Old Trafford Bombed — Manchester Blitz, December 1940

Old Trafford had hosted Test cricket since 1884. By 1940 it was the home ground of Lancashire CCC, England's most populous county club. The proximity of Trafford Park and its strategic factories (Ford, Westinghouse, Metropolitan-Vickers) made the area a natural Luftwaffe target.

Manchester had been bombed sporadically through 1940; the Christmas raids of 22-24 December were the heaviest and best-coordinated, exploiting the moonlit nights and the absence of strong RAF night-fighter cover.

The Manchester Blitz of 22-24 December 1940 killed an estimated 684 people and injured more than 2,000. Trafford Park, the world's first planned industrial estate, was a primary Luftwaffe target. Old Trafford cricket ground sat alongside Manchester United's football stadium on the south side of the estate; both were caught in the bombing pattern.

Lancashire CCC's archives record direct hits on the members' dining room and the groundsman's quarters. The pavilion's roof was holed, the timber stand on the bowler's-end side splintered, and the playing surface gouged by debris. The football ground next door took a more complete hit on 11 March 1941 — Manchester United did not play home games at Old Trafford until 1949.

The cricket ground had already been requisitioned by the War Office in mid-1940. Returning Dunkirk troops were billeted there in tents in early June; the indoor school became a quartermaster's stores. After December 1940 it was converted to a transit camp and supply depot for the duration. Lancashire's playing programme had effectively ended in September 1939; minor wartime fixtures only resumed in 1944.

Repairs to the pavilion were largely complete by 1947. The Lancashire 1946 yearbook printed a picture of the bomb-damaged dining room beside one of the new replacement. The 1948 Test at Old Trafford — the third in that year's Ashes — was the ground's first post-war Test.