My father was in Norwich when this raid happened, I believe. He was a private in the Royal Norfolk Regiment, recruited in 1939, and he spent most if not all of the war "keeping the Germans back in Norwich". He would recall that there was a huge and unexpected air raid by the Luftwaffe, and he was away from his barracks at the time, and he saw it ablaze when he returned. My mother who at the time was back in North London braving the London Blitz, must have thought of Norwich as a relatively safe haven for her fiancé, and would have been horrified at reports of destruction there. I didn't know that this may have been part of the "Baedeker Blitz", Thank you Mark!
I used to live in norwich a few years back, and my girlfriend and I went on an expropriation search looking for ww2 bomb sites back then, after we'd managed to get our hands in a map showing the locations of the bombs. Our interest in this subject started after we had realised that our own house on St.Martins Road had been rebuilt in 1948 after it itself had been completed destroyed by German bombs during the war. We went as far as finding pictures if the family that had been killed in the location where our house today stands.
@markfelton theres a couple of interesting locations I'd like to point out. First one is where oak street meets Sussex street is also a bomb site. There you going to find a similar situation where you got a older house that was partially destroyed. You can clearly see where the bricks change. Besides the house it use yo be a pub, now it's just a landfill. Also, nearby where aylsham road meets drayton road, its been massively bombed. And you can clearly see that half of the terrace is of victorian houses where the others have been "patched " in place. Sorry for my terrible English.
So I'm not the the only one who notices architecture and wonder just how to decipher the story it can tell. Dad always says everything tells a story if only you know how to read it. You are truly blessed to live in a land with centuries worth of stories to read.
As someone who enjoys learning about the hidden history of my local area, something like noticing the little remnants of significant local history, hits much closer to home than the history one finds in a textbook.
This brings back a memory. In 1976 I was in Portsmouth England as part of a NATO operation. After visiting some of the sights I was walking back to the RN base where my ship was docked and went down a side street. On my left was a small building with damage very similar to the building pictured at 5:10 in the video. I stopped and looked and wondered "Gee, that's strange, it doesn't look like there was a fire, I wonder what happened here?" Then it hit me. Bomb damage. Thirty-one years since the end of the war and they hadn't gotten to it yet for a clean up. Now THAT brought some of the reality of the Blitz home to me! Another great video Doctor Felton! It goes to show you history can be all around you if you know where to look, or what you're looking at.
When I was a kid in the 70s we'd often drive through London and there were still a few bomb sites, particularly in the East End. There was a massive rebuilding scheme post war but it took decades to replace all the buildings, and there are probably a few other small sites like the one in Norwich around the country.
I live in Portsmouth, their were a lot of bomb sites around the city in the 70 and 80s visible damage to buildings, their are still some waste ground which hasn't been built on,and still staffing marks on some walls 👍
The pictorial story of Portsmouth under the blitz can be seen in the book Smitten City. You will often find a newer house nestled between the older victorian terraced houses, but of course much of the city had to be rebuilt.
@@davidberlanny3308 yes I live here and know the history,I have the original smitten city book from my grandparents,they lived through it,and were told loads of story's about the Portsmouth blitz.
This reminds me of the last time I was in London; walking around neighborhoods around St. Paul’s, noticing where iron rails and fencing had been cut for scrap, modern buildings sprouting up between older structures… then there was my mate’s flat that had been damaged during the war, and never repaired: the foundation had been undermined on one side and all the floors and doorways were skewed. History is everywhere, you just need to understand what you’re looking at ❤
There are a few buildings on The Strand that still have some bomb blast/shrapnel damage pock marks to their facade...still sends a shiver don the spine seeing them to be honest....
Irish rails and fencing cut for scrap is found all over Britain, you see it all over Leeds and Bradford. Literally everywhere. The remains on the walls are all that are left.
@@tdoran616 I assume you mean iron 😁. My school was built in the 20s and just had small stumps where the railings had been. Apparently most of the iron wasn't used, it was more of a stunt organised by a newspaper.
Used to see this all the time when visiting my Nan in Leyton in the 60"- 80"s old house, old house, new house. My Dad remembered some of it, he was evacuated after a near miss with a V1 (good old Werner, thanks for that)
My father in law was born in Norwich in 1935. I believe he was evacuated during the blitz. I have visited Norwich many times when I would go visit my inlaws. They lived in Kessingland and Reedham over the years, but you always ended up in Norwich at some point in the trips. Sadly we lost my father in law 2 years ago to Covid so I can't share this video with him. Thank you so much for all of your videos, but I love this one especially.
I love then and now format. Some great channels on UA-cam do this type of content so Im super excited when my favourite online historian has done the same.
I went up to Norwich University back in the early 90's to take my son up there to study English and a couple of other subjects, which involved me driving up there from my Isle of Wight with a stop off at a Happy Chef along the motorway, for some grub and a drink, got there, helped him unload all his kit in his room to settle in, then had another cuppa in the Restaurant or Cafe. there for visitors, and then turned round an shot off back to the Island again, and I was knackered after that too. Nice place from what I saw during driving up there, and then back again. Happy days.... Thanks for another great and interesting story of 'then' and 'now' on that bombed cross roads, in Norwich. I also love these pictures of 'then' and 'now' that are appear on YT, with some better than others, because having a second monitor I have have the 'then' on one screen and the 'after' on the other to have a good look and the differences of what they look like now...
Wow. Dr Felton explains in a short film something he didn't know, needed to research, and explain a simple change in history that has an effect today. Thank you sir for posting.
Being a Norwich resident myself, I have seen the original bomb map that was annotated in City Hall during the war as the raids unfolded over the course of hostilities, it is now held by the Norfolk Archives at County Hall on Martineau Lane.
I've lived in Norfolk all my life, so Norwich is very familiar to me, always travelled on the bus to where I used to work down this road, and I've never realised what would have happened there almost 80 years ago. I've always thought Norwich got off lightly during the blitz due to how well preserved a lot of the medieval city is, but I guess there's always something new to find out right on your doorstep
In my hometown in the netherlands 1 km from my home theres a former mental hospital from the 50s to the 90s and now abandoned, its a old building with a older entrance and roof arch partially replaced. I went metal detecting and found 3 wedding rings, 9 bullets, a lot of war time coins and 1 german army priest cross, i was suprised since i was simply looking for modern coins or some jewelry from the mental hospital time. I went to my local townhall and after 4 weeks i got someone who was responsible for anything historical, when i showed him the stuff he got a big smile, he took me to his archive including a picture of the roofarch with a mg42 on it, and pictures of the rest of the building and surrounding woods littered with anti aircraft guns. I had seen many digitalized pictures from that time in my area, but never those. He explained me it was a kriegsmarine and SD HQ and people got executed there, so they did not add a lot of photo's from that site. ( i dont get it its history but choices if you have thousands of pictures right? ) It was one of the most exiting feelings i had when i pieced that history together in my hometown, so congratulations mark on the find! must be a special one.
The sound of those bomber warning sirens are chilling even hearing them over a phone. I could only imagine the terror they could cause hearing them IRL 80 years ago...
