The opening of the railway loop line, to permit a new Barrow Central station (opened 1882), led to an expansion of housing north of that line. This building programme was, however, delayed by the economic depression of the late 1870s, which started just as construction got under way.  Hibbert Road was one of the last of the terraced streets north-west of, yet close to, Abbey Road to be developed – in the earliest years of the twentieth century. This photograph pre-dates World War Two, possibly from the 1920s.

The imposing terraces of slightly larger homes, each with a forecourt, overlooked the Swiss-style station across the broad street. This proximity was not to the residents’ advantage in the war, as the town’s railway system was in the sights of the Luftwaffe. The night of Sunday 4th Monday – 5th Tuesday May 1941 was the most intensive night’s attack on the town during the war. It was described by diarist Nella Last as a night of terror. Estimates suggested that three hundred incendiary bombs fell upon the town plus a number of high-explosive bombs and parachute mines. 

A cluster of high explosive and incendiary bombs fell on and around the station, which was destroyed – a terrifying experience for any residents of Hibbert Road who had remained in their homes or in shelters in their yards. Windows were shattered, shards of glass flying everywhere, and blast damage sustained to their homes and others in neighbouring streets. 

Worse still for the residents of No. 12, a high-explosive bomb fell upon that house. Fortunately it did not explode, but such a large object would still have caused major damage to the house and neighbouring properties. There is no record of deaths at that location, however. Numbers eleven to thirteen were put on a council list of properties graded ‘so seriously damaged as to require demolition’ but it is not clear if that happened or they were able to be repaired.