THIS picture showed Godfrey Road with St Mark’s Church in the distance.

This is Godfrey Rd at the junction of Faulkner Rd and Devon Place. The prominent church is St Marks which was the home church of the Newport High School. Godfrey Rd goes straight ahead & swings to the left, off to the right is Serpentine Rd.

The houses on the left were demolished before the war to make way for the new civic centre which housed council offices, high & magistrates courts and the central police station. The civic was started in the 1930s but not finished. War was looming and it was realised that the projected clock tower would have made an ideal navigation point for Nazi bombers. The clock tower was added in the 1960s. Behind the cameraman’s left shoulder was Arnold’s electrical and hardware shop.

Off to the camera’s right is the wall of the GWR workshops and cattle dock where the circus trains used to unload the animals before parading them to Shaftesbury Park.

Behind the wall was the turntable were they used to turn steam locomotives – many a pair of small shoes were ruined from scrabbling up the wall to see the turntable. At the bottom of the civic was a rough cleared area (this is now the car park), in which was a wartime static water tank built in case of fire. There was also a pair of ramps upon which Army lorries could be serviced. In the 1950s DIY car mechanics would queue up to use these ramps.

Dave Woolven, Newport

Today’s picture shows the bottom of the civic centre, the road leading to Devon Place. In the background is the steeple of St Marks Church and to the left the road leads to hill beside the civic.

Jim Dyer, Newport

This week’s Now and Then pictures are of an area very familiar to me as I traversed those roads going to and from school. In both photos St Mark’s Church is prominent. Straight ahead is Godfrey Road curving left past the civic centre and on the left is Faulkner Road. Serpentine Road curves up past the church and on the right is Devon Place.The stone wall on the right is the boundary of the railway yard. The houses on the left in the Then picture were demolished in the 1930s to be replaced by the car park for the Civic Centre.

Brian J J Jelf, Newport