Avondale Rd, Lancaster. VE Day May 1945

Image: © Bernard Marrison (my Father) Taken: 10 May 1945

The two Yarmouth evacuees in this photo went home shortly after the war ended. The remainder of the children are now in their eighties or no longer with us. Maybe some still live on Avondale Road? However, so many of the buildings externally are relatively unchanged, although I bet the outside WCs are all gone. The air raid shelters shown on the right hand side at the top of the photo soon had the big wrecking ball treatment. No one in the road owned a car at that time, so no one worried about the then rough cobbles on the road. The pavements of irregular stone slabs (flag stones) have been replaced by regular 3 x 2 concrete slabs. Many of the garden walls are still topped with the limestone blocks; they replaced the metal railings which had been cut down in the early 1940s and commandeered for the war effort. Bowerham Road Post Office, at the top of Avondale Road is still there and is still a Post Office, but no longer sells half crown postal orders. The Ironmonger, Parched-Pea/ Ice Cream/ Sweets/ Newspaper shop and the Green Grocer, that were opposite the Post Office, are rubble.

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