Other then the bombing at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, most Americans on the mainland during WW2 could barely understand what Brits faced by German bombing. It was a terrible time for British city dwellers and hopefully they’ll never have to face such pounding by a foreign adversary again. Thank you Dr. Felton for the video.👍🏻🇺🇸
The media emphasized it enough to scare the US population into going into a complete wartime footing, men of fighting age in the service, women, the elderly or those not suited for service in the war industry. They understood what was going on very well but I don't think it's the same as going through it. I'm a member of GenX whom was both fortunate & unfortunate enough to enter my age of reason quite early for my age. Of course I'm speaking in regards to the cold war. I remember the palpable dread that came over us when they tested the air raid sirens & the testing of the Emergency Broadcasting System once per week; Every time it felt like my stomach was in my throat as I looked to the adults to see how they reacted. Even then sometimes that didn't help because the media constantly drummed up the latest politics as a risk for nuclear war. I didn't understand the political crap but I understood it when there were heightened threats of war between our nations... Then there were the duck & cover drills. In every school I attended they tried to hype it up as something that would save your life, that you had to remember this, no matter what. One school in Cali I attended for two years back in the mid 80s would kill the lights & play the air raid siren over the intercom system as a simulation. The first time they did that & everyone, the teacher included, ducking scared the holy heck out of me. I hurriedly joined them obviously but man did I bawl! lol In the 90s & early 00s you could still find community fallout shelters all over the place. They'd mostly been ignored by the government since the fall of the Soviet Union. In the following years they too were filled, covered over or repurposed. There are two repurposed fallout shelters, intended for the population of my rural community, to remain indoors & with the bare essentials for a few weeks. Up until around 2015 the sign for the shelter at the courthouse was still painted right on the bricks that make up the wall - even though it'd been converted to office space since the late 90s. Now it's a plastic sign affixed directly to the wall that reads "No smoking within X feet of this building."
Your dad and mine *might* have crossed paths. He spend late Dec 44- May '45 in East Anglia as a waist gunner on a B-24 (446 Bombardment Group aka "the Bungay Buckaroos") He & I went back to visit his old airbase in 19777, and we saw the Norwich library section dedicated to members of the 8th Army Air Force, killed in action. That is one of the VERY few times I ever saw my father cry. We also visited St. Paul's- all the surrounding buildings were quite new- great improvement from the rubble piles in 1945.
Graham Last. I do find your You Tube channel fascinating Mark. I had no idea you lived in Norwich which is my home city although I haven't lived there for nearly 50 years. Our family home was in Mill Hill Rd which you probably know and is only a quarter of a mile or so from the crossroads. The windows of our house contained a mixed variety of window panes probably as a result of bomb blast. There was extensive damage to an area known as Heigham Court on Earlham Rd which was even closer to my parent's house and now occupied by a nondescript blocks of flats. I know the site you describe very well indeed and I believe it was destroyed by a single parachute mine ? Rumour has it that ownership could not be fully established after the war and consequently two corners of the site remain undeveloped. Quite why the land was not compulsorily purchased to widen the carriageway to eradicate what has become a notorious bottleneck is a mystery. A couple of half-hearted attempts have been made to ease the chronic congestion but the problem remains to this day. The German bombers on the Baedeker raids flew in along Dereham Rd - the old A47 - as a navigation point heading into the centre of the city and consequently along that route there are many infill rebuilt houses which aimed to replicate the original Victorian dwellings but with post-war austerity never quite managed it and are relatively easily spotted. One unfortunate family in Helena Rd were killed by bomb blast shock waves as they sat at their dining table and their bodies were relatively unscathed when recovered. There is a communal burial site and memorial garden for many of the victims in Earlham Cemetery just off Farrow Rd There was very extensive damage in the St Stephens St part of the city and the entire street and surrounding area was rebuilt after the war. Unfortunately it is of very plain 1950's construction and is very much an eyesore completely out of kilter with the rest of the city centre. Hopefully it will be redeveloped in the not too distant future. My mother was 17 years old in 1942 and worked for Huntley & Palmers in their office at Norwich City Station which was in Oak St. Turning up for work one morning following one of the raids she found the entire building in flames and was, rather oddly perhaps, transferred to a workplace of theirs in Fulham in London for six months while the site was brought back into use. It proved to be the only time she lived outside the city. She subsequently met a German POW, my father, in Chapelfield Gardens in 1947 and they had been married for 63 years when they both passed away in 2013. He was one of only 20,000 of 400,000 who settled in Britain after the conflict and made a new life for himself in this country.
I've enjoyed this video the most out your recent productions Dr Felton; the personal story of a mundane daily moment turned into a trek into local history is wonderful. The overlay of current map and bomb sites was very powerful. Incredible to see how our mundane moments today are still shaped by the past, with some events quietly affecting us hours a day without our notice.
Interesting. It's like Dr. Felton had dug through the rubble as if it just happened to display great value in the memories that the war took away. Bravo.
So interesting, I love researching this subject. I'm from Liverpool, and i've always loved looking into the history of bomb damaged areas, as we received quite a lot of it.
Being a Norwich resident I know this area very well and never considered that it may have been the site of such destruction. I will look at it now through different eyes! I live and work in Bowthorpe, a suburb of Norwich and was told by a visitor to our offices that a German bomber had jettisoned its bombs over the marshes during one of the Baedeker raids and they were never recovered.
There was a policy decision made in the late 1970’s that bomb disposal teams were not to chase unexploded bombs that were known to have fallen in remote areas. It being considered that they were of less risk if they were left where they were (as most bombs were below ground).
I've only been to Norwich once, but I was quite impressed. My father and I visited his old airbase in Bungay (onetime home of the 446th Bombardment Group) Dad spent the 4 most exciting months of his life flying 29 combat missions as a waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator. We also visited the library in Norwich which has a wing dedicated to the memory of members of the 8th Army Air Force killed in action. That was one of the very few times I ever saw my father cry. Over the years, I've figured out that he saw 31 men in his unit die. Nothing but love and respect. PS Condolences on the passing of HMTQ. Recently, a few left wing self proclaimed pundits have made some horrendous inappropriate comments- which gives me a great desire to give every last one of them about three dozen swift kicks in the backside. I think the overwhelming majority of Americans respected her as a wise ruler for 70 years.
Obviously, since the Nazis must have known that an army moves on its feet, they were targeting Randell's Footcare ;) Many thanks for your videos, Mark. Always interesting and informative in great little ways I wasn't expecting. It resonates with something I've always noticed, growing up as I did in the region of Gettysburg here in the USA: that sometimes these things are right under your feet and you never knew the story behind them. Also this is funny: a Gettysburg historian named Tim Smith, who works for the historical society in Adams County and is also a battlefield guide, said that he was taking a European tour group around the town and battlefield and pointed out, in passing, a building which had bullet and shell scarring from the battle, and a few of the students laughed. The chaperone told him later that they laughed because "in Europe, battle damaged buildings are not really that uncommon." As they say, Europeans think that 100 miles is a long distance, while Americans think 100 years is a long time.
I think one reason for that is how young our nation is compared to Britian. The Brits have a long and storied history while the US hasn't even been around for 300 years yet.
The church by the Crammer in Devizes has clear cannon shot holes in the tower, from the (English) Civil War battle on Roundway Down in 1643. (The Crammer is the pond, used to hide smuggled brandy barrels, that gave rise to the term 'Moonrakers' for Wiltshire folk - as apparently stupid, but actually very wily.)
