THREE HUNDRED BOMBS IN THREE MINUTES

Cindy Chant & John Drabik

England was at war with Germany and this was a dangerous time. It was 30th September 1940, a warm afternoon and in the skies above Yeovil several barrage balloons were gently swaying in the breeze. Eddie, and his wife Vera, had driven to the cinema to celebrate Eddie’s birthday. The film was suddenly stopped and a message came on the screen, for Mr Freeman to immediately return to Sherborne. They could hear the distant sound of explosions and wasting no time they rushed back and headed towards the flickering skyline, blazing fires, and black plumes of smoke – Sherborne was under attack.

Eddie Freeman, a respected and well-known Sherbornian, had never missed a day’s work as Clerk to Sherborne District Council and was awarded an MBE for these services. He was also the ARP Controller and immediately jumped into action at the site of the destruction which greeted him. There was total chaos and confusion as electricity and water supplies were damaged, as well as the sewers and the telephone system.

Vera was particularly distraught, as her 2-monthold son John, had been left in the caring hands of his grandmother at their home on the Bristol Road. This is where our story begins, the story of this very young infant who was destined to live against all odds. This baby is now an elderly man, very much alive and well, and would like his story told.

That afternoon John’s grandmother had decided to take him for a walk in his new pram. She carefully placed his soft toy lion, ‘Lizzie’, next to him, whispering that they were going to go on a lovely walk down Cheap Street. Poor Mrs Freeman, she had just reached the Conduit when it all happened. Air-raid sirens wailed loudly as 37 Henkel bombers accompanied by fighter aircraft, failing to find the Westlands factory in Yeovil, bombed blindly across the ancient town of Sherborne. 300 bombs rained down from Lenthay to Coldharbour in 3 minutes. Taken by surprise by the deafening noise of the explosions, she hurriedly sought shelter and pushed the pram into the doorway of the nearest building, which happened to be Phillips Department Store, nowadays known as Melbury Gallery and The Pear Tree Deli & Cafe.

One by one the bombs left the bellies of the aircraft and fell through the clouds towards their unintended targets. Phillips took a direct hit. There was a loud explosion and masses of debris mixed with dust > and much masonry fell heavily all around. This was followed by the eerie silence which inevitably follows a huge explosion. Fearing the very worst, Mrs Freeman had fainted by the time the ARP men had rescued them both. When hearing the news, Vera became hysterical. The pram was full of debris and shrapnel, but luckily, little baby John was found alive, lying on his right side clutching Lizzie, his fluffy lion. The force of the explosion was later found to have made him permanently deaf in his left ear.

Eddie Freeman continued his duties dealing with the appalling aftermath, and the many needs of the Sherborne townsfolk, including a distraught farmer who had an unexploded bomb blocking the entrance to his house.

John remembers the war years, and his mother teaching him how to use a gas mask and to always be careful. She, and many others at this time, lived in fear of the Germans coming up the garden path and entering the house. He remembers being woken in the night by the sirens and being taken to the Anderson Shelter in the garden. He also remembers taking great delight in peeling off the protective bomb blast tape from the windows.

John was 5 years old when the war ended and already had learnt good work ethics, good manners and punctuality from his conscientious father. He went to Newell House and Sherborne Prep followed by Tockington Manor and eventually Clifton Boarding School. On leaving school he wrote short stories for various magazines and eventually joined the family business, Freemans Sports Outfitters in Cheap Street. This had been created in 1953 by his grandfather, who had played professional cricket for Essex, before becoming a coach for Sherborne School. The Freemans were a cricketing family and his great uncle was ‘Tich’ Freeman who had played for Kent and England. Leaving the business, John had a varied career. Firstly as assistant sales manager for George Wimpey Construction, later owning a burglar alarm business, and then a restaurant in Wimbledon, before retiring to Bourton, Gillingham, where he built a golf course and took over Bourton Mill.

Eighteen people were killed during the bombings and they are commemorated with a brass plaque in front of the Abbey. 766 properties were damaged, some were totally destroyed. John, to this day, gets a strange feeling in the lower part of town. And as for Lizzie… she is still in John’s possession and still very much loved.

Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5HS

Tel: 01963 23219

Fax: 01963 23053

Email: info@fcuffandsons.co.uk www.fcuffandsons.co.uk

Summertime

Traditionally, the summer is one of the less busy times of the year for auctioneers. Although we very much see ourselves as a traditional firm of auctioneers, I do not think we have ever been as busy as we are now, which is great. Thankfully, we have the benefit of having a couple of university students on hand, mostly family of staff, who can help with the extra volume of work.

So, ‘what is in the pipeline?’ I hear you ask. Well, today (or a couple of weeks ago by the time you read this) we received instructions to auction the amazing studio archive of drawings from the late Graham Oakley. Many will have grown up reading his charming series of children’s books The Church Mice and we will be selling by auction some 800-900 or so original drawings from his books and other subjects. As this news is so hot-off-the-press we have yet to work out when but do keep an eye out for them.

Another instruction we received was to clear a property in Sherborne. Not unusual for us, we clear properties throughout the West Country, London and beyond, but what is fascinating about this house is that having had four generations living in it, not much has changed since about 1900.

It is also a property anyone who has visited our wonderful town will have walked past. I cannot work out how many times I have been past the property, on foot, bicycle or in a car, since we moved to the town in 1970, but it will be a big number.

The property itself, a shop front with living accommodation behind, is an Aladdin’s cave of antiques. The family have not added or taken much away from the property for the past 120 years, apart from a new kitchen and bathroom many years ago. Bizarrely, there are still the original gas lamp fittings mounted on the walls. These became redundant when electricity was installed, probably in the 1930s. I do apologise if our vans blocked the road when we cleared the property!

Whilst we will be selling the contents over several specialist auctions, the majority will be offered in our July three-day auction on the 5th, 6th and 7th. This auction comprises decorative arts & mid-century modern on 5th, pictures, books & maps on 6th and then antiques & interiors on 7th.

As usual for me, there are a couple of stand-out lots in this auction, but there is one which is on the top of my wish list – a pair of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson oak bookends, in 5th July decorative arts sale.

The bookends are carved with his workshop signature mouse and are also carved with the original owner’s initials, but far more importantly they are dated 1940.

This date is significant as rarely do we see dated pieces. In addition, the company was still quite young in 1940 making these early pieces.

Despite not being in the best of condition, the bookends really need a good clean and polish, they are estimated at £400-600 and suspect they will easily double this. Personally, I would love to own them. However, I already have a modern pair, which I famously bought at a Charterhouse auction for more than you can buy them for new, and am not sure Mrs B will sanction yet another auction purchase at this level as she would rather book a holiday!

At Bill Butters Windows Ltd we offer total window, door and conservatory solutions. Based in Sherborne we design, manufacture, supply and install high quality aluminium and uPVC products using market leading suppliers to service both the retail and commercial sectors.

For more information visit our website or come down to the showroom.

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