Dark Shadows Over Coronation Close is the brand new instalment in the Coronation Close Saga, which is set in Bristol.
Like many other British cities, Bristol was distributing gas masks as early as 1938 and instructions were being distributed for what to do in the event of a gas attack – which never actually happened. Advice was also given about what to do with pets but I cover this more fully in War Orphans.
Mobile recruiting stations were being set up. For some men, it offered the chance of getting three square meals a day following the deprivations of the lean years of the Depression. Above all else it fascinated me to know that Bristol Airport, which was in Whitchurch at that time, erected fencing around its perimeter. In the twenties and thirties, it mainly served as an entertainment venue with just a few national flights to Ireland and a handy pitch for those lucky enough to own their own single-seat ‘fun’ aeroplane. As war loomed more menacingly, air traffic increased and the site became more heavily guarded. Barrage balloons appeared in a bid to deter an enemy that had not yet come.
It is little known that Bristol had been identified as being far enough from enemy incursion for it to remain open to civilian traffic which continued throughout the war. In fact, it was the only civilian airport operating on the British mainland in WW2. Celebrities, politicians and more dubious characters flew in and out of Bristol whose main flight path by then was to Lisbon in neutral Portugal. From there it was possible to fly across the Atlantic to America.
The fact that such a connection attracted spies was not lost on the intelligence services who kept a weather eye on who was flying in and out of the airport. You could say that Bristol was our Casablanca – though I don’t think we had a Rick’s Bar!