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This story has been written onto the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War site by CSV Storygatherer Janet on behalf of Mrs Mary Ansell. The story has been added to the site with her permission and Mary fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

After Dunkirk, `If the German`s land in Mounts Bay’ became `When the Germans land in Mounts Bay’.

A neighbour in Ludgvan (Penzance, Cornwall), Mr Samuel Reynolds had served in the Navy in the First World War and had contacts with the War Office which led to his involvement in what came to be called Churchill’s Secret Army. As he had worked at the nearby Castle Quarry he had the necessary experience to use dynamite.

The plan was to prevent the use of the Penzance to London railway line.

The dynamite required storing in an isolated, weatherproof place. As Sammy was often at the farm at Tregender Manor it was un-noticed that a barn was being used as a secret hiding place.

When the barn was to be used to store potatoes and was frequently visited by the land girls and Italian prisoners of war working on the farm, a new place had to be found.

I became involved in the search for a new `safe’ place.

Sammy used a small plot of land to grow vegetables in a corner of one of the farm fields and as this had a good view of Mounts Bay his daily visits would be equally un-noticed when it became used as a look-out.

There were no buildings or anything suitable nearby except for the old tin mine relics on the same farm. One of these was an adit. This was made weatherproof and the dynamite stored inside.

The dynamite was to be carried down the Red River which ran along the valley a short distance away, under the bridge in Crowlas, thus avoiding a main road and again following the river to Rospeath Arch, a small stone bridge which had it been blown up would have closed the railway line.

Sammy’s garden is still called `Sammy’s Garden’.

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