Derbyshire 192 - Tupton - the night they dropped the bombs on Tupton

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Dear Covid diary - it is day 255 since BoJo called his first lockdown and here we are the first week of December and it feels that nothing much has changed . Yes we have a vaccine on the horizon and we got in pretty quick time . Vaccinations have started . If you are lucky enough or should it be unlucky enough to be over 80 and currently in hospital you get the jab . Health care workers are being vaccinated as we speak . But there is not enough to go round . A priority system has been adopted and we are way down the line . It is Tuesday . It is walk day . No news today on the house move.

I headed off in the direction of New Tupton . The local towns and villages have put up their Christmas decorations . The lights make everything look prettier. Christmas trees have spouted up in gardens and are decorated in different styles . Houses are decorated . Wreaths on the doors and the new fashion of tying a massive bow across the whole of the door . Lights twinkle and are rainbow coloured in living rooms . I can see them through the windows .

I have noticed in the past a gap between the houses as I walked . I passed the chemist shop closed . The butchers shop no longer open . Then the memorial garden . The trees and shrubs that fill the space are covered with decorations . It all looks lovely . But why the gap . I had noticed it many times before but never gave it a thought.

Cast your mind back to the second world war. I had known a little about the bombs that dropped on New Tupton but never knew the full story . The children in the village learned early on to distinguish between the phut phut of the German planes going over from the friendly ones. The families were used to running to the cellars when the air raid sirens roared . Life probably went on much as normal until one night in March 1941. Sheffield was the subject of a blitz. Night after night bombs dropped in the city. One night life changed forever in the small village of New Tupton . A german bomber on his way home dropped his bombs on the village destroying many houses on Ward Street and killing 11 civilians . No-one knows exactly why the bombs were dropped . Perhaps to lighten the load going home . The pilot may have followed the main Chesterfield to Derby railway line and bombed it deliberately to disrupt the movement of materials and troops . He may have missed his target of the Pipe works in Chesterfield or other manufacturing sites . There was even talk about the pilot being distracted by the fire box on the train . Whatever the story the gap in the houses was clear to see as I walked Ward Street .

The night the bombs dropped made a lasting impression on the village forever .

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