Portsmouth no date c 1940 -1948

Twenty-six black and white photographs pasted into a period album + three additional photographs of the same subjects loosely inserted. Landscape shaped album with cloth covered boards. Embossed circle on upper boards. Boards worn and dusty and rear inner hinge detached. Mostly images are of St Cutbert and St Aidan Church, Portsmouth. 16 black and white photographs of the Church. Three show the interior before damage occurred and 13 afterwards. A further four photographs show the local community; one of which is a post war street party. There are additionally five small photographs of the church hall which operated as a church during the war. One shows a bombed-out house. Photograph sizes vary from 260x210mm to small scale images 55 x 85mm [ of the hall] Several photographs have the embossed stamp of "Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd.". Two images show memorials of flowers set up in the damaged church and further one is a miniature cenotaph. These are particularly interesting for their documentary value of commemorating the impact of war damage. Fascinating album. Photographs all very good but some poorly pasted into the album. No captions. Album itself, worn but a great record of one building and its associated community. This church was damaged twice. The first damage to the church buildings occurred on November 10th 1940, when a high explosive bomb fell, tore a hole in the North side of the nave. On April 17th 1941, a landmine in Hayling Avenue destroyed the East end of the church, severely damaging the rest of the building and completely flattening the Parish Hall (the original Mission Church). The church was initially partially restored and then further work was undertaken in 1957. In the early 2000s the church was partially converted to house several community facilities including a doctor's surgery. All these changes are documented at https://www.stcuthbertandstaidan.org.uk/about/a-brief-history-of-st-cuthberts-church/ [ accessed 22 March 2023]