Travel Tuesday - Early Days on the Road

What was driving like for our ancestors in the early days of motoring?  Take a look  at these quiet roads in times past for both leisure and business travel.  around the village of Earlston in the Scottish Borders 

For Leisure 

Driving down  the middle of the road,  which is now the busy main central Borders  route  linking Newcastle and Edinburgh .

The Quiet Market Square

Local Historian John Weatherley with his Pride and Joy

Letting the Bus Take the Strain

For Business

Prime Minister Asquith  in 1908 leaving  in the official car from Earlston Station
 to take him to a large political gathering in the village. 

Andrew Taylor & Sons, Ironmonger & Grocer  - listed in a Directory of 1931. 

 The~Co-op Van -  A Travelling Shop that went around 
farms and more isolated communities.

Two Lorries of the  Brownlie family who have been in the Saw Mill business 

since the mid 1850s and purchased the Earlston yard in 1920. 

 in July 1988 it became part of BSW Timber Group 

Two Lorries from  Rodger (Builders) Ltd, established in Earlston in 1847 
and still operating from the village

 

(No connection!)

And what was likely to be the biggest danger facing motorists?  Children playing on the road. 

High Street 

With thanks for my local heritage group Auld Earlston 
for the use of these images from their photographic collection 

Travel Tuesday is just one of many daily prompts from Geneabloggers to encourage writers to record their family history.