6 days ago
Luftwaffe's only bomb dropped in Stirling during WW2 destroyed football club's stadium
The German bomber dropped the explosive on the home of Stirling's King's Park FC on July 20, 1940, with a number of nearby residents injured and several properties damaged.
This weekend marks 85 years since the Luftwaffe's bombing of Stirling, which resulted in the destruction of a football stadium, injuries to several residents and damage to numerous properties.
Saturday, July 20, 1940, was the fateful day when the German bomber dropped the explosive on the home of Stirling's King's Park FC.
The club had played at Forthbank Park, situated in the area of where Springbank Roundabout now sits, close to the railway line, from the late 19th century until the bombing.
Besides football, the stadium was also a venue for other sports events, including greyhound racing, and there were even plans to introduce cheetah racing in the 1930s.
However, Germany's only strike on the city during the war destroyed one of the stands and the turnstiles at the venue. The pitch itself was said to have "escaped with only a bombardment of large-sized boulders".
At the time, the Stirling Observer reported that the Nazis had dropped the bombs that morning, saying: "One of the bombs fell on a football ground enclosure and the blast wrecked a two-storeyed cottage and so extensively damaged a row of two-storeyed houses opposite the ground entrance that many families were rendered homeless.
"There were a number of casualties, all of which were stated to be slight."
The second bomb fell further into the country.
The Observer continued: "In the cottage near the football ground, a Mr and Mrs Hugh M'Coll were in an upstairs bedroom, and their two daughters, Miss Minnie and Miss Anne, were in a bedroom on the ground floor. Mr M'Coll's injuries necessitated his removal to an infirmary. His daughters received slight cuts.
"Residing in another part of the same building were Mrs Tom Tetstall and her three children, and Mr James Campbell, a blind man, all of whom escaped serious injury, although Mrs Tetstall and her young son required institutional treatment after being extricated from the debris.
"Mrs Tetstall and her children were saved from serious injury because the bed they were in half-telescoped and gave them a ready-made safety barrier from falling masonry."
Mr Campbell found himself trapped in an upstairs room but was swiftly rescued when Air Raid Precautions (ARP) workers brought a ladder to his aid.
The stand and turnstile entrance to the ground had to be taken down, and windows of houses nearby as well as plate-glass windows of businesses over a quarter of a mile away suffered damage.
In what might be described as the most extraordinary event of the air raid, a pet goldfish in a bowl in one of the destroyed cottages had its tail blown off. The Observer reported: "It seemed to be dead, but when a few drops of brandy were put in the water the goldfish revived."
A joiner found his windows intact, but the locks on his doors had been blown off in the blast. The handle of a door was also blasted off, embedding itself in the wall opposite.
Emergency ARP workers and ambulances rapidly arrived at the scene.
Dozens of families who were rendered homeless were "temporarily lodged in a poor law institution", affecting a total of 29 families.
King's Park FC promptly carried out temporary repairs to their stadium, managing to play two more matches there before the club was ultimately disbanded.
Five yearsafter the demise of King's Park, a new football club emerged. Local business man Thomas Ferguson started up Stirling Albion in 1945 and shortly after purchased the Annfield estate to construct the club's former Annfield home.
Annfield remained the main football stadium in Stirling until 1993 when Stirling Council constructed Forthbank Stadium, on the outskirts of Stirling, situatedless than a milefrom the location of the original Forthbank Park.
