Round by the Railings & Benches - Sepia Saturday

"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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