An Array of Arches - Sepia Saturday

  This week’sSepia Saturday prompt picture shows a street busy with traffic, but my eye was caught by the striking arch above advertising nearby theatres.   So take an historical journey through  an array of arches down the centuries. 

 

 

 

An  archway across Carnaby Street in central London.   Just off the thoroughfares of Oxford Street and Regent Street,   it became in the 1960's the centre of "Swinging London" with its pedestrian area of small boutiques and cafe culture. 

   

 

  

 

The graceful late 18th century bridge spanning the Leader Water  links the neighbouring estates of Carolside and Leadervale, neqr Earlston in the Scottish Borders. 

"The Statistical Account of Scotland" of 1834  gives us a beautiful description of Carolside.  

"Poised on a green plateau beside the River Leader and sheltered by surrounding slopes of its own extensive woodlands, as a sweet and secure asylum from the toils and troubles of the world'."

 How could that final phrase not but apply to us today?  

 

A fine row of arches in the gardens of Abbotsford House, Melrose, once the home of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). He was a noted Scottish novelist, poet, historian and collector of Border ballads. His home is now a popular visitor attraction. 

 

 

 The arched bridge at Craigsford , near my home in Earlston built in 1736.  

 

 

 The bridge over the River Tweed  marks the boundary between Scotland and England  and opened in 1767, built at a cost of £6000  - £725,000 in current values. (www.measuringworth.com).  It was paid for  by a government grant, local subscriptions and loans from Edinburgh Banks, to be paid back from the bridge tolls.  

 

But Coldstream Bridge Tollhouse at the north end of the bridge,  was more than just the location for collecting taxes.  For it was akin to Gretna Green towards the west as  the location for a Scottish  "Irregular Marriage".  This was in the form of a verbal declaration by the couple  giving their consent  before witnesses and did not require a clergyman, but anyone who took on the role for a fee.  No notice, such as banns,  was required, no parental consent  and no residency requirement.  Such marriages were valid in Scotland but were increasingly frowned upon and became less  and less acceptable. 

In the meantime, however, many English couples in particular,   eloped to places just across the Border,  to escape the stricter English marriage laws and obtain a quick, easy  and cheaper marriage.     

 It was on the bridge that Scottish bard  Robert Burns had his first glimpse of England, as marked  by a plaque.  (Wikipedia)   

 

 

 

The Scottish Borders is a region steeped in history with four ruined abbeys built in the 12th  century,  and in the Middle ages, it saw years of Anglo- Scottish in warfare and border raids.  The ruins of castles and towers bear witness to this turbulent period, many with arches a feature  of their architecture.  

 

                                                                          

 Hermitage Castle, near Hawick century.  Built in the 13th century on the Scotish-English Border,  it witnessed murder and mayhem. Once a stronghold of the Douglas family,  William Douglas imprisoned and starved to death  Sir Alexander Ramsey.  In 1566 Mary Queen of Scots rode across the moors from Jedburgh to visit James Bothwell,wounded in a raid.  Soon after he became her third husband - and set in train the events that led to her execution. 

 

 

  

 

Jeburgh Abbey was one of four Border Abbeys established in the 12th century by King  David 1 of Scotland. Lying only 10 miles north of the Border, the abbey was repeatedly sacked by English forces, most notably in 1544 when the Earl of Hertford's army raided the region in what was known as the "Rough Wooing" - an attempt by Henry VIII to enforce the marriage of the young Mary Queen of Scots to his son, the future Edward VI.   After  the Protestant Reformation   in 1560, the monks were allowed to stay,  but the abbey was used for a long time  as the parish kirk for the reformed religion until a new parish church was built in 1871. 

 

 

   

Three miles from my home is Leaderfoot Viaduct  spanning the 90 mile long River Tweed  near its junction with one of its many tributaries - the Leader Water.  The viaduct, built to carry the Berwickshire Railway,   stands 116 feet  above the river bed and each of its 19 arches has a 43 foot span.  The railway bridge opened in 1865 with the last  train running over it  just a hundred years later. when the line was closed

 

 

 

Hundy Mundy - an 18th century Gothic folly at Mellerstain, near Kelso, built by William Adam, the famous architect who also designed Mellerstain House. 

 

  

 

A bridge with family connections - my brother standing in front of the cast iron arched Ironbridge in Shropshire,  where our father spent his childhood.  It was the first ironbridge built In 1799 and often described as "the birthplace of the English Industrial Revolution.  It is now a World Heritage  Site.  My grandfather walked  for 35 minutes each day to cross the bridge to get to his work at the Coalbrookdale Power House.

