Spurtle enjoyed a long coffee and walkabout today with Sean Johnstone (right), former resident of these parts and a mine of information on all things Broughton, particularly from 1968–89.
Johnstone's father grew up at 66 East Claremont Street during the Second World War, when what is now the adjacent Territorials' transport depot was an ammunition store.
Apparently, that target was attacked one day by a Messerschmidt. The plane missed, instead spraying No 66 with rounds. Johnstone's grandfather extracted some of the bullets for his son to play with, but the holes in the wall remain.
We think we can see four in the photograph below taken today: three in the sign and one in the stonework above. There are other likely candidates elsewhere in the masonry, but the picture becomes confused by later scaffolding attachments.
Spurtle wonders whether this story is at the root of a persistent, but often rebutted, story that a building on this corner with West Annandale Street was once bombed and destroyed.
Can any readers with long memories add detail?
[Contact us by email: spurtle@hotmail.co.uk Twitter: @theSpurtle Facebook: Broughton Spurtle.]
