People just dont believe me when I tell them that there was a WW2 bomb that went off in Killamarsh.
I was only young and cant remember what year it was, they were open casting Rother Valley Park when they found it in the old marshes.
It was supposed to be a controlled explosion but it was more powerfull than they expected, blasting out many windows on Sheffield Road.
They had put flares up to warn people to get clear, so being young and stupid my friends and I went to see what the fireworks were about.
We were in gardens behind the houses on Sheffield Road on the Rother Valley Side when the blast hit us, it knocked us off our feet. I ran home in tears thinking the world had ended.
Please someone tell me I havent made all this up, it was one very vivid dream if I have.

Hi Tracy
I have spoken to a friend who lived on Kirkcroft Lane at that time and she can't remember it happening, but is going to ask her significant other and work mates, and will get back to me as and when, but so far it looks as if you might have been affected by some fumes from the Tar Distillers.......:suspect:

Well Leigh Environmental was behind my junior school at the time, so you might be right there.

Cheers for your help

wonder if it was in the Leader?

Originally posted by brummy_tracy
Well Leigh Environmental was behind my junior school at the time, so you might be right there.

Cheers for your help

wonder if it was in the Leader?

The Leader's not that up to date with it's news :heyhey: :heyhey: :heyhey:

I worked at the Leader for a while in the early 90's as designer.
Must admit it wasnt that brill even then, you made me chuckle.

thanks

Your memory doesn't fail you.

I was in my bedroom on Rainbow Road, Hackenthorpe and I heard the bang. It shook my windows. I thought there'd been an explosion at Beighton Pit.

I think it was either 1979 or 1980.

Originally posted by Hal9001
Your memory doesn't fail you.

I was in my bedroom on Rainbow Road, Hackenthorpe and I heard the bang. It shook my windows. I thought there'd been an explosion at Beighton Pit.

I think it was either 1979 or 1980.

Thanks Hal9001
Hurrah im not mad after all! Do you know if it was reported in any papers?

Cheers

There is this I got from Hansard, in a speech by Harry Barnes

Mr. Barnes : It is often difficult to claim a rate rebate because of the reduction in rateable values. I shall refer later to when I lived beside the Dronfield-Unstone bypass. When it was being constructed I was given a temporary rate rebate because of the problems that it caused. Such rebates will be ended by the poll tax regime. Whereas in the past people may have been given rate rebates for problems

Column 362
such as opencast mining or mining subsidence, they will not be available under the poll tax. I shall seek to discuss the democratic and constitutional implications of the poll tax in a later Adjournment debate.

The first incident at Killamarsh with which I was associated was the 1986 explosion, which Leigh Environmental described as a fire. The fire and explosion destroyed part of a building housing an aerosol recovery plant. The firm was prosecuted by the factory inspector under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for failing to maintain the safety of its employees. In court, the inspector said :

"Here was an accident waiting to happen."

The firm was fined £1,500--the maximum penalty that could be imposed was £2,000--so the court showed its displeasure by making that decision.

It being Ten o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment lapsed, without Question put.
PETI

I remember that one as well as the WW2 bomb, we all had to keep our windows shut and we were'nt allowed to playout in the field behind the school for a couple of days after it happened.
Everyone wanted to shut the place down after that, there was mothers marches and allsorts of protests, mainly cause it was so close to Norwood Junior school (where I was).
They blamed alot of illnesses on it, there was a bad plaque of gladular fever in the kids that year that everyone blamed on them.

Was living at charnock (gleadless) at the time and remember a distant rumble and our windows shaking,my dad informed me that they had blown up a ww2 bomb that had been found.

There was also the powder magazine that got blown up at Westhorpe Pit, but that was earlier, probably in the early sixties. That killed at least one man and possibly two, and another got sent to prison for helping with it.

Does any one know if it was reported in any news papers?
Just want some proof to show an unbeliever.

Cheers for all your info guys

Originally posted by brummy_tracy
Does any one know if it was reported in any news papers?
Just want some proof to show an unbeliever.

Cheers for all your info guys
Dunno if it was in the papers,but(not much help i know) but i think a warning to expect an explosion at the given time was put out on the radio.
Are there any online newspaper archives available? like in the library.

I was at Norwood school at the time of the Leigh Environmental, my mum was part of the protests that took place in the village.

Are you sure it wasn't a year or two earlier? I lived in Frecheville at the time,remember hearing a distant bang and been told it was a WW2 bomb being detonated. However we moved away from Frecheville in early '78.

Originally posted by Dirtydog
Are you sure it wasn't a year or two earlier? I lived in Frecheville at the time,remember hearing a distant bang and been told it was a WW2 bomb being detonated. However we moved away from Frecheville in early '78.
Yeah i would have said it was before '79,maybe even 1976?

Originally posted by deano
Yeah i would have said it was before '79,maybe even 1976?

It cant of been too early in the 70's or I wouldnt remember it so vividly.
76 is a bit too early for me to remember, It must of been around 77-79.
It must also of been a weekend or a school holiday.

Originally posted by liver0806
I was at Norwood school at the time of the Leigh Environmental, my mum was part of the protests that took place in the village.

Mine too, she dragged me along with her on a few.

