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Late on the night of Thursday 8th January, 1987, Wickwar local policeman PC Nick Shaw smelt gas in the High Street. He immediately alerted the emergency services and then set about rousing sleeping residents. Nine minutes later the first fire appliances arrived and continued the operation, evacuating 39 people to the Social Club. A further two elderly residents were moved to Yate Cottage Hospital. The Avon Emergency Plan was put into operation and an incident room was set up in the Community Centre...
 Efforts to contain the situation failed and early the next morning the
gas main exploded, destroying one house and seriously damaging two
others. Thankfully, no-one was injured in the blast. John Price says,
“The explosion disrupted village life for many weeks. The main road was
closed at the top of North Street to traffic from Chipping Sodbury, and
there was no entry to traffic approaching from either Wotton-under-Edge
or the Downs Road.”
 John also recalls,
traffic did, in fact, find an unofficial route via the then undeveloped
yard adjoining the newsagent’s shop (now Arkells Court) off the High
Street, through the industrial estate to Downs Road.”
Subsequently
the Gas Board replaced their pipes through the village with a low
pressure main, and a weight restriction was imposed on the section of
the High Street between North Road and the Downs Road. It was thought
that heavy vehicles, especially where two quarry lorries would try to
pass on the hill which happened frequently before the introduction of
the traffic lights, had caused the gas main to fracture, at a time when
the ground was frozen hard.
Val Johnson, who lived at 7 High Street, and still does, remembers the explosion vividly.
“In
the early hours of 9th January we heard our neighbour, Nick Shaw,
hammering at the door and shouting ‘Bob’ through the letter-box. He had
arrived home late from his shift as a policeman and heard what he
thought was ‘his neighbour falling out of bed’; upon going into the
street he discovered it was a major gas leak. It was a case of ‘get up
and get out – quick’. We threw on some clothes, grabbed the dog and
hastily knocked up the people in the immediate vicinity, then retired
to the Social Club where we sat around talking – and looking rather
longingly at the bar.
The man from the gas board
assured us that we would be home again by mid-morning at the latest. At
6 a.m. Nick’s timer went off and his house went up. We were safe and,
mercifully, the emergency services had managed to tackle the explosion
without loss of life.
“It was almost a year before we went back
to number 7. Nick’s home was demolished and the houses on either side
extensively damaged. We lost many things that were precious to us, such
as pictures, books and photographs. The examination coursework which I
had so carefully marked during the holiday was distributed to the
winds, and turned up in the most unlikely places. Our dog did not
recover from the trauma.
“Today, in our attic there are
piles of charred books; a faint smell of smoke still pervades the desk
so painstakingly restored by Glyn of The Bell Antiques. But what I most
remember is the kindness shown by the firemen when they escorted us
next morning to salvage a few essentials; the swift way in which the
council found us a flat and Kingswood Social Services provided us with
some furniture; the practical and emotional support given by our
friends and colleagues; the love and care in which our three children
surrounded us; and last, but not least, the people of Wickwar who
welcomed us home with a handsome cheque.”
 
(From Wickwar Parish News Millennium Issue, January 2000 with a few alterations and additions)
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History