"Round by the Railings & Benches" is my response to this week's Sepia Saturday prompt picture which shows a happy group (well wrapped up) on a bench seat with railings in the background. To me, the setting looks very like being on a seaside pier.
Myself., husband and daughter posing on Blackpool pier, with the famous Blackpool Tower in the background Taken in an October half term - hence us looking rather wintry, c.1980.
I was born in Blackpool with facts about the Tower drummed into us at school - built in 1894, modelled on the Eiffel
Tower. it rises to 520 feet and you can take a lift to the top to get marvellous views of the coastline.
What struck me about these photos is how formallyt and court shoes, husband in his overcoat. Times have changed to a much more casual look today for all ages.
In September 1966, I was returning home from a year's working in
the USA, travelling aboard the Cunard liner "Sylvania" from New York,
calling at Boston and Cobh, Ireland, before reaching
Liverpool. T
The ship, small by today's cruise ship standards, was very
quiet and I was lucky to get a cramped 4 berth cabin all to myself.
Goodness knows how four adults could have managed in the space, without
someone being perched on top of their bunk.
Commercial
jet planes services were hitting the transatlantic
scheduled shipping and the Liverpool-New York sailings were axed in November
after my return.
Onto more summery climes:
1971 and my mini skirted days in St. James Park, London.
Enjoying the boat ride on the lake WolfgangaSee in Austria. The occasion our ruby wedding anniversary.
Back to the early 1930s - My mother with her younger sister, plus a friend posing at the South Shore Open Air Swimming Pool in Blackpool .
Swimming
took off as a popular leisure activity in the 1920's as part of the
interest in improving health and fitness. The seaside resort of
Blackpool, like with so many initiatives, was one of the first to jump
on this bandwagon for building lidos, with the Open Air Baths at South
Shore opening to visitors in 1923.
At
the time, it was the
largest in the world. and its statistics are staggering. It cost
£75,000 - equivalent to £2,248,000 in today's money. Built in a
classical style with pillars and colonnades, (you can just make these
out in the photographs. It could accommodate 8000
spectators/sunbathers, and 1500 swimmers.
The dimensions met Olympic standards for competitions with a 100-metre length down one side of the pool, and a 16 feet diving
pit with boards graded to 10 metres (from where you could see the mountains
and hills of the Lake District). There were areas for little ones,
fountains and slides, bars and cafes - so something for everyone.
n that 1950's and 60's, the Open Air Pool became popular venue for international and national beauty
contests and the location for celebrity photographs.
I remember Mum taking my brother and I
there for a swim - unfortunately there are no photographs of the day.
As it involved a bus and a tram journey to get there, I can't ever
remember going again.
But,
you needed to be hardy in all but the best of weathers, as the water was
notoriously cold. From the 1950's holidaymakers were heading abroad
and becoming used to
the waters of warmer climes. Use dropped and the Baths became a big
white elephant.
The South Shore Open Air Baths were demolished in 1983 to make way for the
Sandcastle indoor water complex.
Railings on Bridges
The foot bridge over trhe River Teviot in a flooded Wilton Lodge Park in Hawick in the Scottish Borders.
A further flooded scene in Hawick, with the River Teviot almost reaching the bridge railings. What
struck me now about this photo forty years
on, is how the landscape has changed. The mill chimney and mill buildings
have since been demolished - a sign of how Hawick's once proud textile
industry, home of Pringle and Lyle & Scott and many more firms, has diminished.
Not forgetting "On the Bench" on the prompt image.
A
photograph from the collection of my great aunt Jennie Danson.
Unfortunately it is not identified, but seems to date by the fashions to the
late 1920s. But why do they all look so glum?
A
photograph from my local heritage group Auld Earlston in the Scottish
Borders - here an early image of Earlston Bowling Club founded in 1882 -
and still gong strong today.
Another Auld Earlston photograph, here of the Wallace Family.
The heavily bearded tall figure on the back row was Isaac Wallace (1841-1921) who, in 1859, emigrated to Australia and called his new home "Earlston". He set up a butter factory, and involved himself in community
affair. He made a return visit to Earlston in 1907 when this photograph was taken of him with his brothers and sister Isabella.
This photo was was taken in 1961 of my mother (second left) out with a group of
friends on an outing. My mother would be in her 50s but the clothes now
seem so old
fashioned with three of the women wearing hats and clutching their
handbags - again a far cry from today's casual style for all ages.
And Finally - one of my favourite photographs.
I bought this postcard online years ago I was drawn by the attractive pose and by the
realisation that the girl’s sailor hat
and the lifebelt both stated “HMS Pinafore” – the name of a Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta and I am a great G & S fan.
The postcard is franked 1906. HMS Pinafore or “The Lass who loved a Sailor”
opened in 1878 at the Opera Comique in London and ran for 571 performances - the second longest run of any musical theatre
event at the time. It poked good natured
humour at the British class system, love between members of different social status,
patriotism and the Royal Navy.
A happy memory of when I sang in the operetta many years ago!
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to share their family history.
