This film is part of Free

Rebuilding Plymouth

Looking back at Plymouth Hoe where you can hear the band and see the 'Sound'

Non-Fiction 1950 5 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

A look at Plymouth before and after the Blitz, the pier, the bandstand, the Hoe. The first bombs were dropped on the 6 July 1940. Fifty-nine separate bombing attacks by the Nazi German Luftwaffe left most of the city in rubble. Schools, churches, businesses, Devonport dockyard and many other buildings were destroyed. Charles Church was destroyed on the 20 March 1941 and now stands as a memorial to the civilian casualties killed or injured during the Blitz.

Air raid shelters were organised underneath the guildhall and Devonport market, the first bomb was dropped on the North Prospect area of Plymouth, Stoke and Devonport where to areas badly hit during 1941. Devonport Column was built in 1842 to commemorate Devonport Dockyards new name, the Guildhall was bombed and rebuilt. St. Andrews Parish Church has ‘Resurgam’ meaning I Shall Rise Again in a plaque above the door as a reminder of the spirt of post-war Plymouth.