A MAP detailing the location of bombs dropped in Hendon during the Blitz has been uncovered by a great-grandfather who made in the Forties.

As a 15-year-old, Ron Girdler would cycle to the sites damaged by German aircraft attacks and mark them on a Hendon street plan.

The original map shows the position of dozens of explosions within the old borough boundaries, and notes the type of bomb, as well as the number of people killed or injured.

Now 84 and living in Surrey, Mr Girdler chose to dig out the document from storage as Londoners mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the Blitz on the capital.

The married great-grandfather of one, whose childhood home was in Court Way, Colindale, said: “Every night when we heard the alarms, we went down and sheltered.

“We heard the bombs coming down and the next day I went round on my bike to see where they had landed.

“It was just a matter of interest. I went round looking at the damage that had been caused.

“I don't know if I got every one that fell in Hendon, because some of them were so far away, but I marked the ones I could cycle to.”

From 1940 until he joined the RAF in 1944, Mr Girdler marked the bombs that fell in the Hendon borough, which at the time covered Edgware, Burnt Oak, Mill Hill, Hendon, Colindale, Golders Green and Cricklewood.

He noted during the flying bomb period, there were 380 siren alarms, 12 flying bombs landed, 203 people injured or killed, and 5,300 buildings damaged.

The map, now yellowed and held together with sticky tape and plasters, uses a key to indicate whether a mine, a pilotless plane, an ordinary bomb or an incendiary or oil bomb had fallen in the area.

Most of the targets on the plan were along what is now the Northern Line, and the former Christ College Finchley pupil, who went on to be a research chemist after his time in the RAF, said: “One night Colindale station was completely obliterated after a bomb landed on it.

“I was dismayed to see the damage and it was upsetting. But the wartime atmosphere was fantastic, everyone was helping everyone else. There was quite a good spirit around.

“At the time I was interested in what was going on in the war. I just held on to the map for sentimental value and now it is a historical record for the area.”