Perhaps it is the two long night shifts this weekend, perhaps the (low fat) breakfast before I crawled into my pit, but had a series of vivid dreams about the Blitz during the day! In retrospect I think the catalyst was the monotonous ringing of the Church bell at 11am, but whatever it was, I dreamt of the destruction of the historic Marples hotel in Sheffield.The dream was visually quite stunning as I even remember the faded wallpaper on the pub wall! and the hairstyles of the women drinkers downing thier stouts!
I didnt know much about the disaster so have just found the following info out!
The Marples pub was a seven storey building with a network of cellars which customers could take shelter in if it became necessary. It was a popular drinking den boasting a full house most nights. On the night of Dec 12th at around 10.50pm C&A Modes store standing opposite the pub suffered a direct hit. The pub customers some suffering from wounds from the shattered and flying glass from the explosion of the C&A building were treated in the pub cellars feeling all the more secure by the fact that the seven storey pub building had hardly been touched by a bomb dropping so close to them. Later that night, customers and other injured were still comforting each in the pub cellars while the air raid continued. Then at 11.44pm the pub building itself suffered a direct hit from a high explosive bomb. The whole seven storey's of bedrooms, bars and lounges just collapsed into a pile of rubble. Its never been confirmed exactly how many people lost their lives. In the following weeks of searching and clearing the rubble there were 70 or so bodies or the remains of bodies recovered, half of them being women and only 14 could be named. The rest being identified through belongings such as watches, identity cards or other such items found in pockets and handbags.
Now where did this dream come from? Not done a tap today when I finally rolled out of bed. Chris has prepared dinner and walked the dogs all day! Nights do have some compensations!
Yeh, I remember this story, too. Perhaps we talked about it sometime. From what I recall (and I haven't done any research here) the authorities didn't bother digging out the human remains - they just quick-limed the place, and built over it. So, the bodies may still be there (as they were underneath the Peace Gardens until they dug them up in 1999 to do the landscaping).
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