Incredible video Dr Felton, i have driven that crossroads many times and always thought it was odd. Always amazes me to learn ww2 history about everyday places in my life.
such good writing near the end! "I guess that, very few people walking past or driving past the site today; realize that they're quiet literally at the cross-roads of history" spine-chilling with the accompaniment of air-raid sirens trailing at the end of the above line... Your content never fails to awe me, and educate me at the same time; keep up the good work!
This is one of my favorite videos you have made! I love seeing the comparison between two eras, so lost by the regular traffic of the day. This is a perfect example of "If those walls could talk", I would love to hear what they can say. Searching through some records, it seems as though you have translated some of what they can say. I have a number of personal belongings from the second world war, as well as a couple of US issued firearms, I wish they could all talk as well. Who knows what they could uncover.
Fascinating Mark. I grew up in Wymondham, just down the road, 50 years ago. Back then there were still many remnants of the war to rummage around as kid. Thanks for reminding me of my wonderful childhood in a free and peaceful England 👍👍👍😊🇦🇺
In March 2020 I was in London by Marble Arch and crossing the road there, you use a traffic island which has a plaque on the ground marking the site of the Tyburn tree. Where public executions took place in London way back when. To stand on this small traffic island and to think it was the only mark of a spot where huge crowds once gathered was quite an amazing feeling.
In my local area near Gloucester I found a number of bomb sites relating to Luftwaffe raids on the Gloster Aircraft factory at Brockworth. They are along the straight Roman road that would have made a.perfect line up for the bombers in what is the suburb of Hucclecote. The rows of older buildings are interrupted with either open spaces for no obvious reason or more modern buildings that are out of context. Fascinating to see these and remember the way the war touched so many people all over the UK.
Mark, many thanks for this video, was directed here from the WW2 ghost signs. I was a post grad at UEA in the late 1990s and lived very close to this cross roads, almost opposite the Reindeer pub. Whilst living there, I cycled most days through this junction and have driven it many times on occasional visits back to Norwich and always thought it oddly open for that part of town but never had the idea of it being a bombed site!
Brilliantly different video that would have required quite a lot of different research to a usual video. Seeing the then and now was very interesting. Thanks.
Thanks for doing this Mark. I'm sure the people of Norwich would like to forget the events of WWII that came to their city, however, there should be some memorial or place to go and view these photos and pieces of history or else we are condemned to repeat the horrors of war. If I lived in Norwich I would create such a museum/ memorial listing the damages and deaths that occurred during WWII. If we dont memorialize and document these tragedies for future generations we are doing a great disservice to them. You have made a great first step by creating this video.
Ah! My exact area of interest regarding the second world war- the Baedecker Raids of Norwich! I was born there and have lived in the area my whole life and I have researched many aspects of it. I was pleasantly surprised to see this come up on my feed! Fantastic video as always, Dr Felton!
I often look upwards at the architecture in big cities and notice how the rows of houses are often interrupted with newer buildings, usually as a direct cause of bombings. I’m looking forward to my move to Norfolk to discover its historical gems.
For years I wondered why a long row of terraced houses just around the corner suddenly ended with two much newer builds. Then I discovered they'd been hit by an incendiary bundle. There was even a photograph of the damage, which affected a co-op building across the road as well. Its right next to an old police station, and if I recall correctly, one of the policemen on duty was sadly killed while attending the scene.
I am German, born 1959. I can recall seeing numerous "Bombenlücken" ( bombing gaps) in Munich in my childhood and juvenile years. I have never understood how anybody could do things like that to other people. I still cannot understand it. People are supposed to learn from history. History teaches, people don't.
Great video. I live just outside of Salford and the keys and surrounding areas took quite a lot of damage during the Blitz. My grandma who is now well in to her 90s is a great tour guide of the area.
I've driven up and down Dereham Road thousands of times and never realised the crossroads was a bomb site! I'm retired Ambulance Service crew so this road was used several times a day en-route to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. Many thanks for the insight Dr.Felton.
I remember not so long ago parking on a large seemingly undeveloped area in Hamburg, my German colleague told me it was a bomb site, remains of an RAF mission. No doubt there are many such examples all over Europe of ww2 devastation
This was absolutely fascinating! Thank you for this Dr. Felton. I can only imagine the horror and dread of hearing the air raid sirens blaring off while you're eating dinner, or at work, or going about your day with your friends and family and praying you'll all make it out alive. Cheers Mark, for everything you do. From 🇨🇦✌️.
I lived in Norwich for many years during and after my time at UEA, including several years at West Pottergate not far from the location of your documentary. Well, I have walked right past those buildings hundreds of times and you're absolutely right - I am one of those who didn't realise that I was at a crossroads of history, although I had heard of the Baedecker raids. Thank you for that excellent and informative video. And thanks for showing me Norwich, which is my favourite English city.
Interesting. In the Sixties, I lived in Waddington Street, off the Dereham Road. There were a few bomb sites and relics around then, including the ersatz replacement for City Station.
my maternal grandmother was a Swiss citizen living in England during the war there was no safe passage granted back to her native country. She told me stories of getting off the streets well bombs are falling and aerate sirens going. Once saw a map showing dots where all the bombs landed in London during the war seem like there was very little that was untouched! Another great video sir thank you
Got to hear what happens when a WW2 bomb gets detonated a few years back in Exeter. It was quite memorable and took me back to the horrific experiences people had back then.
Fascinating video, Mark. Maybe some more? It's a very cool connection to history to see what damage (or lack thereof) has endured through to the modern day. Thank you for this. :) -Vic
Same with Germany, I've seen in Aachen, Cologne and especially Duesseldorf New bldg mixed in with old. My favorite is the Former Aerodome heading into Oberkasel which now lower social housing, and a light box guide area, now holds up drying laundry.
as I live in a city where every free square inch is used to build on, it's strange to see empty spaces like that are still left unused after so many years. In Denmark that generally only happens if the ground is too polluted to be safe to live on, or in very rare cases if there isn't a dire need to build new houses or whatever in the area. We do have odd intersections with empty areas like this, but it's normally because it once was a roundabout that was converted into a normal intersection (which happened a lot in the 1970s because the old style roundabouts, or rather traffic circles, are dangerous and caused a lot of accidents). We don't exactly have a lot of bomb damage over here, least of all any that still remains today
Completely unrelated to the content on the video, but the comment about the traffic circle is interesting to me. In my area in the US specifically, the city is constantly making roundabouts. Every new intersection they try and make it be one. Everyone hates them, and the number of accidents has increased and the traffic flow is greatly restricted during peak travel times. The city specifically noted how "they are so much safer, because accidents will occur at slower speeds". Yet, accident numbers have increased, and pedestrian traffic is more careful because the cars don't pay attention. I am curious to see how our area may change in 10, 15 maybe 20 years, if we follow a similar path as you have described.
I’m from Philadelphia, where you can’t throw a rock without hitting something historical. I love spotting traces of things past in otherwise ordinary streets. Thank you for the great video!