 

 

This  photographs comes from my father's album.    During the Second World War, he   served in the RAF Codes & Ciphers Branch and was seconded to General Bradley’s US 12th Army Group HQ.  He was stationed in Luxembourg in winter 1944 prior to  the Battle of the Bulge. Dad  had fond memories of the city and the people he met there. The Bridge, here built between 1900 and 1903,  became an unofficial national symbol, representing Luxembourg's independence  and  was named after Grand Duke Adolphe who reigned Luxembourg from 1890 until 1905.  

 

 

  

 I love photographing decorative details on buildings and here is an arch pattern on the entrance gate to Floors Castle, Kelso.  

 

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 London and the gateway into St.James' Park, near Buckingham Palace. 

 

 

From a city to the countrywide and an archway of trees near my home.    

 

And Finally  

 

 

Image from Wikipedia.   

 

Sheet music cover of the popular music hall song "Underneath the Arches" written by Bud Flanagan in 1932 with many artistes recording it since.   

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photograph

 

Click  HERE to see more of this week's tales from 

Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

 

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Lads in Short Trousers - Sepia Saturday

This weeks’s Sepia Saturday prompt picture  is of a young boy in shrrt trousers.  I have quite a collection of vintage  images from the turn of the 19th-20th century to more recent times.  

In the first half of the 20th century, for boys the main fashion characteristic was short trousers, worn whatever the weather,  with knee length socks.  Boys did not go into long trousers until the age of around 13-14 - something of a rite of passage.  I remember this upgrade with my brother in the 1950s.  

 

   

The note on the back of this photograph says "Arthur in his first pair  of trousers", c.1910.  This wording referred to the fact it was the custom to have baby boys in dresses - see below  -  though I thought the practice had died out by the early 1900s.   Arthur was my cousin's father.  

 

Young Athur looking none too happy posed in his tartan dress, reflecting his Scottish heritage - his grandfather was born on the Scottish northernmost  island of Unst in the Shetland Isles.  

Harry Rawcliffe Danson, (my Uncle Harry), born 1912

Harry's middle name came from  his grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe.  This is a section of a larger family photograph taken in 1916 when his father  William Danson went off to war in Flanders.  24 years later Harry survived the Battle of Dunkirk.  He retained his good dark looks all his life.

 My husband's uncle Matthew Iley White, born 1915.

Photograph taken by T. W. H. Liddle, Photographer, South Shields.  

Frederick Henry Weston (my Uncle Fred), born 1905. in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire

This photograph came to me via a connection of my cousin and is one of the very few early photographs I have of my father's Weston family. The story was that photographs were thrown out  following a death.  What a crime!   

In the 1911 census the Weston family were living in Lunt Lane, Lunt Gardens, Bilston, Wolverhampton in the industrial English Midlands. A photograph in Wolverhampton Archives indicated that Lunt Lane was the location of the Bilston Sewers - so not exactly garden country. 

Surely Fred must have been dressed up for a special occasion in this fancy coat and white socks and big hat?  Unfortunately there is no longer anyone alive  from the immediate  family to ask. 

 

 A photograph from my husband's family collection - but he does not know who it is.  The only clue - it was taken by a photographer in South Shields, County Durham. The guess is, it could be his grandmother's half brother - Robert William Hibbert, born in 1896. 

    

The  sailor suit was a uniform traditionally worn by enlisted seamen in the navy, characterized by its distinctive collar.  It gained popularity and  developed into a popular clothing style  as worn by the children  of Queen Victoria and the Russian royal family. 

 Arthur Smith again in his sailor suit - and what a wonderful mop of curls, 

 Jackie Threlfall, wearing the popular sailor suit.
Taken by ? Watson, 13 Wellington Terrace, Blackpool.

 

A photograph from the large collection left by my Great Aunt Jennie Danson, who grew up in Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool,  Lancashire. She had written names on the back, but otherwise little is known about them.   I suspect they  are the children of friends,  and taken around 1918. I was unable to make much  headway in searching for the surnames  in the 1911 census.   

 

 

  

 Onto the 1950s.  My brother, looking very angelic,  in short trousers  bar sandals and short white socks.     I am all dressed up with my hair in ringlets, for  taking part  in Staining  Gala, near Blackpool,. Lancashire. 

 

 

 

A family group of my parents with m aunt Fran, with my little brother in his shorty trousers.   I have my plaits tied up over my head Austrian style.   

 

 

My husbad in his winter coat. with short trousers hidden.  

Warm enough for icecream - but husband still dressed in his pullover and jacket over short trousers. 

 

 

 

My cousin Stuart with his sister and how angelic they look, with their blond locks obviously inherited from their father Arthur (see above).  I remember my brother wearing similar short trousers held up by straps.

