All At Sea - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph features a group of friends in a boat  with the sea in the background  on what looks like a rather grey cold day.  

 

Cue for me to look at  being AT SEA  with a random collection of sea, ships and boat stories. 

 

Would you join a boat trip with this fellow ?  A  marketing sign at Whitby, Yorkshire  on England's north east coast. 

  

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I was reminded of a poem we learnt at school  by English Poet John Masefield.)   

 

“I must go down . to the sea again

To  the lowly sea and the sky

And All I ask is a Tall Ship 

and a start to sail her by! 

 

 

 Here is the Tall Ship "Discovery", moored on the River Tay in Dundee, Scotland.  It was the last 3 masted ship to be built in Britain in 1901.    It was taken on two expeditions to the Antarctic by Captain Robert Falcon Scott. The second expedition saw a party of five reaching the South Pole in 1912 only to find that Norwegian explorer had preceded them. Scott and his four comrades all perished on the return journey.

 

From large to a small sailing ship - not the Greek Islands,   not the Caribbean, but a beautiful scene on the  island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, (often portrayed as "it always rains"),   looking across to the hills on the Isle of Mull.

 

 

 

                      

Sailing from Oban the Cal Mac (Caledonian McBrayne) ferry that serves Scotland's west coast island communities  

 

 

                               More boats in Oban harbour 

 

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My husband's ancestors (Donaldson, White, Moffet) were mariners, sailing out of South Shields,on the River Tyne  in north east England, whilst extended family members were in related occupations   as a caulker, seaman, river policeman, shipwright, roper, ship’s carpenter, and marine engine fitter.

It  is amazing what diverse directions family history can take you.  To me "snow" was the white stuff falling in winter and a "smack" was a slap to a recalcitrant child. But that all changed as I began researching maritime history, and learnt about the different names for ships in the 19th century - barque or bark or barc, brig, sloop. smack and snow. 

 

 The River Tyne in more recent times, 

with the Norwegian ferry in the background. 

 

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My own connection with ships is slight, but here are some memories. 

In September 1966,  I returned home from a year in the USA, travelling aboard the Cunard liner "Sylvania" from New York, calling at Boston and Cobh, Ireland, to Liverpol.      Commercial jet planes services  were hitting the transatlantic  scheduled shipping and the Liverpool-New York sailings were axed in November after my return.  Still I enjoyed this experience  and had my first glimpse   of Ireland with dawn over Cobh. 

 

A statue   on the waterfront at Cobh commemorates the leaving of Ireland.  It depicts Annie Moore and her brothers.  Annie was the first person to be admitted to the United States of America through the new immigration centre at Ellis Island, New York on 1 January 1892.    On 11 April 1912 Queenstown (as Cobh was once called)  was the final port of call for the "Titanic"   as she set out across the Atlantic on her ill-fated maiden voyage.

[Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobh#History]

 

 

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 Back  to some "grey days" 

 

The River Clyde , south of Glasgow,  on the west coast of Scotland . with a man fishing from the rocks.  
 

On   England's north west  coast,  an empty Blackpool Promenade with the North Pier in the background.  -  the town of my birth!

 

Crossing the Border  back to  Scotland again  and  the East Lothian coast, south of Edinburgh to Canty Bay, looking over the Firth of Forth, with the Bass Rock in the background, with its lighthouse and seabird colonies - once a prison in the 18th century. 

We enjoyed some  self-catering holiday here.   We had a clear view of the Bass Rock  from our kitchen window and the bay was a favourite walk every day, with our dog enjoying clambering over the rocks.    

 

 We had the top deck to ourselves on this dreicht day, sailing from Oban to the Isle of Mull.  Even our dog did not look very happy

 

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 To end on a more cheerful boat  scene!

 

                             Swan Boats on Lake Bled in Slovenia. 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.

 

 

Click  HERE to see more posts from Sepia Saturday bloggers.

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Comrades in Arms all in a Row - Sepia Saturday

Sports teams all in a row  feature in this week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph.   I have only two such images so instead show a different set of teams here - comrades in arms.

 

This World War One photograph in my  Danson family collection  was unfortunately not identified, but I think my great uncle Frank  Danson could be on the right of the front row.   He as one of five Danson brothers serving.  Frank was wounded in action and hospitalized in Malta. 

