AN AIR raid brought devastation to the industrial area of Broadheath during the Blitz, seventy-four years ago.

A parachute mine was dropped on a works area in Broadheath - hitting and totally destroying a sweet factory at the corner of Huxley Street and Wright Street.

The blast - at 8.50pm on October 25, 1941 - killed eight people, seriously injured 17 and caused minor injuries to another 26.

It landed directly on the factory, Long's Coronation Confectionery Works. Afterwards, there was no trace left of the building except for a four feet deep crater, which was 20 feet in diameter.

Bundles of paper bags from the factory were found two miles away.

Another parachute mine landed 350 feet away from the first one in a railway yard, leaving a crater three feet in diameter.

Two wagons loaded with scrap iron were thrown over and others damaged.

As well as the sweet factory the bombs damaged 10 other factories, as well as St Alban's Church School, on Sinderland Road and some shops.

Nine houses were totally destroyed, 14 so badly damaged they had to be demolished, while 655 houses sustained some damage.

An Anderson bomb shelter 2,725ft away, where 24 people were taking refuge, withstood the blast and the occupants escaped unharmed. But the next day it collapsed.

This catalogue of destruction is detailed in a booklet by local historian George Cogswell which looks back at this period of the Second World War to show the impact of the Blitz on the area - 'The Altrincham Blitz, 1940-41'.

It was not surprising that Broadheath was a target, as it was a significant industrial area. At its height 12,000 people worked there and it was the location for some well known firms.

Also located there was one of the Royal Air Force's main munitions sites, off Dairyhouse Lane.

Those killed in the Broadheath raid were Jemima Cockram, 64; James Cunnane, 69; John Toft, 59; Catherine Lowndes, 65, and her husband John, 66; Thomas Mason, 51, Eric Moors, 24, and his wife, Marion, 20.

The attack on Broadheath was the second highest loss of life in the area during the Blitz. Ten months earlier, 12 people had been killed when a bomb hit houses on Oakfield Road, Altrincham.

The Broadheath air raid was, thankfully, the last major attack that the area had to contend with during the Blitz.