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Damage to St Michael's Church 1940
All Saints' hosted congregations
from St. Michael's following air raid
Almost two years after the fire that occurred in 1938, the St Michael’s congregation were again obliged to worship at All Saints’. This time as the result of a Nazi bombing raid on August 16th, 1940. Bombs fell in Church Street and Church Square around 5:30 pm. One bomb exploded in Church Street between St Michael’s and the Wesleyan Methodist Church that stood opposite it (where the present-day ramp into Festival Place is situated). This bomb damaged the east end of St Michael’s and blew in the windows there.
Other bombs fell in Church Square, their blasts blew out the windows on the south side of the church and severely damaged the stonework. All the stained-glass windows were shattered, except for one in the north-west corner of the church. The bombing in Church Square destroyed four houses. Other bombs also fell in Burgess Road, north of the railway station, after the attack in Church Square.
Bomb damage to St Michael's
Bomb damage in Church Square
With the damage sustained from the bombing, St Michael’s was out of action for several weeks, with extra services being arranged at All Saints’. For security reasons in wartime, no direct reference was made to the bomb damage suffered by St Michael’s, but the Vicar wrote circumspectly as follows in the September 1940 Parish magazine:
“To possess a church which combines architectural beauty with the atmosphere of worship as All Saints does, is a real blessing to us all in these days and with the additional Sunday Services which for various good reasons have recently been added to the ordinary list, the benefits rendered to the parish by All Saints’ will be widely appreciated.”
Temporary repairs were made to allow services to be resumed in St Michael’s by November. 10th. Wooden screens were installed to cut off the damaged chancel and the War Memorial Chapel from the main body of the church. These were removed in 1947, when the repaired chancel and chapel were re-dedicated.
The Methodist Church opposite was more severely damaged than St. Michael’s, with its ornate front blown in. That church was fully restored, only to be demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the new Town Centre, that preceded Festival Place.
Church Square bomb damage
Damage to Methodist Church opposite St Michael's on Church Street
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