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18th Anniversary of the Manchester bomb!

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Geraldine62 Mon 16-Jun-14 08:56:29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8rDB-1kE5o&feature=share

On June 16th 1996, I was trying to get to my part-time job in the city centre with my 15 year old daughter.
We tried to catch a local tram into the city, as we approached the station at Bowkervale approx 3 miles out of the centre, we heard a loud bang, then the trams were stopped, not having a mobile phone back then, we went to a local phone box and called for a taxi, I didn't want to be late for work, It was Euro 96 Manchester was going to be busy, the taxi got us as far as Great Ancoats Street, we had to make the rest of the way on foot, as we tried to make our way to China town, the police and fire brigade turned us back, people muttered there was a bomb, that was the loud bang we had heard! my heart went cold, people were telling us there were more suspected bombs, we took shelter with others until we returned home.
I never worked in the city again until 10 years later, it had taken me a long time to 'fall in love' again with my Manchester!
What are your memories of that day and how did it affect you?

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never2old Mon 16-Jun-14 12:08:31

We were away in our caravan on that day. Out in a field somewhere in Lancashire, can't remember where it was exactly but it was a very hot day and we stayed on site all day. We didn't have a TV, we didn't have the radio on and we knew absolutely nothing about it until heading towards Sunday lunch time the following day when someone in the caravan next to us had bought a newspaper. That was the first we knew about it. Had no idea of the devastation it had caused until we got home.

Like you say not many people had mobile phones then so it seems strange to have been so oblivious to what had happened. When I got home I rang to see if my sister was OK as she used to go into Manchester more or less every Saturday. I think on that particular day she missed the train or there was some reason why she didn't go. It always amazes me how nobody was killed.

I think it was June a couple of years ago when there was a huge gas explosion in Shaw near Oldham and a little 2 year old boy lost his life. So, so sad, he was the same age as my grandson at the time, can't even begin to imagine what his family must have gone through.

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Geraldine62 Mon 16-Jun-14 12:33:43

It seems to have escaped most people's memories, and is never really talked about, Never2Old, in fact the only reference to it came recently with the excellently written BBC One drama 'From There to Here' which ironically is no longer available on the iplayer
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01y475m

Sorry to hear about the young boy in Shaw how awful, his poor family.

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