The History of Ruddington Depot
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Post War Changes
A post war tragedy
Nottingham Evening Post 16th April
1946
The press report
of Ernest Hopewell's InquestThere were no fatal accidents on the Depot
during the war and the local community suffered no war damage or casualties
on the one occasion bombs fell in the area, but tragedy did occur in 1946.
It struck the Horspool family who were the village bakers and shocked everyone
who lived nearby. The victim’s sister-in-law described what happened:
“The war had ended and Col had just come home from being in the army. His name was Ernest Hopewell, but we always called him Col. It was his nickname. He had been a driver in the army and had been at the front of the first convoy which went into one of the German concentration camps, after it had been taken over. He had seen dreadful, terrible things and was glad it was all over. He had to get a job so he started driving one of the delivery vans.
One day he stopped on Loughborough Road and sat in the driving seat while the assistant with him went to deliver the bread to the Chief Constable’s house. Before she came back, a big lorry carrying a tank came round the bend in the road and the tank broke loose and rolled right over onto the top of the van and crushed it.
Col was buried in Shaw Street cemetery. His wife Clara (nee Horspool) was devastated. She was pregnant at the time, although she did not know it. When the baby was born several months later she said ‘What can I do? I can’t call a girl Col’. I said ‘Why don’t you call her Colleen? That’s a girls name’. So she did.”
Ernest Hopewell was the only person in the locality to die as a result of activities carried out at the Depot during the whole of its existence.
The Story > Chapter 5 > Section 5.05