When you walk around London you notice the lovely Victorian/Edwardian era buildings but in many streets there is a distinctly 1950's ugly building or buildings in the middle of them. Look over the road and same thing, then go to the adjacent street and same again. What you are seeing is the path of a "stick" of bombs which took out a line of buildings when they fell. Makes you realise how much destruction there was and how luck played a huge part in whether you lived or died.
Being listening to Mark for along time and just found out he lives in Norwich too! Amazing to hear and watch a video about a place I get to see every day living in this fine city! Thank you for the video
Fascinating Mark, its history all around us. As a young copper in Bristol during the mid 70's, we had dozens of bomb sites still and in the city centre we parked our cars in what was originally the cellars of the High Street, now all filled in. Glad I saw it.
I wonder if anyone else here remembers the "EWS" Emergency Water Supply signs painted on walls, often with arrows pointing & distance. They were faded, but still visible where I lived right up to the 1970s & marked open air water ponds, usually formed from tarpaulins, so firemen could easily draw water after air raids instead of being faced with broken water mains. Where I lived they were normally yellow & could be as big as the entire end of a building often inside of a yellow surround. Smaller versions abounded & were so ubiquitous as to be ignored, almost all simply fading away or destroyed by redevelopment. Maybe a future subject for a video?
@@johndavies1090 The one I remember the most (because I'd go past it on the bus so often) had a little twist to it as it faded away. After one bad winter a lot of the paint came off to reveal ANOTHER, prior sign....very faint, it could just be read when the light was right & showed a stylish advert for "Brough Supreror Motorcycles, The Choice of Gentlemen"!
This is more or less the same in the US. If you know where to look all across the south you can still find remenants of battlefield engagements from the American Civil War. There is a church (I can't remember the name of the city) that has a cannon ball embedded in one of its columns. Gettysburg, PA still has many preserved farm buildings that were present during the battle in 1863. I got to see some of them when I visited the battlefield. Our tour guide was great as well, pointing out where companies were moving on both sides.
True. I live in the Richmond VA area and if you know where to look you can find the remnants of both Confederate and Union field fortifications. In fact, many of the local farmers would turn up Civil War artifacts during spring ploughing as late as the 1950's.
I remebe R back in the 60ues with the Russians putting weapons in Cuba..hence the Cuban missile crisis..and my father building a bomb shelter across the river in the hillside..great video Mark
As a very young child we used to catch the bus home on that corner opposite Old Palace Road and I remember playing in that bombed out building, About 1950/51. Very interest Dr Felton, Thankyou.
My family used to live in Lower Hellesdon. Somewhere near there, at the Asda or Morissons crossroads there is a site, where I believe one of the few V2 rockets to hit Norwich did a lot of damage.
@@danpriest7212 Martin Bowman's book Norwich in the Blitz 1940-1945 mentions that V2 hit: "Again on 3 October 1944 at 7.45pm the whole City was shaken by a large detonation and superficial blast damage to property in the Mile Cross and Dereham Road areas was reported. On the north side of Hellesdon Golf Course debris from a missile was strewn over an area of 600 yards and a shallow crater 4 feet deep and 32 by 27 feet wide supplemented the bunkers on the course. An ARP report referred to this missile as ‘Big Ben’ or the V- 2 rocket."
@@2islandresort757 I understand that this resulted in one minor casualty but it could have been a lot worse of course. Norfolk had a number of lucky escapes from V2 rockets that Autumn including a rocket on Rockland St. Mary which only just missed the village school (during school hours too) and causing some injuries. A week or so later the village was hit again causing more damage but nobody was hurt. I have heard it said that because of the number of bombers crossing Norfolk to and from targets in mainland Europe occasional ordnance did fall from these craft and cause incidents and because the V2 attacks were not confirmed by the UK government until early November 1944 the Norfolk locals assumed that many of these random blasts were accidents instead of an actual attack.
I live about 5 mins walk from here on Mill hill road and never knew this. I always thought something was off about this junction and now I know why. Thank you Mark !
Matching the area today with WWII photos is very useful to see how much was destroyed. My mother had picked up a "coffee table" book while she was in Germany post-occupation that showed some of Hamburg, Nuremberg and other areas before and after. So much destruction. We'll probably get to see the same thing in Ukraine when Russia pulls out 😥
That is really neat that you can literally be stopped at a light in your city and you look over and see WWII history in front of you! Thanks for sharing Dr Felton!
Always a good day when Dr. Felton drops a video!
And even better when it features your own home city 🙂
This. Ftw. Sorry for no content comment but the doc is a baller.
Truth!
My father was in Norwich when this raid happened, I believe. He was a private in the Royal Norfolk Regiment, recruited in 1939, and he spent most if not all of the war "keeping the Germans back in Norwich". He would recall that there was a huge and unexpected air raid by the Luftwaffe, and he was away from his barracks at the time, and he saw it ablaze when he returned. My mother who at the time was back in North London braving the London Blitz, must have thought of Norwich as a relatively safe haven for her fiancé, and would have been horrified at reports of destruction there.
I didn't know that this may have been part of the "Baedeker Blitz", Thank you Mark!
My grandad was originally in the Norfolks, then transfered to the REME
Tony Stillwell, interesting to learn. Thank you for sharing this with us.
I used to live in norwich a few years back, and my girlfriend and I went on an expropriation search looking for ww2 bomb sites back then, after we'd managed to get our hands in a map showing the locations of the bombs. Our interest in this subject started after we had realised that our own house on St.Martins Road had been rebuilt in 1948 after it itself had been completed destroyed by German bombs during the war. We went as far as finding pictures if the family that had been killed in the location where our house today stands.
But this could have been done by any ww2 not necessarily the German🇩🇪 one
@@MI-mx3rh no, it could not
@@lordmonkey3285 😂, i friggin love Germany 🇩🇪
@markfelton theres a couple of interesting locations I'd like to point out. First one is where oak street meets Sussex street is also a bomb site. There you going to find a similar situation where you got a older house that was partially destroyed. You can clearly see where the bricks change. Besides the house it use yo be a pub, now it's just a landfill. Also, nearby where aylsham road meets drayton road, its been massively bombed. And you can clearly see that half of the terrace is of victorian houses where the others have been "patched " in place.
Sorry for my terrible English.
What terrible English? It's better than what half the US population understand today.
So I'm not the the only one who notices architecture and wonder just how to decipher the story it can tell.
Dad always says everything tells a story if only you know how to read it.
You are truly blessed to live in a land with centuries worth of stories to read.
The greatest teller of stories are maps... Notice how Mark uses them for this.
Its why we need more protection of our architecture from property developers.
@@olivere5497 Indeed.
@@olivere5497 I believe there is a quote about certain property developers who "do more damage than the Luftwaffe".
As someone who enjoys learning about the hidden history of my local area, something like noticing the little remnants of significant local history, hits much closer to home than the history one finds in a textbook.
This brings back a memory. In 1976 I was in Portsmouth England as part of a NATO operation. After visiting some of the sights I was walking back to the RN base where my ship was docked and went down a side street. On my left was a small building with damage very similar to the building pictured at 5:10 in the video. I stopped and looked and wondered "Gee, that's strange, it doesn't look like there was a fire, I wonder what happened here?"
