I WRITE in response to Christopher Short's interesting and poignant letter (Spy ring involved in Rotherwas bombing? Letters, January 8), speculating about a Second World War spy ring associated with the Rotherwas munitions factory.

I believe this wartime incident could be connected with a story handed down in my family by my late aunt Evelyn 'Queenie' Godsall, and my late grandmother Agnes Dry.

My recollection is exactly corroborated by my cousin Terry Godsall, the son of my late aunt, and also by my living aunt Patricia Brown, her younger sister.

This aunt tells me that the incident would have taken place no later than 1940, which is when the family left Bodenham Road.

My widowed grandmother was living with the family in a house high on Bodenham Road, and my aunt was looking from a window in the dark during the blackout, towards Rotherwas.

She saw a flashing light which appeared to be signalling. She called her mother to the window, and they decided to call the police using their neighbour's telephone.

The policeman arrived, and saw what my aunt had seen, and left promptly – and apparently in slight alarm – urging them not to tell anyone of the incident.

Some several weeks later, the policeman returned, and thanked my mother for reporting the incident, which had provided most valuable information, and he was pleased to tell them that they would not be seeing any more of those lights. No further explanation was offered, but they did of course draw their own conclusions.

LINDA WESTOBY Hampton Bishop