80 Years Turnchapel

A Memory of Turnchapel.

Hi, my name is William John Maunder and I am 81 years old and my first memory of Turnchapel is the early years of the WW2 . At the time I was living at Crownhill at that time on the outskirts of Plymouth, today day near B&Q store below Derraford Hospital. My memory is one morning going to school I was confronted by the sight of oil tanks burning at Turnchapel thick black smoke towering over the city with flames licking from the the top after being bombed that night by the Germans. My Dad told me many times how he was involved and if you are interested I can tell you his story. In fact I would like to confirm what he told me had actually happened or had I dreamed the story up with my age.

In later years I trained as a Building Surveyor with Dudley Coles which involved working on contracts at RAF Mount Batten from 1954 to 1965. That time to get to Turnchapel I used the steam ferries from the Barbican. The ferries were steam driven and named: Arrow, Rapid and there were a couple more and the names I cannot recall. I remembered the smell and smoke from the high funnel and the boiler room. Also the crewman slipping the mooring ropes over the well warn Sampson post as we came along side the pier. At that time Sunderland's were stationed at MB and many many times I watched them take of or land in the sound. Other times going into the hangers to watch RAF personal working on these wonderful machines. One of the contracts I was involved in was the cladding of the North side of the rock face under the tower concrete that can clearly be seen today.

I hope I am not boring you but at may age I will be the last persons to remember the war being born Jan 1936 I have clear memories of the war starting. In fact my dads sister, her husband and their daughter were killed in the bombing 1941/2. That I can remember very clearly.

William John Maunder