A major Luftwaffe air-raid on Barrow on the weekend 3rd–5th May 1941 saw many bombs and incendiaries dropped. There was widespread damage from Furness Abbey station across the town to Vickers works. Ordnance included 12 High Explosive bombs, three of which failed to explode, and a number of mines and incendiaries.

In the Hawcoat area, property was damaged in Hawcoat Lane. One bomb blast created a large crater close to where the to the horse and cart are in the Sankey image. That explosion also badly damaged a mains sewer. 

Imagine the scene in the nearby houses; windows smashed, doors blown off, and soot blown down the chimneys. There would be substantial damage to roofs, ornaments smashed and pictures thrown off walls. 

For some poor souls the bombing would also bring death, with five victims from Hawcoat Lane over the same weekend.

• Kathleen Barker, aged 21
• Bridget Geldert, aged 23
• Arthur Heath, aged 65
• Noel Lupton, aged 42
• George Hemmingway, aged 53

Nella Last, who lived close by, wrote of that weekend in her Mass Observation diary: ‘A night of terror, and there are few windows left in the district, or roof tiles. Land mines, incendiaries and explosives were dropped, and we cowered thankfully under our indoor shelters.’

A bomb map indicates a ‘stitch’ of five High Explosive bombs dropped in a line, approximately north – south along Hawcoat Lane, while a mine exploded nearby in Hill Road causing four fatalities on 4th May 1941. 

• William Hudson, aged 47 
• Mary Hudson, aged 45 
• Emily Thompson, aged 40 
• Irene Thompson, aged only 4