Today, Tuesday, November 17, marks the 80th anniversary of the Sunday night when a mine exploded in Chapelhay, Weymouth, killing 12 people and injuring 41.

The blast damaged 879 houses, 77 of which were beyond repair and were subsequently demolished, while a further 181 were seriously damaged.

The date is etched indelibly in my memory, because in my first year (1955-6) at morning assembly at Holy Trinity School my place was next to a stone set into the assembly hall wall.

This marked the opening in 1953 of the new school to replace that bombed beyond repair on November 17, 1940. By the end of that year I think I had memorised the words!

My memories however went further back. Sometimes my parents would take me to town and we would go via Franchise Street. In the early 1980s I added to my collection of local photographs and here is a selection of photographs which may jog peoples’ memories as it has mine.

However, the redevelopment of Chapelhay took time to complete. By the late 1940s the Rev. Cecil Plaxton, Vicar of Holy Trinity was pressing the Council to, at least, demolish the buildings damaged beyond repair. This took some time to achieve.

I remember my father and I having a look round the “show flat” at Chapelhay Heights in 1957. When walking home In the summer of 1962 I wondered when all the potholes filling up with water at an alarming rate in Franchise Street would be repaired. Little did I know that the road contractors were starting the following week, and Chapelhay redevelopment would be finished.

1 43-73 Franchise Street looking south – June 1955

On the left are the railings of Holy Trinity School. Some picturesque mansard roofed houses, and, as a child of three, I was fascinated that in the house to the right of the terrace was a bathroom which was open to the elements, the wall having been the victim of bomb blast.

2 St Leonard’s Road – 1955

The terrace suffered from the blast so four eastern properties were demolished in 1955 and the end now adjoins the Gordon Row service road. The corner of one of the new houses on the south side of St Leonard’s Road is on the left edge of the photo.

3 54-68 Franchise Street

These were damaged beyond repair and were demolished in the early 1950s, the site eventually being redeveloped as Chapelhay Heights.

4 38 Franchise Street - early 1957

The butcher’s shop which typified the “can do” attitude of the wartime population. Douglas Acutt in his book Brigade in Action records that the shop had the front and back blown out, one wall down and all the top floor off. The manager placed a notice outside “Business as Usual”, and said “As long as we’ve got a block, scales and a till, we’re all right.” So it continued for the next 16 years. Site works for Chapelhay Heights are fast encroaching.

5 70-80 Franchise Street – January 1957

These were soon to be demolished. One of the shops was occupied by Arthur Skillman who later ran a grocer’s shop on the opposite side of the road. On the extreme left is the corner of 82 Franchise Street, in the garage of which Mr. Skillman later kept his Rolls-Royce.

6 2-6 Prospect Place and the Rising Sun – January 1957

A mansard roofed terrace and one of the many pubs in Chapelhay. This is now the site of an open space and play area.

7 66-77A Franchise Street and the General Gordon Hotel – June 1955

This photo was taken from the site of what is now Chapelhay Heights and the buildings were demolished soon after the photo was taken. It is now occupied by Gordon Row shops. The house on the right of the picture was Phillips tobacconist and sweetshop and one of my earliest memories was watching a bulldozer on the opposite side of Franchise Street building up a very large pile of rubble.