I had a mate who "borrowed" some paint from Leigh Environmental and painted a farmers barn with it. He had to give the farmer his cash back after it rained, all the paint washed off :)

Originally posted by brummy_tracy
People just dont believe me when I tell them that there was a WW2 bomb that went off in Killamarsh.
I was only young and cant remember what year it was, they were open casting Rother Valley Park when they found it in the old marshes.
It was supposed to be a controlled explosion but it was more powerfull than they expected, blasting out many windows on Sheffield Road.
They had put flares up to warn people to get clear, so being young and stupid my friends and I went to see what the fireworks were about.
We were in gardens behind the houses on Sheffield Road on the Rother Valley Side when the blast hit us, it knocked us off our feet. I ran home in tears thinking the world had ended.
Please someone tell me I havent made all this up, it was one very vivid dream if I have.

You are right, I lived on Sheffield Road at the time, above Baumforths shop. I was at work when it happened but I heard the Bang in Sheffield City Centre. The house opposite ours, overlooking the opencast site had some windows blown out. An old chap opposite us, had his windows blown out and his bed collapse with him in it.

Anyone remember the gas cloud around the same time which drifted from a leak at Stavely Chemicals?. Sulphuric acid I think. It was anounced on the NEW Radio Hallam for all Killamarsh residents to stay inside and close the windows. We were stuck in for hours before the police came with loud hailers to give us the all clear. Then Leigh enviromental came along !!!!! and the rest is history.

Originally posted by Lostrider
You are right, I lived on Sheffield Road at the time, above Baumforths shop. I was at work when it happened but I heard the Bang in Sheffield City Centre. The house opposite ours, overlooking the opencast site had some windows blown out. An old chap opposite us, had his windows blown out and his bed collapse with him in it.


Any idea what year it was?

Originally posted by brummy_tracy
Any idea what year it was?

Well I moved there in June 1975 and left in April 1979 so somewhere in between.

Originally posted by brummy_tracy
Does any one know if it was reported in any news papers?
Just want some proof to show an unbeliever.

Cheers for all your info guys

hi tracey

as a long time resident of killamarsh i can tell you the bomb you speak of was found on the rother valley , it was a ten thousand pounder and the mosborough leader as it was known then reported and pictured it with the bomb squad round it . i am trying to get hold of a picture but with no luck so far if i do get one i will gladly post it on this forum


keith of killamarsh

Thankyou
Id just about given up.
Ill let you know if I find anything as well.

cheers

Originally posted by Lostrider
Well I moved there in June 1975 and left in April 1979 so somewhere in between.

All that time in Killamarsh, yet you still seem to have kept your sanity. :P You were lucky to escape untarnished.:hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

Well I did 26years there and look at what it did to me
.//,#'[#;]..........

Originally posted by brummy_tracy
Well I did 26years there and look at what it did to me
.//,#'[#;]..........

I rest my case :nono: :roll: :lol: :blush:

Originally posted by owdlad
All that time in Killamarsh, yet you still seem to have kept your sanity. :P You were lucky to escape untarnished.:hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

Well not totaly untarnished, I ended up back again in1987 and left again in 1991 (bought and sold two houses in that time) moved next door but one on the same road (identical house) dont ask why. Anyway I should be ready for another return soon!

I never moved far away though, I,m on my 8th house now and have only ever spent my married life living in Killamarsh ,Halfway, Eckington & Mosborough.

None of you are imagining it. The bomb was dicovered on the open cast (Shand) they were about to put it on my Dads truck when it was identified as a bomb. It was detinated at about 6o'clock that night.

Originally posted by LisaMarie
None of you are imagining it. The bomb was dicovered on the open cast (Shand) they were about to put it on my Dads truck when it was identified as a bomb. It was detinated at about 6o'clock that night.
Sure i remember it going off around lunchtime,could be wrong though,i was outside the newsagents on charnock at the time,and vividly remember the shop window shaking,think it must have been in the school hols also,for me to be outside the shop at the time.
Could be wrong though,it was a long time ago.

Originally posted by deano
Sure i remember it going off around lunchtime,could be wrong though,i was outside the newsagents on charnock at the time,and vividly remember the shop window shaking,think it must have been in the school hols also,for me to be outside the shop at the time.
Could be wrong though,it was a long time ago.

It must have been before 4.30. Cos I was at work in Sheffied when it went off (see earlier post) and I finished at 4.30pm in those days.

I thought it was midday as well, my mum used to work nights and was still in bed, she used to get up 3.00 ish.
so it must of been before 3.00.

Any ideas of date? it must of been school holidays. Too many kids around.

Well we must have had our tea a lot earlier in those days.... its just that I remember standing on our garden looking over at the Opencast, not as many overgrown trees to block our view in those days. Think it was 1978, not sure. Dad sadly not here anymore or would have asked him. Its his claim to fame!!!

I was living in Killamarsh on Station road at the time, I was about 7 and I recall many shop windows on Bridge street were blown out by the explosion, I remember having been kept indoors and hearing the not so distant rumble, Im not too sure if the resultant explosion caused the area later known as 7 hills which was popular with off road bikers and bmx riders or if that was a separate thing altogether....

i remember the blast i was living on castle hill at eckington i was 5 years old in 1979,it shook our green gate at the side of our house when the bomb went off.
paul

:help::help::help::)

The 2,200lb unexploded bomb, found in the Meadowgate opencast site (now the fishing lake in the Rother Valley Park) shattered the peace on Saturday November 26th 1977 when it was detonated by the Royal Engineers, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Caterham, Surrey. The five foot "Herman" type bomb was unearthed by an excavator on Friday November 25th and detonated at 4.45 on Saturday afternoon. The Blast was felt as far away as Chesterfield and Sheffield. I was nearby

The bomb was actually a 4,000 pounder but only half the charge could be removed safely....This is the actual excavator (loading shovel..CAT 992) that dug it up...


http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh250/cat657/img018.jpg
:D