MORE than 70 years ago, Altrincham was rocked by a devastating explosion during the Blitz.

Families were ripped apart and destroyed when a bomb fell on houses at the corner of Oakfield Road and Moss Lane, on December 23, 1940.

Twelve people - including four children - died in the bomb blast.

Messenger chief reporter Chris Griffin has been peeling back the pages of history to uncover the stories behind that grim statistic...

THIS Altrincham family was destroyed by the Oakfield Road bomb during the Blitz.

Five-year-old Allan Hough, and his mum Nancy, aged 33, were killed when a bomb hit their home.

Allan’s brother, David, aged two, also died in the explosion.

The boys’ soldier father, Ernie, aged 28, - pictured with Nancy and Allan - only escaped being killed with his family because his leave had ended several days earlier, and he had returned to his unit.

Nine other people died during a bombing raid when an explosive fell on houses at the corner of Moss Lane and Oakfield Road in Altrincham, shortly before 8.30pm on December 23, 1940.

This photograph of little David was taken just a week before he died with his mother and brother in the cellar of his home.

A neighbour, Margaret Carney, aged 36, was sheltering in the Houghs’ cellar, and she was also killed. Her husband, John, was serving in the Army.

The chain of events has come to light more than 70 years later, after Ernie’s sister, Marjorie Haslam (nee Hough) and their cousin, Eric Woodward, relived them.

They spoke to the Messenger after reading a recent Messenger report on the bomb blast.

Marjorie, aged 91, recalled how she was taking refuge with her parents and sister in a cellar in nearby Ashfield Road, Altrincham, during the raid, and they heard the bomb drop.

Afterwards her father, Ernest, went to see how Nancy and the children were - and he found their house had been destroyed.

Marjorie said: “When he came back he could not speak, he collapsed and we had to get the doctor out.

“The children were lovely. David was a little mischievous, more so than Allan. Allan had just started at Stamford Park School in September.

“They were all going to spend Christmas with us.”

Eric, aged 84, of Timperley, said: “Ernie had gone back to his unit only days before the bomb was dropped.”

Eric, who was 13 when the bomb fell, said: “It was terrible. All the family were destroyed. That is the cost of war.”

Ernie later remarried but he did not have any more children. He died aged 55.

A dog that was found alive in the rubble on a pram with a dead child in it belonged to another family that was wiped out, the Sanders’ family, said Marjorie. Peter, aged 32, and Gladys Sanders, aged 28, and their son Kenneth, aged two, were all killed at 43 Moss Lane. Marjorie said the Sanders ran the corner shop.