Take a Seat - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows a man standing  by a very utilitarian desk and chair .  Cue for me to show far more interesting looking  chairs used by my extended family.  

 

A large medieval style chair for Elsie Oldham (1906-1989), my mother's second cousin.  

A heavily scrolled chair with an ornate back for seated Joseph Prince Oldham  (1855-1917) with his granddaughter Elsie Oldham  (1906-1989)  and grandson Joseph Butler who was born 1918.  

Joseph Price Oldham  became a carter and coal merchant in Blackpool, Lancashire, in a house with stables, opposite the North Railway Station. His son John William Oldham carried on the business, until it fell to Elsie. 

In the 1920's, Elsie also  ran a hairdresser's from the family home,  giving her name a French twist as "Elise". 

 

 

Here an older Elsie Oldham with her cousin Joseph Butler,  standing behind her - presumably in clean boots! 

 

 

 

 

A charming photograph of the young Joseph Prince Oldham, born 1855,  (the grandfather above).  It seemed to be the fashion to stand children on chairs  for photographs - see below.  

 

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My Great Uncle George (the youngest of my grandfather's seven brothers), is looking very studious, here, hand on chin, seated sideways  on a large solid oak chair 

George, born 1894,  son of James Danson and Maria Rawclliffe of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire,  worked on W. H. Smith bookstalls at local railway stations.  He was killed  whilst serving as a stretcher bearer on the Somme  in 1916, a week after his 22nd birthday.  I have written bout him a number of times on my blog - take a look at  A Stretch Bearer's Tale  

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A portrait of my husband's uncle  - Matthew Iley White, looking determined   in his uniform of the Durham Light Infantry.  

Photograph taken by T. W. H. Liddle, Photographer, South Shields.  

 

 

 

Matthew's sister , Ivy Donaldson, nee White,  my husband's mother,   with her grandaughter perched on high on the back of that seat. 

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Sitting on a throne-like seat, is   Annie Jolly, a friend of  my Great Aunt Jennie Danson.  The Jolly and Danson families were at one time neighbours in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire and there were distant family connections too  through marriage.  This photograph was in the large collection of Jennie's,  taken mainly  around 1916-1920.  

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Two more photographs from Jennie's collection.  Here, written on the reverse is  "Mary, Charlie & Nannie Hardisty, Villa Farm, Bispham, Blackpool."  The photograph was taken at W .J. Gregson & Co, W, P. Beck, proprietor, Photographers, 92 Talbot Road, Blackpool.  

I did some quick detective work and found the family in the 1911 census, with Mary,  26 years old, husband Charles Alfred 24 and Nannie Ada 1 year old.  She does not look too happy here  in her best knitted coat and bonnet, plus little boots.   c. 1912.  

 

 

This photograph is so sweet, but I know next to nothing about it.   At least Jennie had written the names of the children  on the reverse as Jesse and Bernard Penington.  I like the seascape background, and is that a spade that Bernard has in his left hand?   

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I could not let this prompt pass by,  without showing this photograph which has appeared before on my blog and is crucial to my family history. 

"Who was that stern, rather Spanish looking woman sitting in the  imposing medieval style chair?"  This was the question  that started me on the family history trail when I found this photograph in a shoebox collection at my grandfather's house.  

 

The answer -  my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe.   There was an apocryphal  story that her dark looks had come from sailors, who after the Armada were shipwrecked on the Fylde coast of Lancashire.

By her side, is her granddaughter Annie Maria (my mother's cousin)  who made her home with Maria after the early death of her own mother.  Annie was born 1905 and she looks to be around 11-12 years old in the picture, so I estimate it was was taken  c.1917.  Annie's father John Danson, died in 1917 in tragic circumstances at military camp,  a few months after the death of his brother George Danson in the earlier photograph. No wonder that their mother Maria looks  forbidding here.    

And Finally:

 Here I am on my own little chair - a bit big for me  as   my feet don't touch  the ground.   The chair was passed down, with fresh covers,   to my daughter and granddaughter - but I never thought at the time to take a photograph of them in it.   A pity! 

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

Click HERE to see what other bloggers have spotted in this week's prompt. 

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