Rooke Street— Taken from top of Day’s building: looking down on Lane’s Grand Hotel, looking south along Rooke Street

‘I found this photo when I was a volunteer at the old Devonport Maritime Museum. I was more interested in the buildings… well, somebody actually pointed out that it was snow on the hills! And that it was snow on the tops of the rooves! It’s only snowed like that once in Devonport, in my lifetime, and probably in the lifetime of all the residents of Formby and Devonport. So we can actually date the photo as the 10th of August 1951, because it snowed the day before. It snowed all along the coast, from Irish Town to Deloraine… it actually settled, it was actually deep. There was enough of it to go outside and build snowmen… to have snowballs and snowball fights. And at that time I think I had the chickenpox or the mumps and I was in bed, I couldn’t go out and play in it. And my sister very kindly brought a snowball in for me, because I’d never seen snow before.
— Helen

‘If people walk down Rooke Street now, they don’t look from the veranda up. The old buildings are still there, but down underneath the shop fronts are all different… But up top is very historic. Just to walk up there now and look above the shop, absolutely beautiful. A lot of memories there.’
— Joe