Definately Not A Paint Tin! Woodford Wells

A Memory of South Woodford.

About a mile or so from South Woodford toward Buckhurst Hill, on the New Road, is Woodford Wells. My friend lived in the third house from the corner diagonally across from Bancrofts School. The house next door had been destroyed by a bomb, and all the wreckage had been taken away.
Another chum, my friend and I often played football on the vacant concrete pad where the house had been. One day our ball rolled down a hole and almost out of sight. We fished around with a stick trying to get it out without success.
After each if us had a go trying to get our ball back my friend yanked out a fairly big chunk of metal, perhaps an old paint can, then we realized it was the fin from a bomb. WOW! What a prize, we proudly took our latest souvenir to show his mum. She went next door to show it to the man who lived there.
He told us to keep well away from the 'hole' and called the police. They cordoned off the road and kept everyone back a few houses from the empty lot. We didn't realize that if we found the fin, the bomb was likely deeper in the hole and still very much alive!

That same day the Army dug it out and took it away, but they gave the fin back to my friend as a reward for finding it. I wonder if he still has it? Ah! Memories!
Denman Lalonde

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