FORMER Redditch publican George Galloway has seen some noisy nights in his time – but nothing had quite prepared the pensioner for Bonfire Night when a 4ft long rocket came crashing through his roof and pierced his kitchen ceiling.
The missile, a chunky plastic cylinder mounted on a stout stick, smashed through a concrete roofing tile, through the felt underlay, through the loft insulation and then into the plasterboard ceiling.
“There were fireworks going on all night – it was terrible,” said the 87 year old.
“About 9pm I got up to make a drink and found all these bits on the work surface and on the floor. I looked up and saw this hole in the ceiling.”
Luckily for George and his wife Edna they live next door to kind hearted neighbours Roger and Kate Broome and the former publican, who has run both The Brockhill and The Jolly Farmer in his time, got straight on the phone to them.
“There was a phenomenal amount of fireworks that night but I’d never seen anything like this before,” said Roger.
“The rocket had smashed through George’s concrete roof tile. It must have been going at a fair old lick, and you can imagine the sort of damage it would have done if it had gone through a window or hit someone.”
After inspecting the damage the next day Roger was up on the roof, extracting the rocket, replacing the tile and repairing the damage to kitchen ceiling.
“Goodness knows where it came from, it’s basically a solid piece of plastic mounted on a long stick, but it didn’t half do some damage.”