Adapted from an earlier post 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photograph

 

Click  HERE to see more of this week's tales from 

Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

 

 

 

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A "Must Have" Man's Accessory - A Pocket Watch: Sepia Saturday

A miner, a ship's riveter, a general labourer, two business men, a group of schoolboys and a station bookstall manager - all feature in my post for this week’s Sepia Saturday challenge.  What is the link?   They are all wearing pocket watches on a chain. 
  

This week's Sepia Saturday  prompt photograph shows a man, formally dressed,  standing across the wall of a house, with a chair nearby - well, I did "chairs" the other week   My eye caught the pocket watch chain that the man was wearing, so I turned to my family collection to see what I could find.  

Pocket watches were invented in the 16th century and were the most common type of watch  until the First World War and the introduction of wrist watches.  They  generally had an attached chain so they could be secured to a waistcoat, lapel or belt loop.  The casements varied from brass to gold, so they appealed to a range of budgets.  Pocket watches were often a prized family possession, passed down through the generations.   

 

I remember my grandfather wearing one on a Sunday with his best suit - but unfortunately I do not have any photograph of him wearing it.  

From the extended family of my cousin:

Edward Henry Coombs(1857-1922) was the great grandfather of my cousin' s wife.  In 1879 Edward  married 19 year old Ann Elizabeth Shaw and in 18 years, they had a large family of 10 children.   He was foounder of Coomb Bros - a wholesale brocery business and manufacture of sweets and jams in Essex.  

The period 1917-1918 was a tragic time for Edward,   with sons Percy and William killed in the First World War; the death of his wife  and of his daughter Lilian.  Edward died in 1922, aged 65.  

 

As you can see from this photograph, Edward was an extremely big man, said to take up two seats on a bus  - and his pocket watch is very evident in this photoraph.  

 

Anna Holt and Charles Oldham (c.1861-1937)  

 

Charles Oldham was brother of my cousin's great grandfather Joseph Prince Oldham (1855-1917).  Born in Blackpool, he joined the family business and in the 1891 census was described as a self-employed coal merchant. But by 1901 he had had a complete change of both address and occupation, setting up a mineral water manufacturing business in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Looking here very much like a serious businessman, and wearing his pocket watch and chain. 

 Wiiliam Dower (1837-1919) and his wife,  Jesse Edward. 

 

Jesse  who was sister to my cousin's great grandmother, married William Dower, born in Banchory, Aberdeenshire. William   worked as a joiner before training as a minister of the church.   He was appointed as a Wesleyan Missionary in South Africa and he and his new wife Jesse set sail there  in 1865. 

 

In March 1870, William and Jesse set out on an ox wagon journey to East Griqualand and the town of  Kokstad, where he was asked to take on the role of pastor.  William helped build both his own home and the church there.  He went on to write a definitive history of the area in "The early annals of Kokstad and Griqualand East".

The photograph above of  William Dower and his wife Jesse was taken in 1913 when they visited Jesse’s sister in Blackpool,  Lancashire.  

 

William died in Africa in 1919 at "Banchory"  - his home named after his Scottish birthplace.  He left behind a legacy in the country he had come to love and a family who made their mark i many different fields.  

 William Bailey Bastow - my mother's second cousin.

 

Elizabeth Bailey born in Poulton-le Fylde, Lancashire  was William's mother. She married Peter Bastow, a Blackpool stone mason, and they had three children.  But Peter could not have survived much beyond the birth of his youngest son in 1882, as by 1890 Elizabeth married her second husband Henry Robinson.   In the 1901 census William was described as stepson, 20 years old and a general labourer.

Here he is dressed formally in the traditional style of waistcoat and pocket watch.

From my husband's family:

 

 

Alice Armitage and Matthew Iley White  - 

my husband's grandparents of South Shields, County Durham.

Matthew (1886-1956) and Alice (1888-1967) married in 1908 and this photograph is thought to  mark their  engagement, with Matthew wearing a watch chain with the watch itself hidden in his waistcoat pocket. 

The couple had a background of mariners and miners.   Matthew, a ship's riveter,   was named after his father  Matthew Iley White;  his mother was  Louisa Moffat,and both came from a family of seafarers. 

Alice hailed from South Kirby, Yorkshire where her father Aaron Armitage (1851-1889)  was a miner, the eldest of a family of ten children born to Moses Armitage  and Sarah Galloway. 

Aaron aged 36 married  19 year old Sarah Ann Cuthbert in 1887 but within two  years he was dead,  leaving fatherless his infant only daughter Alice.   His widow Sarah remarried a year later another miner George Hibbert and the family moved to the Durham minefields, settling in South Shields.  The 1901 census saw the family there, with Alice now 13 years old with a step brother Robert and step sister Violet. The two half-sisters remained close throughout their lives.

 Moses Armitage, (1824-1878),  Alice's grandfather.  

 I was lucky to get this photograph from an Ancestry contact and it is the oldest photograph we have of my husband's ancestors. 

