arrive and exploded at
5.28am in a field behind two cottages
by Hewn Gate Farm, Brindle.
The cottages damaged
by the V1 bomb dropped
on Brindle
What the newspapers didn’t report
was that it scored a direct hit
on a hen cabin containing some 30
hens - the detonation totally destroying
the wooden cabin and no trace of
the hens could be found. The two
cottages close by were literally
lifted from their foundations, inside
the upper floor collapsing and trapping
the occupants - all of whom escaped
without serious injury; the cottages
had to later be demolished. The
bomb left a huge crater in the field
some 40 feet across. The Wilmer
family, who still live in the farm,
recall that all the windows facing
the blast were blown in and internal
doors to those rooms were torn off
their hinges. Also the roof was
damaged and several out-building
had their roofs blown off. Many
buildings in the area were damaged
– from the cabin at Minthome Crossing,
Gregson Lane Halt Signal Box (actually
on Oram Road, Brindle), Bournes
Row, Back Bournes Row and the Black
Horse public house on Gregson Lane;
Brindle Mill at the top of Bournes
Row lost some 500 panes of glass.
In his book ‘Over the Five Barred
Gate’, local historian and journalist
George Birtell reported that it
actually scored a direct hit on
“an outside petty” (toilet). He
also reported that propaganda leaflets
were found around the site. He actually
picked up a sheet of paper, purporting
to have been written by a British
prisoner of War; other ‘letters’
and a magazine was found showing
German women in Paris. The Wartime
Censor kept a lid on the story for
three weeks.
Locals, who still live in the
area today, recall seeing the crater
on Christmas Day morning as they
walked up to Mass at Brindle St.
Joseph’s Church (it escaped the
blast).
As a footnote to the story, at
the start of the new year a specially
adapted air raid shelter was built
for the signalman at Gregson Lane
Halt; like the V1 site, it is also
in Brindle!
