Sepia Saturday - Men Minus Ties

Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.
 
This week's prompt invites us to look at men in ties and braces. 

Well,  most of the men in my photographs are dressed very formally for weddings or military service. So  instead I have focussed on more casual wear  both for work and leisure - with men  minus their ties!

MEN AT WORK

This photograph was in the collection of my Uncle Fred Weston who grew up in Broseley, Shropshire, across the river from its more famous neighbour - Ironbridge, birthplace of England's Industrial Revolution.

 

Here is Tommy Rodgers, a well known local character, who was a   a coracle maker.   When the famous  Iron Bridge was opened in 1779,  locals objected to paying the tolls, so they used their coracles to cross the river instead;  also  to fish and to poach. Tommy Roger was well known as a poacher and the local newspaper regularly 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 appear there.  

More working men's garb, with my grandfather William Danson of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire sitting in the front of this group of workers.  Granddad was described as a labourer on his wedding certificate of 1907.  At one stage he worked in the local auction mart, and then at the ICI chemical works at Thornton, near Fleetwood.  

This could be work or leisure, but here is my husband's father John Robert Donaldson taking a break from his work as a sign writer and decorator.




A lace cravat, rather than a tie, worn by one of the many costumed city guides in Vienna  -

 - catching up on his information?

MEN AT LEISURE  

 

 

 

My father John Weston (left) with his younger brother Charles, adopting a casual pose of men around town.  I have told the story of Dad's first drive before on my blog, , but it is so entertaining, I could not resits featuring it again.  Dad was a commercial traveller  and in the 1930's got a new job with instructions to pick up a car at Derby and drive 90 miles north  to a position in Blackpool.  He had never driven before and here is his tale of his first  hair- raising journey, told in his own words.

""I had never driven a car before.  On Boxing Day, I went to the British School of Motoring and said I wanted some urgent lessons.  When I told the instructor I was driving to Blackpool the next day, he nearly had a fit.  I collected my car - a four door Morris saloon which I was expected to buy on hire  purchase at 18 shillings per week.  It was a traumatic journey with me being  a complete novice, having had no proper tuition.  There was no heating, no radio of course to help pass the time, and the windscreen wipers kept seizing up.  I had also been told that the tyres were awful for punctures.  Still I made it, as darkness fell - just as well, as I wasn't too sure about the lights!"

 

 

 

Thirty years on and now  driving with a caravan in tow, Dad take on a  more casual look, besides his older brother Fred who has kept to his tie, despite the obvious warm weather.  

 

 

My husband is the little boy in his school coat and cap, on the pillion of his father's motor bike.  No concerns then about health and safety and the  wearing of crash helmets!   But notice that his father's jacket is pin striped and he has a handkerchief tucked  in his top pocket. 

 

 

 

 I must admit I took this photograph rather surreptitiously in a cafe bar in Munch Square, in Bavaria, Germany.  The two men looked so genial sitting there with their huge beer tankards, casually dressed and enjoying a convivial drink.   Combined with the sign,  this seemed such a good photograph to take to typify the Bavarian scene. 

 

Click HERE to read how other bloggers featured ties and braces

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