Moses was a Yorkshire miner  and in 1844  married Sarah Gallaway (1826-1896)  and in the next 20 years between 1845 and 1868  they had 10 children  in Barnsley.  It was a hard life both at work and home,   and  Moses, like his son Aaron,  made frequent appearances in the law courts,  because of their criminal activity  - well recorded in the local press.  

And Finally - photographs from my Danson family collection  of my great uncle George Danson (1884-1916).

Young George Danson, my great uncle is on the left of this group of  boys and  three of them are wearing watch chains, yet they look  only around 12-13 years old.

George has featured many times on my blog.  He was the youngest of eight sons  of William Danson and Alice English of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire and worked on railway station bookstalls, run my W.H. Smith.  He served as a stretcher bearer in the First World War and was killed on the Somme in 1916,. aged just 22.  

Is this the same watch  - found in a box of Danson memorabilia?

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Adapted from an earlier post published in 2018.   

Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photograph

 

 

 Click  HERE to see more of this week's tales from 

Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

 

 

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Swans, Rivers & Bridges - Sepia Saturday

 

 This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph features swans on a river bank, with a bridge in the background.  What should I  focus on ?  A trawl through my holiday collections - not vintage images but with plenty of historical interest.   

 

 I begin with the Swan theme.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swans and Cygnets at Hawick in the Scottish Borders where we lived for 40 years.  

Across to the Continent of Europe 

 

18th century  Nymphenburg Palace , Munich, Bavaria 

 

 This was the birthplace of King Ludwig ll of Bavaria who was often referred to as the Swan King and adopted the Swan as one of his symbols.

 

 

 

 One of the most distinctive and most visited places  in Bavaria, Southern Germany  has to be Neuschwanstein  Castle.  (in Engish the New Swan Stone  Castle.

 

Built in the 19th century above the Swansee (Swan Lake) it served no defensive purpose, but was  one of four fantastic castles commissioned by King Ludwig.  It was opened to the public shortly after his death in 1886; provided the inspiration for the Disneyland castle, and features in the film "Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang". You  can walk through the extensive grounds and this photograph was taken from the high outlook of the Mariabrucke (Maria bridge).

 

Swan boats on the Hallstatter See, near Salzburg  in Austria.

 

 

 Swan boats on Lake Bled in Slovenia 

Take a journey through my photographic collection of bridges & rivers across Europe and the USA.  

 

Ramsau  was designated Germany's first mountaineering village  and is a small community  near Berchtesgarten in Bavaria, close to the  Austrian border.   The church of St. Sebastian was built in 1512 and extended in 1692 in the baroque style.   Ramsau  is one of the most photogenic images of rural Bavaria and this has to be one of my favourite holiday photographs.  

 

 Wooden steps up to a covered bridge in Kaprun, Austria.    

An old bridge in Bruges, Belgium.

 

Another old bridge, taken by my uncle on holiday years ago in what was then Yugoslavia - now Croatia.  

 

  

Bridges over the River Seine in Paris.  
 

A reconstruction of the old wooden North Bridge at Concord, Massachusetts, USA,   where in 1775 local Minutemen fired the first shot in the American War of Independence and forced the British to retreat back to Boston. 

 A  traditional covered wooden bridge in New Hampshire, New England.

London  

Tower Bridge over the River Thames in London with HMS Belfast in the foreground. 

 

Tower Bridge is one of London's iconic landmarks built in the Victorian Gothic style.  It was opened in 1894, with two walkways linking the two towers.   The road can be raised and  "opened" to allow tall shipping to pass through.  The Bridge is open to the public and you can walk along the top glass-covered walkway and take in fantastic views over London - we have done it!

 

 

HMS Belfast, launched in 1938 is a cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy. The ship saw active service during the Second World War, primarily supporting the Arctic Convoys on the trade routes to Russia.   She is now permanently moored as a visitor attraction museum on the River Thames.  

 

Westminster Bridge over the River Thames with the Houses of Parliament in the background, wsith the clock tower of Big Ben.  

 

The current Houses of Parliament, also known as the Palace of Westminster, was rebuilt after a major fire in 1834.  The oldest part of the building which survived the fire is Westminster Hall built in 1097 by William ll,  son of William the Conqueror and used for national ceremonial occasions and the lying in state  of Kings and Queens.  

 

The first Westminister Bridge opened in 1750, with the second in 1862.  It is the oldest road structure which crosses the Thames in central London. 

 

 "Earth has not anything to show more fair" is the first line of a poem composed by William Wordsworth on Westminster Bridge in 1802. 

A silhouette of the Houses of Parliament with the River Thames in the foreground. 

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

 

   Click HERE to see what other bloggers have spotted in this week's prompt photograph.