Catalogue

This is a list of forty-nine men and boys whe came from Penkhull who gave their lives in World War 1.

The Rood Screen was promoted as a suitable memorial in the church at Penkhull and was provided by weekly house to house collections of just 6d all that most families could afford.

Air Raids hit North Staffordshire for the first time in June 1940
It was midsummers night, 24th June 1940that a sole German bomber, probably heading for Shelton Iron and Steel using the line of Penkhull Church spire and the Infirmary chimney as landmarks, came over the village of Penkhull and dropped four bombs in the vicinity with the death of one person Mr. Harry Beeston in Newcastle Lane.

Penkhull Home Guard was manning as usual the church tower and heard the plane coming distinguished by its sound. Frank Marsden, sergeant on duty that night and records that fearful moment of the realisation that they were about to be hit. I could hear the plane and instinctively knew that it was a German Messerschmitt, we had been trained to listen out for. It came from the south, just over Thistley Hough and then suddenly the whistling sound of the bomb dropping brought fear to all of us high up the tower. Instinctively, we crouched down holding on to our tin helmets fearing the worst and then we heard the explosion nearby. My first thoughts were ‘thank God’,This short introduction to this 1000 word essay is just a fraction of whats to follow and what happened to the other three bombs that droped that night?