Review of the decades: Southport in the 1940s

WE start our review of Southport's recent history in a decade over-shadowed by war.
The 1940s saw the resort play its part in the war effort, shutting down the pier to pleasure-seekers and instead stationing searchlights along its structure to pick out enemy aircraft in the night sky.
Birkdale saw the Smedley Hydro Hotel become a centre for the registration of the population.

Smedley Hydro was put to use as an important home front hub, dealing with registration, ID cards, enlisting and rationing for the population.
Southport didn't escape The Blitz, and bombings destroyed homes and lives in the resort.
Look Back reader Roy Whittle remembers: "Tuesday, September 4, 1940, is a date that was forever imprinted on my young memory.
"Around midnight, Southport experienced its first air raid.
"Terror froze my young 11-year-old mind as I heard the shrill whistle of a German bomb, though living in Scarisbrick Road it sounded as though it was coming down on top of the house."

But the 1940s in Southport weren't solely defined by bombings and bad news from the front - for some the images of Lord Street under water will be the defining image of the decade.
Reader Derek Edwards said: "Lord Street is in a slight depression.
"In the 1940s, flooding of certain parts was a frequent occurrence.
"During heavy rain, the storm drains could not cope.
"I vividly remember leaving the Regal Cinema with my parents and we saw that Lord Street was flooded to a depth of about six inches.

"What amused me was to see gallant gentlemen giving piggy backs to young ladies who wanted to cross the road."
And if the 1940s opened under the cloud of war, they closed more hopefully with the birth of the NHS and the newly created system of free state secondary schools began to provide free education to pupils in Southport. And as the 50s approached Southport rediscovered its holiday spirit as our picture of Peter Pan's Fair in 1948 shows.
Visits from Clarke Gable in 1946 and the magicians of the British Ring delighted Sandgrounders.