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During the early spring of 1941, a high explosive bomb dropped from a German plane into the Ladden Brook about 10 yards from the Bristol to Gloucester railway line at Hall End Farm in South Gloucestershire, situated at the northern end of the Parish of Yate at that time.

The debris and soil completely blocked the brook; the crater made by the bomb was big enough to take a double decker bus. This happened during the hours of darkness, the whole area lit up at the impact of the explosion.

The farmer Bruce Isaac a member of the Home Guard was keeping watch on his hay and straw ricks in case the flares caught them on fire, the blast from the explosion blew him over into the yard; it blew the tiles off of the farm buildings 150 yards away from where the bomb dropped.

The Army came with machinery and manpower to clear a passage through the crater to let the water flow through. They also felted and retiled the buildings. Later some local lads swam in the crater.

A small bomb landed in a field called Hare Hill on the same farm which had been planted with potatoes, it flattened all the ridged rows and blew the potatoes out of their neat rows.

When the elm trees died near the vicinity some thirty years later, the wood from the trees was sawn up. We found that the shrapnel was still in the wood, and it blunted the saw!

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