This is the bomb damage that was caused to Darley Dene in March 1941. The house was then used for fire-fighting exercises and then demolished..
Darley Dene wasn't completely demolished after the war. For some unknown reason the remnants of the front porch were left standing alongside the road for many years; they were only pulled down when Breck Road was widened in early 1960...
Darley Dene was used by the Cheshires. My grandmother lived at 25 Breck Rod. The soldiers would enter her garden at the back and sneak out through her front gate to avaoid their own sentries. They would go to the Pool Inn pub and leave her beer and crisps on the way back. My mother's first husband was on leave from the army and in 25 Breck Road the night Darley Dene was hit. Itg was a heavy raid and indendaries were buring everywhere. He ran over to Butlers Garage to get a stirrup pump but they had let them all out and suggested he went to Darley Dene. He ran over to the middle of the road and saw the land mine come down on a parachute. He thrwe himself flat. The comb in his breat pocket was reduced to dust bt the shock wave. When he lookmed up most of Darley Dene was gone as wasd the roof of 25 Breck Road. The damage to the memorial was caused at this time. Incidentially them memorial was moved again in the early seventies when the new bridge was built . It was west of where it is now. Maybe twenty foot. The dead soliders were laid out in a field at the back of 26 Breck Road. They are buried in Landican cemetery (turn left as you enter and you will see a small military cemetery). two of them are Royal Artillery. They were prisoners un der escort and were lodged by the military police for the night at Darley Dene. Anolther casuality was my mother's cat who used to visit the soldiers. He was never found again.
Thanks for that information tigertiger1953, I passed it on to my Mother some days ago.
My Grandfather was buried in Ford cemetery in private grave with and Army Cross as a head stone, I have visited it in the past and hope to take my 5 Grandsons to see it when the time is right.
Thanks to all that have contributed to this post, we know a little more about it now, I am sorry if I have hijacked the post about the Boode Memorial, it was not my intention.
I made a few errors in typing (how do I edit?) I said that the soldiers were laid out in the field at the back of 26 Breck Road. That should have been 25/27 which was the old Plough Inn but by the date of the air strike on Darley Dene (12/13th march 1941) it had been converted into two separate dwellings 25 and 27. 25 was the original building and is around the side/back and 27 is the Victorian frontage built onto the pub. In recent years 25 has been converted into two flats. Prior to that it had hardly been touched by the 20th century and still had no bathroom and an outside toilet. It also had a history that a former landlord took his own life their around the 1890/s - 1900s. It ceased to be a pub around 1920. It was haunted (maybe still is?) by a large black dog like creature, unexplained pillars of smoke and starnge lights. It had been exorcised a n umber of times in the 1950's.
This memorial is actually quite clear to see at the moment, went the other day, trees are thinning out and not much obstruction. I would say about 75% visible at mo!!
When I was little in the '50s there was a local legend that the memorial used to grow! If it's correct it must be very slow growth, or maybe losing its tip may have stopped it. We all new, correctly, that it was the memorial to a Lady who fell from her coach.
We lived in the hiouse directly opposite Darley Denenat 40 Breck Road from just after the war until August 1956. During that time Darley Dene was a a bombsite - very weird as nothing had been cleared - so there was even an old stripey mattress hanging over the edge of a shattered first floor. As you faced it there was a field to the left sloping down btween Breck Place and Darley Dene and from there the site could be accessed through a battered barbed wire fence next to which was a bomb hole. The Boode Memorial at that time was set back from the road next to our side garden fence but a friend sent me a photo just over 5 years ago and it has now been moved, still next to our old house but also adjacent to the pavement still on the rough overgrown area we used to call "The Rocks" I think it lokked as though the message/inscriptio had been changed from when we lived there and the old memorial may have been lacking its top. Clearly it had been renovated.
I'll post my photo of the Boode Memorial sent to me by my old school friend who used to live opposite what would have been the Plough Inn. I'll need to work out how to upload a photo to this site
