WW2 Bombing of Maryport

The town was bombed on July 21 1940. A Luftwaffe Bomber which failed to jettison its payload of four 250Kg bombs at its Clydesdale target, followed the Solway Coast southwards on its homeward journey, when the pilot espied Maryport as a suitable target. The bomber flew in low over the town & jettisoned its load. Its first bomb fell on a garden at lngelby Terrace & the second on the former British School, causing no casualties but destroying the latter.
The third bomb fell on Well Lane & destroyed numbers 2, 13 & 14, killing a number of people. The bomb severely damaged the house adjacent to the Lifeboat Inn, Shipping Brow, where a gap is now present today. The fourth bomb fell on 10 High Street.
Those who died were mainly from Well Lane and were: David and Margaret Costin of 2 Well Lane, Jessie Harrison, 26 and her mother Sarah Harrison who were visiting from South Shields, Joseph and Sarah Ann Howard, who owned the sweet shop, and neighbours William Milligan and Robert Thomason of 14 and 13 Well Lane.