Wounded soldiers, fit enough to go out and about, wore a distinctive uniform of blue flannel suits with white revers and a red tie. 

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 I  must admit I know nothing at all about this photograph which was in my Great Aunt Jennie  Danson's  collection.  She was usually good at labeling the photos on the reverse, but there was nothing here to indicate who it was or where it was taken.   I am presuming they are First World War soldiers and might include one of Jennie's five brothers who served - William Danson  (my grandfather), John who died in army training,  Tom, Frank and George, killed on the Somme a week after his 22nd birthday.     

Was it a group of new recruits in training?  Can anyone identify the cap badge?  How many I wonder survived the conflict.  The background looks very like the many terraced rows of of bed & breakfasts houses you find in the seaside resort of Blackpool, Lancashire.    

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My cousin's grandfather Edward Stewart Ingram Smith is  on the back row, far right with his regiment the Liverpool Scottish.  An older man at 44, he standing rather apart from his much younger  colleagues. His is a sad story , in that he did survive the  war, but was a broken man  whose marriage also failed in the aftermath of war.  

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A  Photograph from my husband's family collection with  this group of young sailors,  obviously relaxing!  The postcard franked 15th December 1909 from Beverley (Yorkshire?) was addressed to my husband's great grandmother, Mrs S. A. Hibbert, 169 Maxwell Street, South Shields, with the message:

"Dear Mother, I write these lines hoping you are keeping well, and to ask if you can pick me out  in this group." 

  

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Not comrades in arms - but rather Comrades with Spades!

 

Land Girls gathering in Earlston for work on local farms  during the Second World War. 

 The Women's Land Army  was a  civilian organisation,  created during the First and Second World Wars,  to recruit  women to  work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the armed forces.  At first volunteers were sought. but  numbers  were increased by conscription.   By 1944 the Women's Land Army  had over 80,000 members across Britain.   It was officially disbanded in 1949 

 Take a look HERE for a vivid  first hand account of what life was like as a land girl on Georgefield Farm, Earlston, Scottish Borders  in the 1940s.   Barbara began her story:

 

"I was living in Edinburgh, left school at 14 and was   working in a lawyer's office as a junior clerk when I was called up in 1944.  I was given the choice of becoming a FANY - joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry or the Land Army.  I chose the Land Army as it was always the one organization that appealed to me.  I was delighted to be given the choice, as my sister was just conscripted into  Munitions with no alternative offered." 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photograps.

 

 

 

  

 Click  HERE to see more posts from the team 

of Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

 

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Men Hard at Work - Sepia Saturday

This week's  Sepia Saturday  photogrpah features a man beside his tent washing  his dishes in a bucket  of water.  

 I never fancied camping, not even as a Girl Guide  - the weather in Britain is just  too unpredictable - so no tent  pictures in my collection.  But instead,  tqke a look here at more men hard at work.

 

 My husband muck spreading - a farmer friend brought us trailer  load of manure for our garden c.1978.  The effort of clearing it put my husband off gardening, I think, for evermore, as the garden is now very much my province - without any muck involved!   I have no idea what the branches at the side were there for.  

  

Another  reluctant gardener - my father always made sure the garden was looking good in terms of being neat and tidy and the grass cut, but he had next to no interest in it beyond that.  Until he retired, when I gave him some garden vouchers and a book on vegetable growing.   He took it on board with enthusiasm, and  found it satisfying to  grow our own fruit and vegetable that we could eat.  Here, c.1980  I think he is planting fruit bushes.   We always knew Dad would find retirement a challenge, as he had few  interests outside work, so discovering  this new hobby was a great " -Dig  for Victory" !

 

Tommy Roger, a coracle maker, born c. 1845, Ironbridge, Shropshire.  

 

My father grew up in Broseley on the other side of the River Seven  from historic  Ironbridge,  (home of England's Industrial REeoution) and this photograph was found in the collection of my uncle  Fred.

You might be wondering, what work Thomas Rodger was doing.  Well, it was on his back, for Thomas Roger was a  coracle maker,  a loosely woven frame traditionally covered in animal hide, but in more recent times calico, canvas and coated with a substance such as bitumen.    When the Iron Bridge was opened in 1779 locals objected to paying the tolls, so they used their coracles to cross the river instead. 

