Forging Friendships - All in a Row - Sepia Saturday

This  week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph  features a happy row of friends enjoying a walk along a seaside  promenade.  I focus on friendships. 

School Friendships

 

Devonshire Road Junior School, Blackpool, Lancashire, c. 1950

Our first friendships are probably forged at school - and here is my first class photograph from the 1950s.  I could still remember the names of the children I was friendly with - Jackie, Julia, Gail, Janice, Sandra, Miriam, Johnny and Keith.  A huge class of 46 when the current limit for year two in Scotland is 30

I am second from the right on the second row, with my hair tied in plaits with ribbons, next to the little boy kneeling in the striped pullover. 

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Friendships Through Work

The distinctive work costume of the Bondagers

 Bondagers were female farm workers  in south east Scotland and Northumberland. As part of their husband's contract (or bond) with the farmer, he would undertake to provide another worker (usually his wife) to help as and when required. The women wore a distinctive dress with bonnet, described as the "last remaining peasant costume" in Britain.  The custom of bondagers lasted well into the 20th century. 

 

Staff and visitors at Earlston Railway Station, c.1920, posed in front of,  the station footbridge.  The Berwickshire Railway reached Earlston in the Scottish Borders  in 1863, but following severe flooding in 1948,  the line only continued with freight traffic,  not passengers,  and was finally closed  in 1965. 

 

 Down tools for these  Greek workmen,   taking a break  - my husband encountered this group  whilst on holiday in 1971

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Friendship in War Time

 The sense of camaraderie was very evident  - as shown in these images. 

         Land Girls gathering in Earlston for work on local farms  

         during the Second World War. 

 

 Take a look HERE for a vivid  first hand account of what life was like as a land girl on Georgefield Farm, Earlston in the 1940s.  

 

A happy group of munition workers in Earlston. 

 

Around 950,000 British women worked in munitions factories during the Second World War, making weapons such as  shells and bullets. Munitions work was often well-paid, but involved long hours, sometimes up to seven days a week. Workers were also at serious risk from accidents with dangerous machinery or when working with high explosive material. 
[Source: My Learning.Org

 

From my Danson family collection, a First World War photograph of my great  uncle Frank Danson, dressed formally here in his uniform and cap (front row left),  but what about those two fellows on the  back row in what appears to be their pyjamas and beanie hats?   Some kind of celebration? 

 

This photograph in the Danson family collection  was unfortunately not identified, but I think Frank could be on the right of the front row.  He was wounded in action and hospitalized in Malta. Wounded soldiers, fit enough to go out and about, wore a distinctive uniform of blue flannel suits with white revers and a red tie. 

Jack Riley is identified in the centre  of this group,  wearing sailor’s uniform  and a cap HMS Chester.  He was the grandson of ane Riley nee Rawcliffe,  sister of my great grandmother Maria Danson,  On the left is Marcus Bailey, a neighbour of Jack in Fleetwood, Lancashire. 

I have  a postcard  (above) sent by Jack's  mother to my great grandmother Maria to say " Jack went out to sea today.  He went in good spirits".  The postmark is difficult to make out but could be 7.?? 16  or 18. 

I have tried to trace Jack  in service records without success.  HM Chester was a ship involved at the Battle of Jutland in the First World War, when young sailor John Travers Cornwell was awarded the prestigious Victoria Cross for "a conspicuous act of bravery".   Was Jack Riley another young sailor  on board HMS Chester at this time? Something else to add to my "Research To Do" list.

 

In must admit I know nothing at all about this photograph which was in my Great Aunt Jennie's collection.  She was usually good at labeling the photos on the reverse, but there was nothing here to indicate who it was or where it was taken.   I am presuming they are First World War soldiers and might include one of Jennie's five brothers who served - William Danson  (my grandfather), John who died in army training,  Tom, Frank and George, killed on the Somme a week after his 22nd birthday.    Was it a group of new recruits in training?  How many, I wonder survived the conflict.  The background looks very like the many terraced rows of houses and bed & breakfasts you find in Blackpool.  

