Cranleigh Gardens & Old Taunton Road
24/25 August 1940 · Bridgwater, Somerset
View this record on the map →- Date
- 24/25 August 1940
- Record type
- Historic bombing area
- Bomb type
- incendiary
- Casualties
- 7
- Location
- Bridgwater, Somerset
- Position accuracy
- Rough area
What happened
Bridgwater's first major attack, when around 200 incendiaries and heavy bombs fell on Cranleigh Gardens, the Colley Lane brickyard and Southgate Terrace in Old Taunton Road. Nine houses were damaged or destroyed.
Casualty note
The dead included ARP Warden Len Wilkins, his wife Gladys and their thirteen-year-old daughter Margaret, along with Daisy Balham and Mr and Mrs Collard.
Also worth knowing
On 20 March 1941 two magnetic mines detonated in the Meads near Fairfield, damaging nearly 1,500 premises across the town and killing one person; it is recorded here rather than mapped separately because no located point for the Meads was available. Across the war Bridgwater recorded 263 high-explosive bombs, 6,671 incendiaries, 10 land and other mines, and 63 unexploded bombs.