 

The River Severn at  Ironbridge, Shropshire

Tommy Roger  was well known as a poacher and the local newspaper reported  his appearance in court on poaching charges.   He also  helped to build the new police  cells and court room in Ironbridge in 1862 - only to be one of the first people to use them! 

 

Steeplejacks climbing the mill chimney at Simpson and Fairbairn Textile Mill in Earlston, Scottish Borders - early 1900s.

 

David Hogg, c.1941, was the last hand loom weaver in Earlston. He began work in the mill as a pattern weaver,  then started hand loom weaving on his own account,  selling his tweeds, scarves and rugs all over Great Britain and exhibiting at many trade fairs. When he died in 1941,  his loom and other artefacts were given to the Scottish College of Textile  in nearby Galashiels.

With acknowledgement to the Auld Earlston Group for these two images from its collection. 

 

 

Arthur Smith, my cousin's father emerging from a manhole during his work as a linesman for the General Post Office.   

 

 

 

Arthur Smith, again, this time   tinkering with his car  

Bigger machines to mess about with here.    

 

 action-man brother, who in the 1980's part-owned and piloted  a light aircraft.

           

Experiencing something much much bigger.

 

 

Taking a break from his work on an oil rig off India  - brother in a fetching beanie hat. 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs  

  

 Click HERE to see other bloggers at work on this prompt photo.  

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Grassy Settings for Family Fun - Sepia Saturday

This week’s prompt photograph from  Sepia Saturday features friends enjoying  a picnic.  I have only one match of a picnic, but take a look at other photos of family enjoying themselves on grass.  

 

A 1950s  family picnic  with my parents, aunt,  brother  &  myself.   

   

In the back garden -  left my first photograph with my father, and right with my mother  and our kitten.  A pity no one thought to move the dustbin from the shot!  Late 1940s.  

 

 

In the same back garden, with my father enjoying a smoke. 

 

 

 My first photograph with my brother.

   

 

        

 At my grandparent's house with my grandmother , the rather frail figure with her three daughters, peggy, edith and Kathleen (my mother).  c.1940. 

                

                       

      The same garden.  lLttle me with my aunt a

 

 My parents  looking very smart - the occasion my graduation from Edinburgh University,  in 1965.

 

The family photogaph I took with me,  as I  set out for a year in the USA on a library exchange scheme, 196.

 

 

 

 Enjoying the sun on a break on Nantucket Island, Mass. USA 

 

Onto more recent times:   

 

1981 and the back garden of our home in Hawick in the Scottish Borders.  It is summer and this is my first attempt (and virtually the last)  at cooking on a barbecue, but my efforts fell foul of the weather - hence the umbrella. Did I really need that watering can there as a health & safety measure?   

 

 

 

 

     

Playtime in the garden for daughter  1975

 

 

Granddaughter bright eyed for her first day at school, 2012

 

 

 

                        

Happy landing on grass for granddaughter  

 

          

         

Practicing handstands on our front lawn  

 

Our dog joins in the fun , enjoying a long chew on the grass of our back garden in Hawick.  

 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

 to share their family history through photographs.

 

  

 

 

Click HERE to read posts  

from other Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

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Motor Bikes to the Fore - Sepia Saturday

A man and woman, dressed in leather coats,  sit by their motor cycle in the latest prompt photograph  from  Sepia Saturday.

Cue for me to turn to my local heritage group Auld Earlston,  In 2017   we presented an exhibition entitled “Horses to Horse Power” looking at transport down the ages.  The resulting display included images of  enterprising women on motor bikes.  

 

The 1950s was the golden age of the motor cycle and side car    and I have memories of my uncle Harry driving one with my aunt sitting upright in a cramped sidecar.   It could mean a bumper ride with little protection against the elements. 

There was just one photograph in my family collection that fitted this week's theme  and one I have shown before .  Here  in c.1949 is my husband as the little boy on the back of his  father's motor bike, which I am told was a  pre-war 500cc Rudge Spurts Special.

 

The one feature that strikes us now about all these photographs.   - the riders were oblivious in their choice of clothing  to the potential dangers we identify today. 

 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

 to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

 

Click HERE to read posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

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