In the heart of Barrow, close to the main railway station and shopping streets, stood the Public Baths, Abbey Road Baptist Church, and the Waverley Hotel left to right, (the tall building at the far end on the right being the hotel).

Bryn Trescatheric and DJ Hughes, in their book ‘Barrow at War’ (2) tell us that there were two raids on the 14th and 16th April 1941, which caused extensive damage to buildings on Abbey Road. 

A bomb map shows a mine exploded in the area of the baths and church.(3) The baths, church and hotel all suffered extensive damage along with houses in Shakespeare Street, behind the baths, and the Evening Mail offices, directly across Abbey Road. My own father-in-law, John Baillie, then a 16-year-old, lost his home in Shakespeare Street that night.

Mrs Margaret Ellison was working at The Duke of Edinburgh hotel nearby, she states ‘The bombs started dropping around us, the building was shaking, ARP Wardens coming in to see if we were ok. It went on all night. At dawn, the all clear went, we only had two casualties who did not come down to shelter. When we arrived upstairs at 6 am, the place was a shambles. Not a window or door in the hotel. Every room and bar blitzed. Next door Cooke’s Furniture Shop and Winders Store were flattened with two killed in each place. Across the road, all with direct hits were the Railway Station, the Baptist Church (the Vicar and the Firewatcher killed), the public baths and the Waverley Hotel all devastated.’(4)

The baths were eventually repaired; the hotel and church demolished – the Coronation Gardens now stand in their place.