Bonnie Babies - Sepia Saturday

The birth of a baby has to be a Special Occasion - this month’s Sepia Saturday theme.   So take a look at these photographs of Bonnie Babies down generations, many sitting up beautifully for the camera - taken  from my own collection and that of my cousIn and great aunt. 

THREE LITTLE GIRLS:   1861 to 1906

 

Ann Elizabeth Shaw (1860-1917) was the great grandmother of my cousin's wife,  She looks so sweet in this photograph taken c.1861. We rarely see a smile in photographs of that time.   Amy was born in Canning Town, Essex to  Henry Shaw and Mary Suzanna  Wingfield.    At the age of 19, she married Edward Henry Coombs whose family ran a grocery business and a jam factory.  They had ten children between 1880 and 1899.  

 

 

Here is a charming picture of  Ellen Florence Coombs nee Hooker with her baby daughter  Hilda Florence.

 

Above Hilda Florence Coombs, in a photograph  dated on the back as 9.9.1908.   The photographer was J J Hilder of 257 Barking Road, Plaistow, Essex.   

Hilda's father Edward Henry Coombs  was one of ten children with five brothers and four sisters.  He married Ellen Florence Hooker, with Hilda the eldest of  three daughters,  and one son who died in infancy. 

Elsie Oldham, born in 1906 was my mother's second cousin.  Her family had a carters and coal merchant's business in Blackpool, Lancashire.     Following her father's death, Elsie took over at the helm with her husband, and  saw the business through the difficult wartime years, combining it with her own hairdressing concern under the name of "Elise".

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I know nothing about this photograph , apart from the message o.n the back “Best Wishes  from Baby Constance”.  It was in a collection of some 50 photographs I inherited from my great aunt Jennie Danson and  featured friends, family of friends with children and men in uniform. Taken I guess in the period 1916-1922.  Jennie fortunately in many cases wrote names on the back of photographs - but not in this case

Another photograph from Jennie's collection - and so typical of the period,  as photos were taken of families separated by war,   Identified on the  back as Lizzie Riley and son and Billy Hopkins.  Two of the sisters of Jennie's mother had married Riley brothers  -  but it was a popular local surname, and I have no further details. 

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     FOUR GENERATIONS  OF MY FAMILY:  1908-2009

MY MOTHER 

One of the oldest photograph in my collection shows, on the left, my aunt Edith and on the right my mother Kathleen - taken late 1908. The sisters were born one year and one week apart,  daughters of William Danson and Alice English of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.   Aunt Edith played an active role  as my godmother   and the sisters remained close all their lives, often photographed together. 

MYSELF

One of my favourite photographs of my mother that I have featured before on my blog.  This photograph It means a lot of me, as my mother looks so happy and stylish, and I can  only remember Mum with grey hair worn  in a French pleat.  But the picture came as a surprise, as I had  never seen it before,   with no copy in the family album of my childhood.  Just before my marriage in 1971,  my  future husband and I were visiting an old family friend of my parents,   when she brought out this picture and gave it to us.  I was delighted to have it!

 

Following the deaths of both  my parents, I found a number of letters they exchanged in 1944, whilst my father was serving in the RAF as a Code and Cipher Clerk in France. In one letter, Dad asked for a "Photograph of Baby" - and this studio portrait was the result!

The Photographer was W. R. Buckley & Son, Regent Studio, Cocker Street, Blackpool.  

Below a more casual pose on the back door step, 1944. 

MY DAUGHTER

 

 

 

Making a speech?  Taken 1973

GRANDDAUGHTER  

 

Keeping up with the news! (Taken 2009)

 

 

 

Goodbye - and thank you for reading this post! (Taken 2009)

 

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

 

Click HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday bloggers

are marking SPECIAL OCCASIONS.  

Focus on Wedding Fashions - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Satuday's October theme is "Special Occasions" which this week focuses on Weddings, with the prompt photograph showing a bride arriving at the church with her father.    

Where do I start on this topic, as I have no shortage of images! So I am focusing  on fashion.Takea look at styles down  decades from 1879 to 1971 - and read the stories surrounding the events.

One of my favourite photographs as it is so typical of its period - 1929,  According to her daughter, Jennie Danson (my great aunt)  by her late twenties decided she had had enough of fulfilling a domestic role for her four brothers,  following the death of their parents.  The  brothers   showed no inclination to marry and set up their own homes.So  1929 saw Jennie marrying Beadnell (Bill)  Stemp at St. Chad's Church,  Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.   This move prompted her brothers all to get married in the following few years! 

