May 1st 1942: A German bomb lands in Bolam St Andrew's church, deep in rural Northumberland

Today's Northumbrian Church Project visit was St Andrew's Bolam; which is magicfully atmospheric. 

It includes a Saxon tower, mostly Norman-style otherwise (round arches), with some rebuilding (pointed arches) done in the 1200s, and some more later. 

The church is located in a gorgeous and secluded churchyard; we spent well over an hour looking around and picnicking, and had the place entirely to ourselves. 

However, the ancient church was very nearly blown-up late on on 1st May 1942, when a Dornier 217, being chased by fighters, ejected its four bombs - one of which burst through the wall of the church. 

The small rectangular window and surrounding oblong stones, slightly to the right of the middle of the picture, constitutes the repaired section, where the bomb penetrated the church wall.  

What happened next, and the happy conclusion some fifty years later, is described in a video interview with an eye witness. 

It may be of interest to foreigners that this lady speaks with a North Northumbrian dialect - which is spoken by only perhaps a few thousand inhabitants of this least-densely populated part of England. 

It is surely one of the gentlest, most soothing and entrancing, of English accents.