Let's Go For A Walk! Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograhb features two ladies c. 1900 taking a stroll.  I have an  ideal match with this charming postcard from my local heritage group, Auld Esrldton collection, showing two Edwardian ladies  walking alongside the River Tweed  in the Scottish Borders .  In the background  is  the impressive Leaderfoot   Viaduct, three miles from my home

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The  Leaderfoot Viaduct built in 1865 was the major engineering feat of the Berwickshire Railway Line from the east.   The statistics are impressive -  the viaduct stands 126 feet (38 m) from the floor of the river valley, and  its 19 arches, each has a 43 feet span.  It was named after the meeting of the Leader Water with the River Tweed.  The last train went over it in 1965, and it is now in the care of Historic Scotland. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Onto the 1930s - and some images when surely my parents  were taking  a beak from a walk.

 

 A 1930's photograph of my mother (left) and father (right) , but I have no idea who the girl in the middle is.  I am also guessing that it was taken in the Lake District which they often visited and where they got engaged.

 My mother is perched on the fence  alongside her brother and sister in law (Uncle Fred and aunie Fan - and my Nana Weston. 

Onto 1964  and here are my parents on the walkway of the newly opened Forth Road Bridge, spanning the Firth of Forth, near Ediinbugh with the historic Rail Bridge to the right,  We lived about 6 miles away  and it was my father's favourite Sunday outing to drive to South Queensferry to see how the bridge was progressing.   It was opened  by the Queen in September 1964 and replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians across the River Forth - a real bottleneck for everyone.   When the bridge opened,  it was the fourth biggest suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside the United States.

In the 1970

Husband and I taking a break.

Daughter taking her first steps  in 1973 - she was an early walker, at 9 months.

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Woodlands, rivers and rolling hills define the Scottish Borders    with a network of walking groups across the region.  So enjoy this little walking travelogue of where I live. 

 

A tunnel of trees

 An autumn walk through the woods 

 We won't let snow deter us!

Out with my walking group

 

Looking down on the Leader Water.

 

Alongside the River Tweed

 

Enjoying the tranquillity of St. Mary's Loch 

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Sepia Saturday  gives geneabloggers the opportunity to share their family stories through photographs. 

 

Click HERE to read tales from other Sepia Saturday bloggers

Snowy Pleasures - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturated prompt image shows a charming vintage postcard   of  children enjoying themselves amidst snow.   I have no early childhood photographs in the snow - my family only seemed to bring the camera out in summer, but here are other images of people enjoying the snowtime. 

 This  is the oldest family snow picture in my collection and brings back memories of my father.  The photograph was taken in the wartime winter of 1944 in Luxembourg.  Dad served in the RAF working in codes and ciphers and  at this time was attached to the US 12th Army Group commanded by  General Bradley.  Whilst stationed in Luxembourg, Dad became friendly with a local  family.   Here he is (on the left)  with Mr. Batten out for a walk with his little daughter.  Dad remained in contact with the Batten family for many years after the war  and I think he enjoyed this brief taste of a family life amidst the harshness of war. He later was to experience the Battle of the Bulge. 

Onto my own family - my daughter was born in January and it often seemed to be snowing on her birthday  and it could play havoc with party plans. 

 

 1976 - out for a walk in the park in Hawick in the  Scottish Borders. 

 

Here she is on her 4th birthday - not looking none too happy.  Still we went through the ritual of a birthday photograph in 1977.

 

 

Fast forward  some 20 years and daughter is enjoying the pleasures of taking our dog a  walk in winter on the hill above our home.

 

 Our dog might like a walk in the snow - but not too sure about the owner!

 

 

Out for a Winter Walk  

With friends in 1966 - I am wearing my "Dr. Zhivago" fur hood - made popular by the film.  

 

Husband adding  a splash of colour as we set out on a winter woodland walk.

 

This  was taken June 1997  as we stood on the Stubai Glacier  near Innsbruck , Austria - our favourite country for our summer holiday. 

