大象传媒

At the beginning of the War in 1940, the powers-that-be decided to install a fuel dump at Farley Dingle near Much Wenlock. After the tanks were installed they were covered with a good coating of soil, presumably for safety and camouflage, as this was a fairly secret project. Soil was tipped from the lorries on top of the tanks so that the lorries themselves gradually mounted higher and higher. Lorries in those days had their tipping section elevated by means of two hand-turned cranking handles - one either side of the lorry behind the driver's cab.

One day when this was being carried out on top of one of the tanks, the elevated part of the lorry touched an overhead power-line which made the whole lorry "live" with electricity. The two men turning the handles were immediately electrocuted, as were the two men who caught hold of them to pull them off. A fifth man was killed in the same way. Not very much publicity was given to this because it was a hush-hush project.

I am familiar with this story because one of the men was my uncle, Mr Charles Cooke of Havelock Crescent,Much Wenlock.

Footnote 2005: In recent years a lot of money has been spent on this dump because of fear of polluted water leaking into the water-courses.

More stories from Edith can be found at:

* A4206421 "Entertaining the men from St Dunstan's"

* A8709221 "The Day the Bomb fell on Ironbridge"

* A8820281 "Brothers-in-Arms" (The Cartwright Brothers War Service)

Her husband's story "My War Years with the Admiralty" can be found at A8710661

Story: This story has been submitted to the People's War Site by Muriel Palmer (volunteer) Age Concern Shropshire Telford & Wrekin on behalf of Edith RATCLIFFE (author) and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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