Rebuilding Plymouth

From the collection of

The Box
Established in 1992, the South West Film & Television Archive collection spans from 1893 to the present day containing more than 250,000 items. Formed from a variety of depositors, including broadcast news and programmes material from the Westward and TSW archive. In 2018 the archive collection transferred to The Box in Plymouth.

Rebuilding Plymouth


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

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.


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