CWMFELINFACH residents remembered four locals killed during a 1941 bombing with the dedication of a new plaque yesterday.

Around 100 people attended a memorial service led by Reverend Ashley Hunt at Penllwyn Street where the new plaque was unveiled in memory of the Churchus family.

Reginald George Salway Churchus, 31, his wife Doris Lillian, 29 and their children Caroline May, six and Larry Desmond, five, all lived at number 10 in the street when they were killed as a result of the enemy action on February 26, 1941.

Ynysddu ward councillor Jan Jones, who chairs the Lower Sirhowy Valley Communities Partnership, said residents had asked for a plaque to remember the Churchus family leading to the partnership arranging the new plaque, funded by the council, to be placed on a nearby house.

Five houses including number 10 had to be demolished after the bombing but Islwyn Roberts, 83, who lives on the street and remembers the bombing said the plaque could be placed outside his house.

Mr Roberts said: "I remember being in the cinema as a young boy in the Workmen’s Hall. It was about 9.15pm and the cinema suddenly started to shake. It was a big bang. We were all very scared."

Mr Roberts didn’t live on the street at the time but his late sister Eluned lived in the house next door to the Churchus’. Luckily she was out at the time.

He said: "I didn’t go to the street until the next morning. My sister’s house and the Churchus’ house was all rubble on the floor. I remember seeing my niece’s cot hanging out of the window. The whole street was in shock."