Then it hit me. Bomb damage. Thirty-one years since the end of the war and they hadn't gotten to it yet for a clean up. Now THAT brought some of the reality of the Blitz home to me!
Another great video Doctor Felton! It goes to show you history can be all around you if you know where to look, or what you're looking at.
Thanks Doctor!
When I was a kid in the 70s we'd often drive through London and there were still a few bomb sites, particularly in the East End. There was a massive rebuilding scheme post war but it took decades to replace all the buildings, and there are probably a few other small sites like the one in Norwich around the country.
I live in Portsmouth, their were a lot of bomb sites around the city in the 70 and 80s visible damage to buildings, their are still some waste ground which hasn't been built on,and still staffing marks on some walls 👍
The pictorial story of Portsmouth under the blitz can be seen in the book Smitten City. You will often find a newer house nestled between the older victorian terraced houses, but of course much of the city had to be rebuilt.
@@davidberlanny3308 yes I live here and know the history,I have the original smitten city book from my grandparents,they lived through it,and were told loads of story's about the Portsmouth blitz.
This reminds me of the last time I was in London; walking around neighborhoods around St. Paul’s, noticing where iron rails and fencing had been cut for scrap, modern buildings sprouting up between older structures… then there was my mate’s flat that had been damaged during the war, and never repaired: the foundation had been undermined on one side and all the floors and doorways were skewed. History is everywhere, you just need to understand what you’re looking at ❤
There are a few buildings on The Strand that still have some bomb blast/shrapnel damage pock marks to their facade...still sends a shiver don the spine seeing them to be honest....
I watched a video only today about stretchers being used to replace some of the iron railings.
Irish rails and fencing cut for scrap is found all over Britain, you see it all over Leeds and Bradford. Literally everywhere. The remains on the walls are all that are left.
@@tdoran616 I assume you mean iron 😁. My school was built in the 20s and just had small stumps where the railings had been. Apparently most of the iron wasn't used, it was more of a stunt organised by a newspaper.
Used to see this all the time when visiting my Nan in Leyton in the 60"- 80"s old house, old house, new house. My Dad remembered some of it, he was evacuated after a near miss with a V1 (good old Werner, thanks for that)
My father in law was born in Norwich in 1935. I believe he was evacuated during the blitz. I have visited Norwich many times when I would go visit my inlaws. They lived in Kessingland and Reedham over the years, but you always ended up in Norwich at some point in the trips. Sadly we lost my father in law 2 years ago to Covid so I can't share this video with him. Thank you so much for all of your videos, but I love this one especially.
I know Norwich very well and have walked past that area many times. Never knew that!!! Thanks Mark, another fascinating nugget.
How Quickly we forget.
Thank you, Mr. Felton, for Reminding us.
I love then and now format. Some great channels on UA-cam do this type of content so Im super excited when my favourite online historian has done the same.
I went up to Norwich University back in the early 90's to take my son up there to study English and a couple of other subjects, which involved me driving up there from my Isle of Wight with a stop off at a Happy Chef along the motorway, for some grub and a drink, got there, helped him unload all his kit in his room to settle in, then had another cuppa in the Restaurant or Cafe. there for visitors, and then turned round an shot off back to the Island again, and I was knackered after that too. Nice place from what I saw during driving up there, and then back again. Happy days....
Thanks for another great and interesting story of 'then' and 'now' on that bombed cross roads, in Norwich. I also love these pictures of 'then' and 'now' that are appear on YT, with some better than others, because having a second monitor I have have the 'then' on one screen and the 'after' on the other to have a good look and the differences of what they look like now...
Whenever I decide to stay up past midnight I'm often rewarded with a Dr.Felton video!
Many thanks Mark, from Australia ✌️
And just like that, you noticed something and turned it into an educational video, that's talent Mark. Awesome job .
I love the wide variety of topics on this channel!
Wow. Dr Felton explains in a short film something he didn't know, needed to research, and explain a simple change in history that has an effect today. Thank you sir for posting.
Thank you for keeping history alive.
Being a Norwich resident myself, I have seen the original bomb map that was annotated in City Hall during the war as the raids unfolded over the course of hostilities, it is now held by the Norfolk Archives at County Hall on Martineau Lane.
I seem to recall they have the map as a kind of wall mural in the Coach and Horses Pub on Bethel Street.
I've lived in Norfolk all my life, so Norwich is very familiar to me, always travelled on the bus to where I used to work down this road, and I've never realised what would have happened there almost 80 years ago. I've always thought Norwich got off lightly during the blitz due to how well preserved a lot of the medieval city is, but I guess there's always something new to find out right on your doorstep
In my hometown in the netherlands 1 km from my home theres a former mental hospital from the 50s to the 90s and now abandoned, its a old building with a older entrance and roof arch partially replaced. I went metal detecting and found 3 wedding rings, 9 bullets, a lot of war time coins and 1 german army priest cross, i was suprised since i was simply looking for modern coins or some jewelry from the mental hospital time.
I went to my local townhall and after 4 weeks i got someone who was responsible for anything historical, when i showed him the stuff he got a big smile, he took me to his archive including a picture of the roofarch with a mg42 on it, and pictures of the rest of the building and surrounding woods littered with anti aircraft guns.
I had seen many digitalized pictures from that time in my area, but never those. He explained me it was a kriegsmarine and SD HQ and people got executed there, so they did not add a lot of photo's from that site. ( i dont get it its history but choices if you have thousands of pictures right? )
It was one of the most exiting feelings i had when i pieced that history together in my hometown, so congratulations mark on the find! must be a special one.
The sound of those bomber warning sirens are chilling even hearing them over a phone. I could only imagine the terror they could cause hearing them IRL 80 years ago...
Other then the bombing at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, most Americans on the mainland during WW2 could barely understand what Brits faced by German bombing. It was a terrible time for British city dwellers and hopefully they’ll never have to face such pounding by a foreign adversary again. Thank you Dr. Felton for the video.👍🏻🇺🇸
The American South took plenty of it. The cities of Columbia, SC and Atlanta, Ga were burnt to the ground by Sherman's vandals...
The media emphasized it enough to scare the US population into going into a complete wartime footing, men of fighting age in the service, women, the elderly or those not suited for service in the war industry. They understood what was going on very well but I don't think it's the same as going through it.
I'm a member of GenX whom was both fortunate & unfortunate enough to enter my age of reason quite early for my age. Of course I'm speaking in regards to the cold war. I remember the palpable dread that came over us when they tested the air raid sirens & the testing of the Emergency Broadcasting System once per week; Every time it felt like my stomach was in my throat as I looked to the adults to see how they reacted. Even then sometimes that didn't help because the media constantly drummed up the latest politics as a risk for nuclear war. I didn't understand the political crap but I understood it when there were heightened threats of war between our nations...
Then there were the duck & cover drills. In every school I attended they tried to hype it up as something that would save your life, that you had to remember this, no matter what. One school in Cali I attended for two years back in the mid 80s would kill the lights & play the air raid siren over the intercom system as a simulation. The first time they did that & everyone, the teacher included, ducking scared the holy heck out of me. I hurriedly joined them obviously but man did I bawl! lol
In the 90s & early 00s you could still find community fallout shelters all over the place. They'd mostly been ignored by the government since the fall of the Soviet Union. In the following years they too were filled, covered over or repurposed.
