An unexploded bomb that fell near R Lowndes shop in Skegness has been officially unveiled as part of the town's VE/VJ80 celebrations. Here Anne Lowndes tells the fascinating story....
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00:00Thank you all for attending today. This is a very, very special day for this establishment.
00:06I'm going to pass you over to Anne, who's going to tell you a little bit more about
00:10today and how special and what it means and why today, on the 80th anniversary of the
00:15VE Day celebrations, why it's very significant to both, well, to the entire family, the establishment,
00:22the staff. Anne, would you like to give us a bit more on it?
00:26Yeah, of course I can. So in 1941, in January, the bomb started across the road at the bank
00:32and hours dropped outside our shop on a gas main. And the bomb actually didn't go off,
00:40but the gas main did. And blew all the shop windows in and slugged my grandfather and John's
00:48great-grandfather across the room, smashed him against the wall. But luckily, all he had
00:53was a few bruises. So today, we have our bomb been returned to us very lovingly. We had,
01:00my dad was in the fire ambulance and for many, many years, it stood up, keeping a door open,
01:07to keep the door open. And it just stayed there until the ambulance and the fire split. And
01:14when the fire went to their new building and the ambulance went to their building, the bomb,
01:21we didn't know what happened for many, many, many years, until 18 months ago, I was at a friend's
01:2880th birthday party. And she said, I think you need to speak to somebody. And this lady was Mrs. Smith.
01:35And I couldn't believe it because I found that they then, the bomb was there because their father
01:44was a fire, an ambulance and went to the fire. And then eventually, nobody knew what to do with it.
01:50So he took it to his garage and propped his door open, which I didn't know that until this morning.
01:58But I thought that was a really nice little bit. But we have with us. So this is John, who is the
02:03great-grandson of Grandpa Lowndes. And I'm the great, I'm the, well, no, not great. I'm the granddaughter.
02:10I know you're not great.
02:11I just wear better. And then the lovely Warren here and his wife, Tina, is his mother had the bomb
02:20in their garage with Mr. Smith as well. And so what a lovely story we have. And I'm so proud that
02:27we've got it back in our shop today, where it fell in 1941.
02:32Has it been diffused?
02:36Apparently, yes. Apparently, we do have a diffusal man right on the end. So I'm hoping.
02:45You're going to pass it to Tracy then?
02:46Yeah. So I'll just pass it on to Tracy because she's amazing.
02:50Just a one-minute silence. There's a lot of respect.
02:53And then the bomb's going to be all the way.
02:57So, yeah, I'd just like to thank Jackie over here. Thank you, darling.
03:17And obviously my staff, or some of our staff, some couldn't be here today.
03:20But anyway, and then the next job is asking a very special young man to unveil the bomb.
03:26Are we ready, Henry?
03:27So this is Henry Willoughby. We'll move out of the way.
03:36Thank you very much.