A local newspaper report gave an  account of  Jennie's dress. Written  in an effusive, over the  top   journalistic  style,  it makes entertaining reading:

"A wedding of much local interest took place in the Poulton Parish Church on Saturday afternoon the bride being Miss Jennie Danson daughter of the late Mr and Mrs James Danson, Bull Street and the bridegroom Mr Beadnell Stemp, son of Mr and Mrs B. Stemp, Jubilee Lane, Marton.

The bride,  who was given away by her brother Mr R. Danson,  was stylishly gowned in French grey georgette, veiling silk to tone.  The bodice which was shaped to the figure was quite plain, with a spray of orange blossoms at the shoulder, while the skirt, which was ankle length, was composed entirely of five picot edged scalloped circular frills, and the long tight sleeves had circular picot edged frilled cuffs in harmony.  Her hat was of georgette to tone with uneven pointed dropping brim, having an eye veil of silver lace and floral mount.  She carried a bouquet of pink carnations with silver ribbon and horsehoe attached."

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 Here is the 1931 wedding of Albert Leslie Williams and Hilda Florence Coombs in London, the parents of my cousin's Stuart's wife.  It is two year's after my great aunt's wedding above and in another part of the country, but Dutch style hats for the little bridesmaids were still in fashion.

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 My mother's cousin Annie Danson  married on 4 October 1928 and the local press report again provided a fascinating picture of the fashion of the day.    Do take time to read it as it gives such a colourful and evocative description of the dresses, with the headline "Gowned in Delphinium Blue".

“A member of an old Poulton family Miss Annie M Danson, daughter of the late Mr and Mrs J Danson was married in the Parish Church, Poulton. 

The bride, who was given away by her uncle Mr R. Danson, was gowned in delphinium blue georgette, the sleeveless bodice being plain, while the circular skirt was side slashed and bordered all round with deep silver lace.  Her hat was ruched georgette to tone and she wore silver shoes and hose to tone.  Her bouquet was of pale pink chrysanthemums. 

The bridesmaids were Miss Jennie Danson (aunt) and Miss J Ditchfield (sister of the bridegroom).  Miss Danson wore pale shell pink georgette over silk, the picot edged skirt having shaded crystal motifs at intervals.  Her hat was of fine black felt with alternate shades of pink chiffon velvet on the drooping brim to tone with the gown.

Miss J. Ditchfield was in mauve taffeta, veiled with fine Brussels lace, with a hat of fine grey felt.  Both bridesmaids carried bouquets of russet chrysanthemums.

The reception was held at the home of the bride’s uncle, after which Mr and Mrs Ditchfield went to New Brighton for the honeymoon, the bride travelling in a dress of rose-rust silk, with ecru lace en relief, over which she wore a cost of dove grey, with fox fur trimming and hat of grey felt”.   

 

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  Isn't this hat magnificent?  This was the wedding photograph of George Butler and Sarah Alice Oldham who married in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1910.   Sarah's husband George worked for the Oldham family's  coal merchant business.

 

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Below is a charming photograph of the marriage of Sarah's sister Beatrice Oldham and Jack Clark on 26^th December 1919.

 

 

 

I feel the significance of the date after the First World War is reflected in the fashion,   where there is a certain air of informality (shorter skirt, trilby hat etc.)  It contrasts with the very formal opulent dress of  Sarah's wedding above nine years earlier in 1910.

 

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 Back some 40 years to more opulence depicted in a    copy  of "The Illustrated  London News", issue no. 2074 ,  March 15th 1879.  Many years  ago when in London I discovered a pile of the magazines in a shop by the Victoria and Albert Museum and bought several editions, as I love the old engravings.

 

The occasion featured  here was the marriage in 1879  of Queen Victoria's third son  Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert,  Duke of Connaught to Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria, third daughter of  Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia.

The wedding report was very lengthy and extremely fulsome in style.  A short extract is given here:  The princess's dress was described as: 

 

"made of thick white satin, the waist trimmed with lace 4" wide, the skirt also trimmed with lace 12" deep with bunches of myrtle.  The train was 13 feet long, with a rich lace flounce 3 feet wide, upon which was laid a branch of myrtle......

The pearl necklace worn by her Royal Highness  was a wedding gift from her most illustrious and venerable uncle King William I,  emperor of Germany.........

