MY daughter Christine and I were on duty at the Coffee Bar in Holy Trinity Church, Market Gate on the morning of March 20, 1993.

It was 12.20pm on that Saturday lunch time and we were vacuuming the carpets after a busy coffee bar.

We heard a bang, not very loud but sounding just as though something heavy had been dropped into the metal skips at the back of the church outside.

I remarked immediately to Christine, ‘that was a bomb’.

What has stayed in my mind was the silence which followed seemingly lasting for ages. Then loud screams – lots of them.

We both ran outside and looking towards Market Gate saw stunned, shocked and completely silent people looking down into Bridge Street.

Very soon people were running in every direction.

Immediately we went back into the church and put the water back on to boil and served hot drinks to the panicking, shocked people who had run into our building.

Some were staff from McDonald’s.

They kept saying ‘don’t go round there – it’s dreadful’.

We quickly checked the building for any suspicious packages or carrier bags.

As we tried to comfort the distressed the police came around and told everyone to get out of the town.

We just left everything as it was and took people outside. Among them were some 13 to 14-year-old girls who had come shopping into Warrington from Runcorn (one of them for the very first time) on their own. One of them was very distressed because she could not find her friend.

As we walked to my daughter’s car which was parked near to Palmyra Square we passed police and medics attending to dazed, shocked people all around. The sound of ambulance sirens was all around us. That sound has stayed with me.

The parents of these teenagers would have been so worried if they had heard about the bombing over the media so the natural thing to do was to take them safely home. We just managed to drive through Bridge Foot before the town was sealed off. We were fortunate, others had to leave their cars and walk home. All phone lines were blocked.

Our teenagers were delivered home safely. We kept in touch for a long time afterwards and at a later date they brought us a lovely gift each.

During the week after the bombing travelling on the local buses was very eerie. No-one spoke – the whole town was in shock.

The town centre churches were just beginning to make an effort to unite. This dreadful day speeded up this process and the churches were, as it were, thrown together. Now we have grown together. Good things have come about and the Peace Centre was formed.

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