Many years ago a young colleague of mine was keen to find out more about Gores Buildings in Whitehaven.

She had caught the family history bug and had discovered that some of her ancestors had once lived there… but had failed to find out very much about the place.

Having searched old maps of the town, she had found out where the houses had been located… at the top of Scotch Street, at the end of High Street.

But there was very little other information available and certainly no old photos of that area.

As images seem to be few and far between I was pleased to recently discover this one.

It was taken around 1938, on the front step of one of those 24 dwellings that comprised Gores Buildings, before they were demolished.

The lady on the right is Janet Allan, who was born and raised there. Her family lived at No 4 and her father John Joseph Allan was a painter and decorator.

Janet worked as housekeeper for the Bates family who were connected to Kirk Mission, the Methodist (and formerly Scottish Presbyterian) place of worship on High Street.

She was very well thought of and is pictured with Olga, a granddaughter of the Bates. Mr D B Bates, who owned the Whitehaven Brickworks, was the leading preacher at the Kirk and between 1917 and 1938 he and his family, who hailed from Nuneaton, lived at 42 Scotch Street.

The Kirk drew many of its congregation from the tightly packed streets in the vicinity of High Street, including Gores Buildings, a cramped group of homes with shared water supply and toilet facilities.

As the area was cleared of sub-standard houses and the residents moved out to new housing estates on the outskirts of town, those close communities would be dispersed.

Families living there in the late 1920s who sent their children to Sunday School included the Wilsons, the McKees, the Barwises and the Hills.

Most of the fathers worked as miners or as leather workers at the nearby tannery.

Why they were named Gores Buildings we don’t know. Gores is a surname more common in the county of Lancashire…so who was Mr Gores?

Did he build the dwellings or are they named after the first chap who lived there, as so often happened in Whitehaven.

There was also once a nearby address of Todhunters Buildings… but that’s another story.