quaint shoppies an' hoosies an' fowk wi' no foe

prayer

We lived at ai time o' Britain's dark days,
But Week didna gie ade much thocht,
No foreign dictator wid cheinge wur ould ways,
On far distant land war wis focht.

They warned us be ready for German attack,
'Weekers at war' could ye see iss,
We didna ken then 'at times wis so black,
But soon we wid cheinge wur ideas.

Life was chuist normal in humble Bank Row,
Far feh ai toffs an' ai chentry,
Quaint shoppies an' hoosies an' fowk wi' no foe,
An' bairns ran aboot ai Black Entry.

Then in feh ai west droned a beeg German plane,
Ades cargo spelt deith in ade's belly,
Till bomb Week harbour wis 'Cherry's' game,
Lower Poltney wid shake lek a chelly.

Twa bombs hit direct in ai middle o' Bank Row,
Ai blast caused complete devastation,
Shoppies an' hoosies all wrecked in wan blow,
In ai first daylight raid on 'iss nation.

Fifteen were killed, on 'iss black fateful day,
Few oot 'iss blast could survive,
Seven were bairns at their innocent play,
Ai youngest chuist creiters o' five.

Sorrow an' grief, an' destruction by 'Fritz',
Lower Poltney can still show ai scar,
We canna compare id wi' ai London Blitz,
But now we kent all aboot war.

Bank Row 1st July 1940
WT Lyall Caithness dialect

The Bank Row memorial garden.
A tribute to the 18 Scots - including ten children - killed in the first daylight Nazi air raids on mainland Britain.

Fifteen people, including eight children aged from five to 16, died when a lone Junkers 88 bomber flew out of low cloud to attack Wick harbour and dropped two bombs on the town's Bank Row a populated street in the Lower Pultneytrown area on 1 July, 1940 - two months before the London Blitz.

Three more civilians - two children and a woman - were killed on 26 October, 1940, in the Caithness town's Hill Street near the aerodrome at RAF Wick, when three Heinkels dropped over 20 high-explosive bombs during an attack on the base.

The site of the Bank Row bombing has remained derelict ever since the 1940 raid and a gap remains in the street where homes were destroyed.