There are two repurposed fallout shelters, intended for the population of my rural community, to remain indoors & with the bare essentials for a few weeks. Up until around 2015 the sign for the shelter at the courthouse was still painted right on the bricks that make up the wall - even though it'd been converted to office space since the late 90s.
Now it's a plastic sign affixed directly to the wall that reads "No smoking within X feet of this building."
I've been a Norwich resident all my life and never knew this, thank you Dr Felton.
My Dad was a B24 Navigator, stationed at Attlebridge, near Norwich. He said he was shocked to see the extensive bomb damage there and in London.
Your dad and mine *might* have crossed paths. He spend late Dec 44- May '45 in East Anglia as a waist gunner on a B-24 (446 Bombardment Group aka "the Bungay Buckaroos") He & I went back to visit his old airbase in 19777, and we saw the Norwich library section dedicated to members of the 8th Army Air Force, killed in action. That is one of the VERY few times I ever saw my father cry. We also visited St. Paul's- all the surrounding buildings were quite new- great improvement from the rubble piles in 1945.
Great way to start the week, a lesson from Dr. History! Thank you for keeping history alive Dr. Felton!!
Always a great way to start the week with a new Dr. Felton video! 😀
Graham Last.
I do find your You Tube channel fascinating Mark.
I had no idea you lived in Norwich which is my home city although I haven't lived there for nearly 50 years. Our family home was in Mill Hill Rd which you probably know and is only a quarter of a mile or so from the crossroads. The windows of our house contained a mixed variety of window panes probably as a result of bomb blast. There was extensive damage to an area known as Heigham Court on Earlham Rd which was even closer to my parent's house and now occupied by a nondescript blocks of flats. I know the site you describe very well indeed and I believe it was destroyed by a single parachute mine ? Rumour has it that ownership could not be fully established after the war and consequently two corners of the site remain undeveloped. Quite why the land was not compulsorily purchased to widen the carriageway to eradicate what has become a notorious bottleneck is a mystery. A couple of half-hearted attempts have been made to ease the chronic congestion but the problem remains to this day.
The German bombers on the Baedeker raids flew in along Dereham Rd - the old A47 - as a navigation point heading into the centre of the city and consequently along that route there are many infill rebuilt houses which aimed to replicate the original Victorian dwellings but with post-war austerity never quite managed it and are relatively easily spotted. One unfortunate family in Helena Rd were killed by bomb blast shock waves as they sat at their dining table and their bodies were relatively unscathed when recovered. There is a communal burial site and memorial garden for many of the victims in Earlham Cemetery just off Farrow Rd
There was very extensive damage in the St Stephens St part of the city and the entire street and surrounding area was rebuilt after the war. Unfortunately it is of very plain 1950's construction and is very much an eyesore completely out of kilter with the rest of the city centre. Hopefully it will be redeveloped in the not too distant future.
My mother was 17 years old in 1942 and worked for Huntley & Palmers in their office at Norwich City Station which was in Oak St. Turning up for work one morning following one of the raids she found the entire building in flames and was, rather oddly perhaps, transferred to a workplace of theirs in Fulham in London for six months while the site was brought back into use.
It proved to be the only time she lived outside the city. She subsequently met a German POW, my father, in Chapelfield Gardens in 1947 and they had been married for 63 years when they both passed away in 2013. He was one of only 20,000 of 400,000 who settled in Britain after the conflict and made a new life for himself in this country.
Wow. Doc,your radar is everywhere! I enjoyed this video. Highly descriptive and interesting.
Love this type of video. Modern remnants of the war are truly fascinating
I've enjoyed this video the most out your recent productions Dr Felton; the personal story of a mundane daily moment turned into a trek into local history is wonderful. The overlay of current map and bomb sites was very powerful.
Incredible to see how our mundane moments today are still shaped by the past, with some events quietly affecting us hours a day without our notice.
its so nice see your video again dr felton
Interesting. It's like Dr. Felton had dug through the rubble as if it just happened to display great value in the memories that the war took away. Bravo.
So interesting, I love researching this subject.
I'm from Liverpool, and i've always loved looking into the history of bomb damaged areas, as we received quite a lot of it.
Being a Norwich resident I know this area very well and never considered that it may have been the site of such destruction. I will look at it now through different eyes! I live and work in Bowthorpe, a suburb of Norwich and was told by a visitor to our offices that a German bomber had jettisoned its bombs over the marshes during one of the Baedeker raids and they were never recovered.
There was a policy decision made in the late 1970’s that bomb disposal teams were not to chase unexploded bombs that were known to have fallen in remote areas. It being considered that they were of less risk if they were left where they were (as most bombs were below ground).
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Interesting information Bob.
I used to line at 11 Breydon Close in Bowthorpe. Many years ago.
I've only been to Norwich once, but I was quite impressed. My father and I visited his old airbase in Bungay (onetime home of the 446th Bombardment Group) Dad spent the 4 most exciting months of his life flying 29 combat missions as a waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator. We also visited the library in Norwich which has a wing dedicated to the memory of members of the 8th Army Air Force killed in action. That was one of the very few times I ever saw my father cry. Over the years, I've figured out that he saw 31 men in his unit die. Nothing but love and respect. PS Condolences on the passing of HMTQ. Recently, a few left wing self proclaimed pundits have made some horrendous inappropriate comments- which gives me a great desire to give every last one of them about three dozen swift kicks in the backside. I think the overwhelming majority of Americans respected her as a wise ruler for 70 years.
Obviously, since the Nazis must have known that an army moves on its feet, they were targeting Randell's Footcare ;)
Many thanks for your videos, Mark. Always interesting and informative in great little ways I wasn't expecting.
It resonates with something I've always noticed, growing up as I did in the region of Gettysburg here in the USA: that sometimes these things are right under your feet and you never knew the story behind them.
Also this is funny: a Gettysburg historian named Tim Smith, who works for the historical society in Adams County and is also a battlefield guide, said that he was taking a European tour group around the town and battlefield and pointed out, in passing, a building which had bullet and shell scarring from the battle, and a few of the students laughed. The chaperone told him later that they laughed because "in Europe, battle damaged buildings are not really that uncommon."
As they say, Europeans think that 100 miles is a long distance, while Americans think 100 years is a long time.
I think one reason for that is how young our nation is compared to Britian. The Brits have a long and storied history while the US hasn't even been around for 300 years yet.
The church by the Crammer in Devizes has clear cannon shot holes in the tower, from the (English) Civil War battle on Roundway Down in 1643. (The Crammer is the pond, used to hide smuggled brandy barrels, that gave rise to the term 'Moonrakers' for Wiltshire folk - as apparently stupid, but actually very wily.)
Incredible video Dr Felton, i have driven that crossroads many times and always thought it was odd. Always amazes me to learn ww2 history about everyday places in my life.
such good writing near the end!
"I guess that, very few people walking past or driving past the site today; realize that they're quiet literally at the cross-roads of history"
spine-chilling with the accompaniment of air-raid sirens trailing at the end of the above line...
Your content never fails to awe me, and educate me at the same time; keep up the good work!
