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| Bomb damage to Leeds City Museum, 1941 (Courtesy of the Yorkshire Evening News) |
15th March 1941 was a dark day for
Leeds Museums and the moment everything changed is recorded forever
on this weather chart which was recording atmospheric pressure in the
meteorological window of the museum.
The moment of the blast is
indicated by an arrow on the chart, and the dramatic inkblot resulted
when the barometer stopped working a week later.
Leeds escaped lightly
compared with other industrial cities but did suffer nine air-raids
and the worst raid was that of 14th-15th March 1941. At 3 am a bomb
crashed through the roof of the bird room in the City Museum (then on
Park Row) and the explosion destroyed the roof and floor of the front
half of the building.
Fortunately no-one was seriously hurt,
although both the foreman and a fire-watcher were caught in the blast
and suffered minor injuries from the debris. Many exhibits were less
fortunate and the main museum building (dating from 1819) had to be
demolished. The photograph above, courtesy of the Yorkshire Evening News,
shows the scene the morning after.
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| Leeds Philatelic Society items |
It was not
only the museum collections that were damaged or destroyed. The
Leeds Philatelic Society had lent items for a temporary exhibition at
the museum at the time. These bomb-damaged exhibits are currently on
display at Abbey House Museum to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of
the Society and can be viewed until the end of June 2015.
By Kitty Ross, Curator of Social History
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