The bridal veil was richly decorated  with real point-de-gaze lace, ornamented with flowers, crown and the royal coat of arms  of Prussia, in relief, all worked with real white lace.  The order was given at the beginning of July last  and the work has been done by the hands of 300 peasant girls  in the mountains of Silesia".  

 

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Onto a century  later  - and my own wedding in 1971,

 Here with my father arriving at  the church - my nearest image   to the prompt photograph below.  I was wearing a simple empire line dress, with a headdress in the style of Ann Boleyn, the wife of Henry VIII.   Tudor styles were all the rage at the time, with dramas on TV and in Hollywood films.  

To be honest it not a good omen, given that Ann Boleyn suffered the fate of being executed by the monarch.   But my husband and I survived and have recently marked our 53rd anniversary! 

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

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Click  HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday bloggers

are marking SPECIAL OCCASIONS. 

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Bird's Eye Views - Sepia Saturday

It's  the  final week of Sepia Saturday September theme "High and Low".  So here we are up on high, taking a bird's eye view below. 

 Not a constructed model village, but Neustift in the Stubaital, south of Innsbruck in Austria, taken from the chair lift.

 Memories of us  flying over the Alps into Innsbruck Airport for a holiday in the Austrian Tyrol.  This is not for the faint-hearted air traveller.  You feel that if you could put your hands out of the plane window,  you would touch the peaks.  

 

Another aeroplane view - this time the Europa Brucke, linking Germany & Austria across the Alps into Italy; a photograph taken as we flew into Innsbruck. The bridge is 2,549 feet  long.  According to Wikipedia, it hosts a 192 metre Bungee Jump  - the 5th highest in the world.  Construction began in 1959 and the bridge opened to traffic in 1964. 

Definitely not my idea of fun   - a paraglider, taken from our hotel balcony in Austria.

Munich's Neues  Rathaus (New Town Hall).   Built in the Gothic style, it was begun in 1867 but not officially opened until 1905.  A demonstration of some kind seemed to be  going on below in the Square.  View taken from the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall)  which dates from the 14th century,

 

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 Across to the UK

 

 Flying into Edinburgh Airport and below is South Queensferry and the two bridges across the River Forth  - on the right the Forth Rail Bridge builtx in 1890,  and on the left the Road Bridge, opened in 1964 to replace the centuries old ferry crossing.  

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 I am a Blackpudlian, born in  the seaside resort of Blackpool on England's north west coast. Here looking down on the North Pier, taken from the top of the famous Blackpool Tower, built in 1894.  It was modelled on the Eiffel Tower in Paris and rises to 520 feet - facts drummed into us at school. 

You can get a cranky lift to the top of the Tower and stand on a scary glass floor to view the town below.

 

c.1983.  taking a seat on North Pier with the Tower in the background. 

 

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An aerial view taken as we were coming into land at Newcastle Airport, with a clear picture of the River Tyne, its north and south piers. and on the left South Shields, the home of my husband's ancestors.  The first purpose-built lifeboat in the world was built in South Shields in 1789. 

 Donaldson, White and Moffet ancestors were master mariners, sailing out of South Shields.  Extended family members were in related occupations as a caulker, seaman, river policemen, shipwright, roper, ship's carpenter and marine engine fitter.

Tyne & Wear Archives were invaluable to providing further information on the families' working lives, with added details traced in the mariner records held at the National Archives at Kew.   I discovered the ships that GGGG grandfather Robert Donaldson and GG grandfather Matthew White sailed  around Europe, on ships, many of which came to a sad end - though not under their captaincy.  I also became acquainted with the names of different sailing vessels - barque or barc, brig, sloop, smack and snow   - family history can take you  in many diverse directions.

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On my feet this time, with my local walking group in the Scottish Borders  on a hill walk  looking down on the 18th century Carolside Bridge over the Leader Water.

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 And Finally - looking down on us all, this gargoyle on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris - taken before the dreadful fire in 2019 that did so much damage to  the ancient building. 

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

Click  HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday bloggeS

have reflected Highs and Lows. 

BRIDGES OVER RIVERS & CENTURIES

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows the  bridges over the River Tyne in Newcastle in north east England. Cue for me to feature another river with multi crossings - the River Tweed - 3 miles from my home in the Scottish Borders, with its three bridges, spanning two hundred years of history. 