 

A lovely happy image of,   my aunt Peggy Danson (on the left) and friend.  In World War Two she served in the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force), with a note In the family photograph album that she was  in a Barrage Balloon Squadron in Hull, Yorkshire.  

A photograph from my husband's family collection with  this group of young sailors,  obviously relaxing!  The postcard franked 15th December 1909 from Beverley (Yorkshire?) was addressed to my husband's great grandmother, Mrs S. A. Hibbert, 169 Maxwell Street, South Shields, with the message:

Dear Mother, I write these lines hoping you are keeping well, and to ask if you can pick me out  in this group?  

Frustratingly there was no space left for a signature to be written.  But it must surely be Robert Hibbert who would be 15 in 1909?    To date I have not traced him in 1911 census - so more research called for here.  

 

 

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Friendship Through Fun 

 

 

A happy group photograph of family and friends with my grandmother at the centre, with my mother, aunt and uncle on the right - but I never found out what the occasion this was.  c,1940s.

This photograph was taken in 1961 of my mother (second left) out with a group  of friends.  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 - a far cry from today's casual style for  all ages.

My father  is on the second row right  as vice captain of his school team at Broseley, Shropshire.  This is the earliest photograph (1926) I have of my father and the local historical society was instrumental in me getting a copy.  In my father's words.....

"I was mad keen on soccer, so much so that I had a trial at Birmingham with the English schoolboys. Then I found out  that two directors from Birmingham Football Club came to see Dad and Mum to sign me on for the junior team  - they refused, saying I was too young to be away from home. I was not told about this until later and sulked for a month!

But a bit of glory followed, when my school team entered a cup competition. I was vice-captain and we got to the final - and won the cup, the first ever for Broseley."

On a generation to a similar photograph of my brother  in the hockey team of Broughton School, Edinburgh, in the 1960s

 

 My brother is front row - second left.

 

 Here is a picture of the junior dancers at  the Gala Day at  Staining, near Blackpool, Lancashire around 1950, and I am the little girl kneeling on the left of the front row. 

 The Village Gala was the focal event of the calendar where we lived.   All the surrounding  villages had the their annual gala day, when the  band led the Rose Queen in procession with her maids of honour and retinue to a field where she was crowned Queen by some local worthy, followed by dancing displays  games, stalls, craft competitions, refreshment tents - and sports.  A great community event that raised spirits after the war years. 

I first saw this photograph amongst papers after my mother's death. She is the second figure in from the left - looking very trim and elegant in that boyish costume. 

But what are they dressed up for?  There is a  clue on the back - with the name of  a photographer in Stirling (Scotland). That means it was taken  after 1961 when we moved north from England.  

 

I do know that Mum went  to Stirling to take part in some regional events for the Townswomen's Guild - or was it WRI (Women's Rural Institute) -  and these clearly are all women.  Was it a play?  Mum was never interested in acting and I cannot see her delivering lines in a play. But she enjoyed singing and joined a choir wherever we lived.  So  was it a choral performance?    Italian or Spanish, judging by the costumes?  Is that a bride & groom in the centre with the "priest" alongsid?  Gilbert & Sullivan's "Gondoliers" came to mind, but there are no gondolier hats.  I shall never know!  But it shows you are never too old to enjoy dressing up 

 

And to finish on a seaside theme 

Having fun on the beach - my husband's great aunt Violet (left) and friends, c.1920's   

 

It must be a photographic quirk that my father here appears so sunburnt in the photograph above, because he did not lead a particularly outdoor life to get that brown.  In a row with myself and my brother.

 

 My daughter  (in the middle) enjoying a donkey ride on Blackpool beach. This was taken in Blackpool in the school  October half term holiday, so not exactly summery. 

                       [Earlston photographs courtesy of the  Auld Earlston Heritage Group]

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