Ann Johnson, nee Fishwick, writes from Australia: “I have just been reading your issue of a few months ago about the houses bombed in St Helens in the Second World War.

“My mum and her parents and siblings lived in Park Road and their house was bombed out. She always told me they sat under the stairs, she remembered it so clearly.

“Sadly she passed away here in Melbourne a couple of years ago at the age of 90. Her name was Nellie McGuire.

“The family moved further down the street where her Aunty Janey (her mother’s sister) had a toffee shop on the corner, my mum lived next door still in Park Rd.

“I wonder if anyone remembers the house, when I was a small child mum used to take me to grandma’s a couple of times a week (as she still lived in the same house – the second one) .

“ I always was fascinated as a child to see the house boarded up. It was like that until I left for Oz in 1982, from memory.

“Now I believe all those houses have been knocked down.”