 

The middle bridge here was built 1776-80. It replaced a ferry crossing over the River Tweed, on the route that is now the main A68 north to Edinburgh. Its narrow structure, more used to horses and carts, but remained in use for 200 years controlled by traffic lights, until a new road bridge (in the foreground) was errected,

 

Photographs courtesy of the Auld Earlston Heritage Group

 
In the background is the famous Leaderfoot Viaduct built in 1865 and the major engineering feat of the Berwickshire Railway Line from the east. The statistics are impressive - the viaduct stands 126 feet (38 m) from the floor of the river valley, and its 19 arches, each has a 43 feet span. It was named after the meeting of the Leader Water with the River Tweed. 

A local paper of 3rd September 1863 gives a graphic account of an accident to a work on the viaduct.

                         

                     

 

The Berwickshire Railway was badly affected by severe flooding in 1948 and services to the east of the county were particularly affected. The last train ran over the viaduct in 1965. It is now under the care of Historic Environment Scotland.

The Viaduct remains a popular spot for photographers today - here a view taken from the old road bridge which is now only open to walkers and cyclists.

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My brother standing in front of the cast iron arched Ironbridge over the River Severn in Shropshire, where our father spent his childhood. It was the first ironbridge built In 1781 and often described as "the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution". It is now a World Heritage Site.

Although Dad was born in Bilston, Wolverhampton, he moved to Broseley, across the river from Ironbridge, when he was five years old and he regarded it as his happy childhood home. He went to school there, sang in the choir from the age of seven and began his working life at a grocer's shop, delivering goods by pony and cart. Dad's father had a 35 minutes walk across this bridge each way every day to get to his work at the Coalbrookdale Power House in the Severn valley. The local historical society has been particularly helpful in my family history.

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On some decades ,   and here are my parents on the walkway of the newly opened Forth Road Bridge, spanning the Firth of Forth, near Ediinburgh with the historic Rail Bridge to the right, We lived then about 6 miles away and it was my father's favourite Sunday outing to drive to South Queensferry to see how the bridge was progressing. 

 

I am struck in this photograph  by the formal wear of my 56 year old mother - but oh so typical of the time - court shoes, handbag,  hat and gloves for what could have been a blustery walk.   

 

The bridge  was opened by Queen Elizabeth in September 1964 and replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians across the River Forth   at Queensferry  - a real bottleneck for everyone. When the  new road  bridge opened, it was the fourth biggest suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside the United States.

The Forth Rail Bridge, crossing the Forth estuary   is a celebrated Scottish landmark, and a milestone in the development of railway civil engineering,  Built in the aftermath of one of the most infamous railway engineering failures  -the Tay Rail Bridge disaster in 1879, it was the first major structure in Britain to be made of steel and its construction resulted in a continuous East Coast railway route from London to Aberdeen.  The railway bridge, had the world's longest spans (541 m) when it opened in 1890.  At the height of constructive, it employed a workforce of 4600 with the loss of  57 lives.  It remains one of the greatest cantilever trussed bridges and continues to carry passengers and freight today. It now has been given   a World Heritage status.

 

Photograph courtesy of Pixabay 

 

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I now live in the Scottish Borders - a region noted for its rolling hills and flowing rivers - so naturally there are many bridges. Here is just one.

Chain Bridge at Melrose

The Chain Bridge at Melrose beneath the Eildon Hills crosses the famous salmon river of the Tweed. It was opened in 1826 and conditions were imposed on its use including the restraint that no more than eight people should be on it at any one time.  Also "No  loitering, climbing or intentional swinging" permitted, Contravention of the rules was  punishable by a £2 fine (£135 in today's money) -  or imprisonment.  (Currency Converter).

 

 

Since payment had to be made to cross the bridge, a ford downstream for horse drawn vehicles continued to be used by pedestrians for some time, with a box of stilts at each end of the ford for people to use for a safer journey.

The bridge is still in use today - at no charge!
 

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And finally  back ro rhe 18th century -  I could not resist  showing this  wooden bridge  - a reconstruction of the Old North Bridge, Concord, Massachusetts, where in 1775 local Minutemen fired the first shot in the American War of Independence and forced the British to retreat back to Boston. 

 

Taken in 1965 when I spent a wonderful year working in Cambridge, Mass.

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

Click  HERE  to see how other Sepia Saturday blogger 

have reflected this week's prompt photograph