IF you were a kid living on Whitehaven’s Coach Road during the 1940s then you’re probably on this photo. We think it was taken in 1945 at a gathering to mark victory at the end of the Second World War.

The children pictured were either residents, friends or relatives of Coach Road folk and the snap was taken on ‘the ring’ at The Gardens.

Most of these families lived on The Gardens, but others were opposite at Lucknow Villas, or Waddington buildings which was accessed via an archway. These houses were once located on the area currently occupied by the schoolyard of St Begh’s School.

Thanks for the loan of the photo go to Alan Coyles whose grandparents Richard Benedict Coyles and his wife Mary Ann and their family of eight were among the original Gardens residents and lived at No35. Alan’s uncle Bernard Coyles will be 92 this year and is the last of the eight, and remembers many of the family names from that time.

When the picture was taken he was away and about to join the RAF. His father was a master decorator, the superintendent of the Whitehaven St John Ambulance Brigade and captain of the church’s Boys Brigade.

Lucknow Villas probably commemorates the capital city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, one of the major centres of the 1857 Indian Rebellion when the British garrison was attacked by native forces during the Siege of Lucknow. Bernard remembers this row of three Victorian style houses, now long gone, and that number one was also a butcher’s shop, run by the Nutsford family, who moved to St Bees. And at the McCumisky’s house on the Gardens there was a popular sweet shop where Mrs McCumisky made and sold “taffie”!

Back row: Katy Bates (holding her daughter), Mrs Hunter, Lily McCumisky, Joyce Walker, Bertie McAllister, Mary Beach (née Coyles, Bernard’s sister), Mary McCluskey, Michael McCluskey, Eddie Barker, Willis Blamire, Derek Aitken, Margaret Fee, Albert Pattinson, Barbara Moss, Mrs Ousby with David.

Middle row: Ralph Walker, Mrs Mary Coyles (Bernard’s mother), Sadie Coyles in the arms of hier mother Lily Coyles (wife of Alan’s uncle, Richard Coyles), Josephine Blamire (wearing glasses), Billy Story, Colin Ritson, Walker Holloway, Tommy Lavelle, Kathleen Blaney, Joan Hooper, George Skelly, Judith Gibbons, Elsie Rogan (?), Mrs Wignall, Pat Connery, Ian Green, Mrs Moss, George Chambers.

Front row: Ann Gregory, John Dixon, Richie Coyles (Lily Coyles’ son), Joan Christian, Esther Fitzsimons, Eileen McCumisky with her sister Joan in front, Joyce Conray, Peter Davey, Betty Myers, Mildred Myers, Elizabeth Ousby, John Ousby and Mrs Sarah Davey.