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Local History Homework Answers

I hope you have enjoyed discovering more about Box during the Second World War.​ Here are the answers and more information if you are interested.

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  1. ​Rudolph Beck was the youngest German airman and he was aged 20. The others were Rudolph Kirchhoff, 31; Hans Fritz Merz, 22; Gunter Wittkamp, 24; and Johann Schmidt, 21. Four were from the same plane, shot down on 25 September 1940 at Woolverton; the fifth was killed in a separate action two days later. They were all transferred to the German War Graves Cemetery at Cannock Chase, Cheshire in 1963. http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/air-raids-on-box.html

  2.  18 men are recorded on the war memorial as losing their life in the Second World War. You can read     about who these men were and how they died at http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/servicemen--women.html

  3. Nothing to do with the war but there is an owl and 3 chicks on the wall watching Bingham House! Bingham Hall was built in 1905 and was wood framed with a corrugated iron roof. It was the main village hall until 1969 when the Selwyn Hall was built. During the war it had a canteen for military personnel, was used as an emergency assembly point and shelter, it was also used for dances, concerts, games evenings to keep up morale. It was even used as a blood donation centre with blood collected being sent to hospitals in France. Women would also use the centre to gather supplies such as jumpers they had knitted or bandages they had made.http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/life-at-home.html

  4. The Methodist Church was used as extra classrooms as they could not fit all the children into the school. During the Bath Blitz in April 1942, Box was designated an Emergency centre for those in Bath who had lost their homes. The Methodist Church along with the school, Bingham Hall and the skittle alley of the Lamb Inn were used for those evacuated from the city. http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/evacuee-children.html

  5. The British Legion club building was built by the HARDY family. For more information on what Box Home Guard did during the war visit http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/box-home-guard.html

  6. The clock was silenced so it could not be used by the enemy to help locate where they were. Tape was put on windows so if a bomb blasted nearby the glass would not shatter and hurt the people inside.

  7. The village siren would sound when the village was at threat from an air raid and bombing. If a family did not have a shelter in their garden, they would hide under their stairs or table. The children at Box School would practice putting the tables together so they could hide under them if the siren went off during school. http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/world-war-2-scrapbook.html

  8. Old fete field is now Bargates. To find out more about how we celebrated the end of the war visit http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/ve-day-1945.html

  9. The quarry inside Box Hill was used as a central ammunitions depot during the war so the pillbox was defending attack on both the railway and the ammunition depot.  http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/village--ammunitions-depot.html

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