Russell W. Barnes'
Home-Page.


Cumbria is the red bit!Welcome to my web-site! - This page is your gateway to my 'Defence of Cumbria in the 20th Century' pages, a treasure-trove of local history accessible by all.

Here you will find a gazetteer of pill-boxes, air-raid shelters, Royal Observer Corps posts, coastal artillery, aerodromes, and other defence infrastructure in Cumbria that is quietly mouldering away, the threat of invasion and warfare it was constructed to stand against long gone..... I hope.

You will also find accounts of how Workington was defended during the Second World War (Largely a record of the Workington Home-Guard, including the 406th Coastal Defence Gunners), a section - 'The Human Angle' - consisting of anecdotes and memories of those people who lived through WWII, and a chart listing all the Inland Anti-Invasion Defences planned for Cumberland, outlining the precautions taken to defend the County should the day have come in 1940. A new Civil Defence section has recently been added, and will expand as new material is obtained.

On the other section of my site can be found some images of the town of Workington, Cumbria (where I was born, and lived for Twenty-Five Years) that have now changed irrevocably.

new Have a look at my 'Flickr' photo pages where images representing some of my other interests are on show!

WHAT'S NEW? - WHAT'S UPDATED?

new Civil Defence Section. Created 11/06/04

  • These pages currently outline the role of the 'Community Adviser', created in the 1980's to look after the populace should the unthinkable have happened.... Further material to follow in due course.

logo Defence page on the 23/10/2014

  • HMS Volcano Another photograph of the hall before war service. Photo kindly provided by Sheila Cartwight.

logo Anecdote page on the 04/01/07


logo Old Workington on the 25/04/11

COMING SOON:

  • Watch This Space!

Further information regarding updates can be found on the CONTENTS pages.



PLEASE NOTE: The small images (150 pixels wide) which feature on some pages are actually picture-links to larger images.
The pages on this site will work satisfactorily on all browsers, but viewing them using earlier versions (below Nutscrape V4 and IE version 5) will render them in a format different to that intended!

All images other than those attributed to specific persons or anonymous contributors Copyright © 1999 - 2005 Russell W. Barnes. The information and images contained on this site do not imply expression of any specific political or philosophical agenda or beliefs.


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Yes, it is me, and No, there isn't a bigger picture!