The Night the Bombs Fell

The whole town was involved in war work and Redditch was very fortunate that it was only bombed twice. Although the production of fishing tackle was stopped for six years during the war, the fish hook industry boomed because if trawlers used nets, they risked netting a mine, so they fished with hooks instead.

Britannia Batteries were making heavy-duty batteries for military vehicles and other wartime uses. High Duty Alloys were making parts for Spitfires and Hurricanes, many residents remember the reverberations across Redditch of the Chamsbersbury drop hammer as it stamped out the crank cases for - Rolls Royce engines. As well as their main factory the BSA took over part of Washford Mills and had ten small factories in Redditch all making different parts of guns including machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.

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