JANUARY 2 1941 - A DARK DAY OF WAR
Let's start with perhaps the blackest day in Grangetown history. It came in the Second World War on
2 January 1941, when an air-raid during the full moon caused widespread casualties in the city. It
started at teatime - 6.37pm - and Grangetown was the first area to be hit. Hollyman's Bakery, on the
corner of Corporation Road and Stockland Street, saw its large cellar used as a bunker for local people.
But the three-storey premises took a direct hit by a landmine and 32 people in the shelter were killed.
The bomb, which ended up in the cellar floor, left an 8ft pile of rubble.
The dead included baker Alfred John Hollyman, 74, son William, daughter-in-law Margaret, 12-yearold granddaughter Joan and daughter Ethel, 43. Brother William survived, as he was sheltering at
another premises nearby. Others who died here included Elizabeth Williams, 56, and Thomas
Williams, 68, both from Stockland Street; Philip and Lilian Morgan; and Magdalene Maude Wells, 51,
from Llanbradach Street.
It was thought the remains of those who perished were buried on the site, but descendants later
discovered two Hollymans were buried in a city cemetery. Around 20 unknown victims were also
buried at the spot. Many were probably children, as Alfred was heard to be calling children into the
shelter after the air-raid siren was heard.
There were at least another 30 casualties in Grangetown that night, during 10 hours of bombing, until
the all-clear sirens sounded after 4.50am on 3 January.
They included nine people in nearby Clydach Street, including Thomas and Caroline Lyons , 56 and
48,and their 14-year-old son John at No 8. Next door at No 10, David and Emma Jones, both in their
80s, were killed along with their three daughters Blanche, Annie and Emily, aged between 47 and 50.
There were also a number of homes destroyed in Jubilee Street in Saltmead - with Thomas and
Mary Nicholls, their 20-year-old daughter Muriel and a four-year-old boy, Neil Charimontie, killed at
No 66. Three blocks of maisonettes were later built in the place of the damaged houses.
According to the school records from the time, as well as damage to Jubilee Street from a land mine,
Compton Street, Stafford Road, Allerton Street, Monmouth Street and Court Road also
sustained heavy damage. A bomb fell in Maitland Place demolishing part of Saltmead Hall. Court
Road School was also closed due to the extensive damage. Three were killed in the air raid in
Bromsgrove Street, while the Grangetown National School was forced to close, because of an
unexploded bomb 20 yards away. All families from St Fagans Street, Knole Street and Worcester
Street were evacuated.
Seven more were killed at the corner of Ferry Road and Holmesdale Street, including brothers
Ivor and William Dix - both married men. James Griffiths, a special sergeant, who lived in Cambridge
Street had gone into one of the homes demolished by a bomb and brought out the body of a dead boy
and an injured girl, crying for her mother. The girl died within hours and it was months before the
body of her mother was found deep in the rubble. Sgt Griffiths, who also spent three days helping to
dig at the wreckage of the Hollyman's shelter, was called to deal with many incendiary bombs in the
Grangetown and Docks areas. He was awarded a BEM by King George later that year. His widow
Elizabeth recalled 40 years later that the experience of civilian casualties for this Great War veteran
took its toll and he died in 1952. "All he did was wander around in a daze," she recalled of the
aftermath.
Others were killed in Paget Street, Penhaved Street, Pentrebane Street and the Taff
Embankment, or were killed when bombs dropped while they were in Canton, Riverside and Docks.
Locals recalled being kept inside the Ninian cinema, which was showing an Abbott and Costello film
and not emerging until it was safe at 2am, but seeing the blazing remains of the bakery as they
returned home.
The death toll across the city that night saw 165 dead, 427 hurt and nearly 350 homes destroyed or
had to be demolished. Chapels and Llandaff Cathderal were also damaged. Riverside, neighbouring to
Grangetown, also suffered when a landmine dropped on De Burgh Street, killing 50, while you can see
a plaque on the rebuilt Conservative club in Neville Street and the newer houses which now stand on
the spot were properties were demolished. Twelve relations who had been to a family funeral earlier in
the day were killed in Blackstone Street. Due to censorship and reporting restrictions, there were scant
details in the Western Mail of the day beyond the headlines. The families were not even able to place
notices to the dead.