Totally agree. The end hit me pretty hard
Awesome video per usual. Lord Felton dropping historical knowledge on us. Cheers 🍻, take care and stay frosty 🇨🇦🫡🇬🇧
This is one of my favorite videos you have made! I love seeing the comparison between two eras, so lost by the regular traffic of the day. This is a perfect example of "If those walls could talk", I would love to hear what they can say. Searching through some records, it seems as though you have translated some of what they can say.
I have a number of personal belongings from the second world war, as well as a couple of US issued firearms, I wish they could all talk as well. Who knows what they could uncover.
Fascinating Mark. I grew up in Wymondham, just down the road, 50 years ago. Back then there were still many remnants of the war to rummage around as kid. Thanks for reminding me of my wonderful childhood in a free and peaceful England 👍👍👍😊🇦🇺
In March 2020 I was in London by Marble Arch and crossing the road there, you use a traffic island which has a plaque on the ground marking the site of the Tyburn tree. Where public executions took place in London way back when. To stand on this small traffic island and to think it was the only mark of a spot where huge crowds once gathered was quite an amazing feeling.
Like that place in Paris where the guillotine stood...
Love living here, amazing city with great history, welcoming people and lovely scenery
In my local area near Gloucester I found a number of bomb sites relating to Luftwaffe raids on the Gloster Aircraft factory at Brockworth. They are along the straight Roman road that would have made a.perfect line up for the bombers in what is the suburb of Hucclecote. The rows of older buildings are interrupted with either open spaces for no obvious reason or more modern buildings that are out of context. Fascinating to see these and remember the way the war touched so many people all over the UK.
Mark, many thanks for this video, was directed here from the WW2 ghost signs. I was a post grad at UEA in the late 1990s and lived very close to this cross roads, almost opposite the Reindeer pub. Whilst living there, I cycled most days through this junction and have driven it many times on occasional visits back to Norwich and always thought it oddly open for that part of town but never had the idea of it being a bombed site!
Brilliantly different video that would have required quite a lot of different research to a usual video. Seeing the then and now was very interesting. Thanks.
Thanks for doing this Mark. I'm sure the people of Norwich would like to forget the events of WWII that came to their city, however, there should be some memorial or place to go and view these photos and pieces of history or else we are condemned to repeat the horrors of war. If I lived in Norwich I would create such a museum/ memorial listing the damages and deaths that occurred during WWII. If we dont memorialize and document these tragedies for future generations we are doing a great disservice to them. You have made a great first step by creating this video.
Ah! My exact area of interest regarding the second world war- the Baedecker Raids of Norwich!
I was born there and have lived in the area my whole life and I have researched many aspects of it. I was pleasantly surprised to see this come up on my feed!
Fantastic video as always, Dr Felton!
I find all of these "now and then" stuff really fascinating! Well done Dr Felton, interesting as always.
I often look upwards at the architecture in big cities and notice how the rows of houses are often interrupted with newer buildings, usually as a direct cause of bombings. I’m looking forward to my move to Norfolk to discover its historical gems.
Mark digging up little gems of the past. Well done..
For years I wondered why a long row of terraced houses just around the corner suddenly ended with two much newer builds. Then I discovered they'd been hit by an incendiary bundle. There was even a photograph of the damage, which affected a co-op building across the road as well. Its right next to an old police station, and if I recall correctly, one of the policemen on duty was sadly killed while attending the scene.
Many used car sales places in London are referred to as 'bombshell sites', because that's why there's an open space there.
I lived in that house in Dereham Rd in the 90’s, as always super interesting I didn’t know you lived in Norwich too.
I am German, born 1959. I can recall seeing numerous "Bombenlücken" ( bombing gaps) in Munich in my childhood and juvenile years. I have never understood how anybody could do things like that to other people. I still cannot understand it. People are supposed to learn from history. History teaches, people don't.
Munich still has quite a few such places if you know where to look, the one behind the Town Hall being the largest and best known.
just as I go on my lunch Dr Felton drops this ! brilliant
Great video. I live just outside of Salford and the keys and surrounding areas took quite a lot of damage during the Blitz. My grandma who is now well in to her 90s is a great tour guide of the area.
I have lived in Norwich and am very fond of Norfolk. Would love to buy Dr Felton a drink and thank him for his research and work.
I love all your videos but this one was particularly neat. You actually put us there. Also that was really good research.
I've driven up and down Dereham Road thousands of times and never realised the crossroads was a bomb site! I'm retired Ambulance Service crew so this road was used several times a day en-route to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. Many thanks for the insight Dr.Felton.
I remember not so long ago parking on a large seemingly undeveloped area in Hamburg, my German colleague told me it was a bomb site, remains of an RAF mission. No doubt there are many such examples all over Europe of ww2 devastation
I once saw such a parking space redeveloped, when the removed the parking lot, one could see the remnants of cellars.
The town I was stationed at was 90% destroyed during the war in one ( 450 planes ) air raid
The last blitzed building, burnt out and only walls left, has only recently been demolished in Oak St, where Mitchells yard used to be.
Siempre es un buen día escuchar la intro de Mark Felton.
This was absolutely fascinating! Thank you for this Dr. Felton. I can only imagine the horror and dread of hearing the air raid sirens blaring off while you're eating dinner, or at work, or going about your day with your friends and family and praying you'll all make it out alive. Cheers Mark, for everything you do. From 🇨🇦✌️.
Wonder If anyone was in that Anderson shelter? This is amazing footage. Always fascinated with anything to do with WW2.
A fascinating vignette. Much kudos Dr Felton.
I lived in Norwich for many years during and after my time at UEA, including several years at West Pottergate not far from the location of your documentary. Well, I have walked right past those buildings hundreds of times and you're absolutely right - I am one of those who didn't realise that I was at a crossroads of history, although I had heard of the Baedecker raids. Thank you for that excellent and informative video. And thanks for showing me Norwich, which is my favourite English city.
A fellow UEA alumnus here!
The air raid warning played at the end was a good touch.
Interesting. In the Sixties, I lived in Waddington Street, off the Dereham Road. There were a few bomb sites and relics around then, including the ersatz replacement for City Station.
"ersatz", always strange to see some german loanwords in the english language. Eventhough German itself is full of english loanwords.
my maternal grandmother was a Swiss citizen living in England during the war there was no safe passage granted back to her native country. She told me stories of getting off the streets well bombs are falling and aerate sirens going. Once saw a map showing dots where all the bombs landed in London during the war seem like there was very little that was untouched! Another great video sir thank you
Got to hear what happens when a WW2 bomb gets detonated a few years back in Exeter. It was quite memorable and took me back to the horrific experiences people had back then.
Thank you Mark.. Home grown backyard history..
Fascinating video, Mark. Maybe some more? It's a very cool connection to history to see what damage (or lack thereof) has endured through to the modern day. Thank you for this. :) -Vic
You bring history to life in a way that makes it very interesting. Thank you very much for your hard work.
Amazing that there's that much vacant land in the town if it's growing so much as you say.
Now that is a must visit on my next trip to Norwich.
Same with Germany, I've seen in Aachen, Cologne and especially Duesseldorf New bldg mixed in with old. My favorite is the Former Aerodome heading into Oberkasel which now lower social housing, and a light box guide area, now holds up drying laundry.
