The Bombed Milestone, Victoria Park

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 20 Apr 2013

This marker stone, with the top broken off by a World War I bomb, was the fifth milestone standing beside the A57, Prescot to Warrington, road at Bold on 12 April 1918, when five German naval Zeppelins made the last effective airship raid on England. Zeppelin L61 from Wittmundhaven, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Ehrlich with a crew of 19, crossed our coast at Withernsea and flew almost to Crewe before turning north and crossing the Mersey at about 18,000 feet above Halton. At 11.17pm, the first of its bombs fell damaging the milestone, the road surface, a water main and doing some minor damage to adjacent property. There were no casualties here. A second bomb dropped three minutes later made a crater seven feet deep and fifteen feet across, in a field at Abbots Hall Farm, Bold. The Zeppelin went on to bomb Ince and Wigan before returning safely to her base. The night was dark and overcast, added to which, the effectiveness of the official blackout prevented accurate navigation, so that the airship commander reported in his log that he had bombed Sheffield. The light from blast furnaces of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, which had received no air raid warning, attracted L61. Seven people were killed and twelve injured at Wigan and a further four injured at Aspull. The milestone was kept in Victoria Park at Widnes for many years, as a reminder of the second of the only two Zeppelin raids on Lancashire. Some people refer to it as "The Zeppelin Stone". Image] http://www.pmsa.org.uk/pmsa-database/5300/ Public Monuments & Sculpture Association

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0