But life also went on and in the week that followed both Rex Harrison and a young Lawrence Olivier
were appearing in plays at the Prince Of Wales and Park Hall theatres in town.
Across Cardiff, more than 2,100 bombs fell between June 1940 - the first raid was at 12.55am - and
20th May 1943, with the final raid recorded at 1.45am; altogether, the death toll in air raids was 355,
with more than 500 injured.
There is a plaque to those who died at the bakery site, erected by Grangetown Local History Society
on the wall of Clarence Hardware shop, which now stands now on the spot.
'I left for work as usual, unaware of the tragedy that had happened'
JOHN WILLIAMS, who was the bread delivery boy at Hollymans, tells his story. In 1939, I was 13 and
still in Court Road School. At 14, I started to work at Hollyman The Bakers, who had their premises at
Corporation Road on the corner of Stockland Street, where the bakery was and in the yard. Joining
was the stable that had one berth for horses. The family had two, one was in a field in Penarth Road.
I started at 8am delivering bread in a four-wheeled covered van. Bill Hollyman showed me how to
assemblt all the trappings of the harness beforehand. Then in a matter of months, I was grooming,
feeding and doing this job myself.
My road was Corporation Road, into Coedcae Street, Taff Embankment, across Penarth Road bridge,
into Percy Street, Harpur Street, back into Penarth Road, up the hill the left into St Mary Street,
across the junction of Wood Street and into High Street delivering long loaves to the Bungalow Cafe
on the right hand side. Then Castle Street through the Hayes into Bute Road, left into Tyndall Street.
Turn around, then left into Bute Street proper, into Mount Stuart Square where one of our
customers lived in the top flat of a building, so I had to take the lift up to deliver her loaf. From there
into James Street. It never happened every day but some days I had to wait for the swing bridge to
open and shut to let the Bowles sand dredger leave her berth to go out into the local channel to do
her dredging. This operation took at least a quarter of an hour to complete. We had a couple of
customers in Hunter Street and Pomeroy Street, back over the iron Clarence Road Bridge, which was
a hazard with a four-wheel van because of the tram lines. Then into Ferry Road, into Kent Street,
Holmesdale Street, Grange Gardens and back into Corporation Road.
I remember a rather funny incident where I was seeing to a customer in Corporation Road with the
horse stationery in the gutter, when there was a very loud noise coming from our rear. The horse
shot off and galloped back to our bakery. Luckily, someone caught him. There was me running after
him. The noise was an American tank trundling down Corporation Road. We had a good laugh at the
time, but it was serious really.
The round I have just described was just one of three I had altogether. It was hard work for a young
man like myself in all weathers; in summer and winter, in wartime. They talk about "pressure" today,
but they don't know what they're talking about.
I call it "fate" but the night of the bombing of 2nd January 1941, when most of the Hollyman family
lost their lives and many more people as well. The night before, I was actually down that shelter
after my round was finished and I had bedded down the horse, Dolly. I was invited into the house
and had a bowl of lovely hot soup before going home. The next night, after completing my round,
Bill Hollyman said to me "I think you had better go straight home because your mother and father
will be worried about you." So I left, and spent the night with my family - my parents, brother and
sister - in an Anderson shelter out our back in Devon Street. It was night of bombing and indendiary
bombs. The noise was incessant. It was a long night and I cannot remember whether we had any
sleep that night. Well, the next morning (January 3rd), I left for work as usual, unaware of the
tragedy that had happened until I turned the corner of Stockland Street.
I saw a smoking ruin of a three-storey house and shop, with bodies wrapped up on stretchers being
removed. There was a thick layer of ice in patches over the ruins. It had been a freezing night and
morning. The horse in the stable was all right, only yards away. As far as I can remember, Mr Jack
Hollyman was there - he lived with his wife in Lansdowne Avenue East in Canton. He told me to go
home and he would carry on the business in a few weeks time and would call me later.
About six weeks later, we were back on rounds and I worked in the bakery with the old baker
Charlie, who lived in Channel View Road. Jack Holllyman and I stayed there until I was called up into
the army on 17th August 1944.