Most people living in Barrow, even those born here, will not have heard of Newland Street. Yet during the Blitz, on the night of 10th May 1941, seven people, some from the street itself, others from Hindpool Road and the Strand, were killed in the local air raid shelter or their homes, when a High Explosive device hit the area. 

Newland St was near some crucial infrastructure. It was only a few hundred yards from Vickers shipyard which lay on the other side of Devonshire Dock; very close to the High Level Bridge, and near a vital part of the dock-side railway system (which ran along the western end of the street, opposite Vickers). 

A hundred yards north was the police station; part of a series of official buildings connected to the covered Market Hall. The space for the outdoor market lay between the covered market and Newland St, so when the bomb exploded the blast whipped across the open space and caused significant damage to the market buildings.

Newland St was also close to the Town Hall – Barrow’s most loved and recognisable building: as symbolic as St Paul’s Cathedral is to Londoners. A severe hit to the Town Hall would have undermined public morale (a key aim of the Germans), but thankfully it remained unscathed.

Newland St also held a special place in the development of Barrow; it was the first ‘proper’ street, laid out in straight line (with two houses on it by 1849). More than half the southern side of the street had gone before the war, demolished in the early 1880s to make way for the first High Level Bridge. The clearance of the bomb-ravaged houses spelt the end of the northern side. As a result nothing remains of Newland St – home to many people over the years, a place of tragic loss, and a significant part of Barrow’s past.

We have no record of those injured in this bombing, but give here some details of those who died. All of them died on 10th May 1941:

• BROWN, GEORGE – lived at 5 Strand, died at Newland St Shelter, aged 53
• HIGGINSON, JOHN THOMAS – lived at 5 Hindpool Road, died at Newland St Shelter, aged 44
• MULHOLLAND, ROBERT WILLIAM – lived at 3 Hindpool Rd, died Newland St Shelter, aged 52
• SHIPTON, ERNEST EDWARD – died at 33 Newland St, aged 67
• SIMPSON, EDWARD – lived at 6 Hindpool Road, died Newland St Shelter, aged 53 
• SMITH, ROBERT – lived at 6 Hindpool Road, died Newland St Shelter, aged 27

An unidentified male is also listed in the ledger of Civilian War Dead (kept at the archives) as having died at the Newland St Shelter on 10th May. The Borough Council arranged for the man’s funeral at Barrow Cemetery.