HAVING answered Martin Birtle’s shell question at the foot of the previous page, he lobs another query at us.

“About 15 years ago, my aunt, Winifred Thompson, who’s still going strong, purchased a 1914 diary at a car boot sale which had been written by a young lad of maybe ten years of age who came from Middleton One Row,” he says.

“The entries suggest that the bombardment of Hartlepool was such a sensation that a couple of days afterwards, he and his family took the train to see the damage for themselves.

“As they went past Greatham, he wrote of seeing huge shell holes in the fields and of the strong smell of cordite.

“Aunt Win made inquiries in Middleton One Row and found surviving siblings to whom she returned the diary. This begs the question: did Hartlepool become a short-lived tourist attraction after the bombardment?”

The answer appears to be both yes and no. Many Hartlepudlians packed all their belongings into carts and headed for the hills – there are reports of refugees reaching as far away as Middleton in Teesdale. For days afterwards, there were aftershocks: every blur on the Hartlepool horizon was feared to be the next invasion force which caused more frightened people to flee.

But while they were running away from the coast, curious sightseers were heading towards it for a rubbernecking session.

Certainly Scarborough was inundated. Two days after the bombardment, The Northern Echo carried pictures of a crowded seafront watching the British Navy conduct a reassurance exercise out at sea. The paper also carried a lovely picture of rapscallions selling souvenir pieces of shrapnel to some visitors.

Martin’s story of the diary begs an even bigger question: where is it? Can anyone in Middleton One Row lay their hands on it?

The Northern Echo:
Selling Scarborough souvenirs of the bombardment

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