This all reminded me of the "Then and Now" books from After the Battle magazine.
Neat video Mark, especially the “then” and “now” photos! Wonder if there might be any unexploded bombs buried in the area? 🤔
I did a module on vernacular buildings when I studied archaeology so I always find it extremely interesting when I see buildings like that.
as I live in a city where every free square inch is used to build on, it's strange to see empty spaces like that are still left unused after so many years. In Denmark that generally only happens if the ground is too polluted to be safe to live on, or in very rare cases if there isn't a dire need to build new houses or whatever in the area. We do have odd intersections with empty areas like this, but it's normally because it once was a roundabout that was converted into a normal intersection (which happened a lot in the 1970s because the old style roundabouts, or rather traffic circles, are dangerous and caused a lot of accidents). We don't exactly have a lot of bomb damage over here, least of all any that still remains today
Completely unrelated to the content on the video, but the comment about the traffic circle is interesting to me. In my area in the US specifically, the city is constantly making roundabouts. Every new intersection they try and make it be one. Everyone hates them, and the number of accidents has increased and the traffic flow is greatly restricted during peak travel times. The city specifically noted how "they are so much safer, because accidents will occur at slower speeds". Yet, accident numbers have increased, and pedestrian traffic is more careful because the cars don't pay attention. I am curious to see how our area may change in 10, 15 maybe 20 years, if we follow a similar path as you have described.
I’m from Philadelphia, where you can’t throw a rock without hitting something historical. I love spotting traces of things past in otherwise ordinary streets. Thank you for the great video!
When you walk around London you notice the lovely Victorian/Edwardian era buildings but in many streets there is a distinctly 1950's ugly building or buildings in the middle of them. Look over the road and same thing, then go to the adjacent street and same again. What you are seeing is the path of a "stick" of bombs which took out a line of buildings when they fell. Makes you realise how much destruction there was and how luck played a huge part in whether you lived or died.
Being listening to Mark for along time and just found out he lives in Norwich too! Amazing to hear and watch a video about a place I get to see every day living in this fine city! Thank you for the video
Fascinating Mark, its history all around us. As a young copper in Bristol during the mid 70's, we had dozens of bomb sites still and in the city centre we parked our cars in what was originally the cellars of the High Street, now all filled in. Glad I saw it.
Beautifully and emotionally presented.
I wonder if anyone else here remembers the "EWS" Emergency Water Supply signs painted on walls, often with arrows pointing & distance. They were faded, but still visible where I lived right up to the 1970s & marked open air water ponds, usually formed from tarpaulins, so firemen could easily draw water after air raids instead of being faced with broken water mains.
Where I lived they were normally yellow & could be as big as the entire end of a building often inside of a yellow surround. Smaller versions abounded & were so ubiquitous as to be ignored, almost all simply fading away or destroyed by redevelopment.
Maybe a future subject for a video?
Yes, I recall seeing them on various town walls in my childhood.
@@johndavies1090 The one I remember the most (because I'd go past it on the bus so often) had a little twist to it as it faded away. After one bad winter a lot of the paint came off to reveal ANOTHER, prior sign....very faint, it could just be read when the light was right & showed a stylish advert for "Brough Supreror Motorcycles, The Choice of Gentlemen"!
This was very interesting. Thanks Mr Felton for sharing and especially for matching up the photographs.
This is more or less the same in the US. If you know where to look all across the south you can still find remenants of battlefield engagements from the American Civil War. There is a church (I can't remember the name of the city) that has a cannon ball embedded in one of its columns. Gettysburg, PA still has many preserved farm buildings that were present during the battle in 1863. I got to see some of them when I visited the battlefield. Our tour guide was great as well, pointing out where companies were moving on both sides.
True. I live in the Richmond VA area and if you know where to look you can find the remnants of both Confederate and Union field fortifications.
In fact, many of the local farmers would turn up Civil War artifacts during spring ploughing as late as the 1950's.
Great bit. Love the then/ now juxtaposed images. Thanks Marc!
I remebe R back in the 60ues with the Russians putting weapons in Cuba..hence the Cuban missile crisis..and my father building a bomb shelter across the river in the hillside..great video Mark
As a very young child we used to catch the bus home on that corner opposite Old Palace Road and I remember playing in that bombed out building, About 1950/51.
Very interest Dr Felton, Thankyou.
Great video Sir! The sheer amount of history located in one town boggles the mind.
I would love to see a story about finding UXBs in recent times around England and Europe.
There’s a link to one at the very end of the video.
Though I knew about the raid all this time I've gone up Dereham Rd and have been oblivious to this. Nice one Mark keeping it local.
My family used to live in Lower Hellesdon. Somewhere near there, at the Asda or Morissons crossroads there is a site, where I believe one of the few V2 rockets to hit Norwich did a lot of damage.
If any of you find out more info on this, it would be interesting to read about this V2 rocket damage.
@@danpriest7212 Martin Bowman's book Norwich in the Blitz 1940-1945 mentions that V2 hit: "Again on 3 October 1944 at 7.45pm the whole
City was shaken by a large detonation and superficial blast damage
to property in the Mile Cross and Dereham Road areas was reported.
On the north side of Hellesdon Golf Course debris from a missile
was strewn over an area of 600 yards and a shallow crater 4 feet
deep and 32 by 27 feet wide supplemented the bunkers on the
course. An ARP report referred to this missile as ‘Big Ben’ or the V-
2 rocket."
@@2islandresort757 I understand that this resulted in one minor casualty but it could have been a lot worse of course. Norfolk had a number of lucky escapes from V2 rockets that Autumn including a rocket on Rockland St. Mary which only just missed the village school (during school hours too) and causing some injuries. A week or so later the village was hit again causing more damage but nobody was hurt. I have heard it said that because of the number of bombers crossing Norfolk to and from targets in mainland Europe occasional ordnance did fall from these craft and cause incidents and because the V2 attacks were not confirmed by the UK government until early November 1944 the Norfolk locals assumed that many of these random blasts were accidents instead of an actual attack.
@@2islandresort757 That is v.interesting to read. Thanks. Did not know how much awareness others had about this event, Thanks again.
@@2islandresort757 Thanx for the info. If I can, I will try to get that book some time. Dan.
I live about 5 mins walk from here on Mill hill road and never knew this. I always thought something was off about this junction and now I know why. Thank you Mark !
Our family home for 60 years was No.8
Matching the area today with WWII photos is very useful to see how much was destroyed. My mother had picked up a "coffee table" book while she was in Germany post-occupation that showed some of Hamburg, Nuremberg and other areas before and after. So much destruction.
We'll probably get to see the same thing in Ukraine when Russia pulls out 😥
Atleast other counties are not damaged themselves, so I hope they will help them to rebuild fast.
That is really neat that you can literally be stopped at a light in your city and you look over and see WWII history in front of you! Thanks for sharing Dr Felton!
Norwich should ban those ugly, tacky, inappropriate billboards from the city. At least put them out along the motorways, if anywhere.
Exactly.
I was reading only the other day that people are camping to ban them.
Campaigning, not camping.
A fine city. Much of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston areas in particular also contain many sites like this. Great video.
That's incredible! I also found a ww2 bombsite!
See: map of europe