 

 

Onto where we live now in Earlston in the Scottish Borders,  with some pictures from the collection of my local heritage group - Auld Earlston.

      Members of Earlston Curling Club enjoying a game,

 

Regarded as one of the worst winters in living memory - 1947.  Here children are playing on the road - but in fine weather this is the main A68 road through the central Borders, linking Newcastle and Edinburgh. 

 2009 and my granddaughter exploring this new world of snow for the first time.

 

 

Below - some years later - happy to take on a snow clearing role. 

 

 

 Somebody's idea of fun in snow!  Playing at Snow Angels.  

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers  

to share their family history and memories through photographs

 

Click HERE to  see what other Sepia Saturday bloggers are writing about  this week.

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Lest We Forget: Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph features the war memorial looking out to sea at Southport, Queensland, Australia.

War Memorials give no more than a name, yet they are one of the most powerful, poignant and emotive of family history resources, recording the loss of often young lives under harrowing circumstances. War Memorials are not only significant features for the family of individuals they commemorate,  but also for the local community who bear witness to the sacrifice of their people in war. 

The simple but moving monument on the Isle of Iona off western Scotland, looks  across the water to the Isle of Mull.

The war memorial at Oban on the west coast of Scotland is in a most beautiful peaceful setting, with a background of sea and hills over to the Isle of Mull - far removed from the horrors of war.

A Scottish soldier, remembered in the small village of Taynuilt, near Oban.

 

 Another Scottish soldier portrayed on the war memorial at Aberfeldy, in Perthshire.

 

The War Memorial in the small village of Minto, near Hawick in the Scottish Borders.

The Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge in the Scottish Highlands overlooks the training areas of the Commando Training Depot established in 1942 at Achnacarry Castle.

 

 

 

Earlston War Memorial in the rural Scottish Borders, where I now live. 

 

 

The peaceful parkland setting of the war memorial in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England.

 

The Cenotaph, Britain's national memorial - photograph taken on a visit to London in 2008. shortly after Remembrance Day.

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A Query?   I am puzzled!  The prompt photograph quotes the date "c.1910".  So what war did it commemorate?  Did Australians fight in the Boer War 1899-1901? 

The South African Boer War  is an  often forgotten conflict,  but below is remembered in Hawick in the Scottish Borders,  where in Wilton Lodge Park the memorial was unveiled in 1903  by Head of the British Forces, Lord Roberts,  Twenty three men from Hawick and district died in the South African conflict and are named on the memorial. 

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers  

to share their family history and memories through photographs

 

  Click  HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday blogger have reflected 

this week's photograph 

Family & Friends in Threes: Sepia Saturday

Three young men enjoying a relaxing sail feature in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph.  I have little on ships and sailing, but plenty on family and friend in threesomes.

My best match:

THREE SAILOR LADS

This is one of the many photographs in my great aunt Jennie Danson’ collection – here identifying her cousin Jack Riley, of Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Jack, the seated figure in the middle of this group,  is in sailor uniform with the cap  HMS Chester.

Jack was 5 months old in the 1901 census, but so far I have been unable to find him ten years on;  nor could I trace a service record  for him.

I did a search for HMS Chester and was surprised to find it was the ship on which a young sailor John Travers Cornwell fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and  was warded the Victoria  Cross for a conspicuous act of bravery.  The citation reads  "Mortally wounded early in the action, Boy, First Class, John Travers Cornwell remained standing alone at a most exposed post, continuing to service his gun, until the end of the action, with the gun's crew dead and wounded all round him. His age was under sixteen".

John Cornwell was a keen scout in his home town and in his honour the Boy Scout Association instituted  the Cornwell Scout Badge, awarded for outstanding acts of  courage and endurance in the face of adversity. There is an additional  personal dimension to this story, for my husband received the Cornwell badge in 1948 following three years serious illness  in hospital.

Was Jack Riley another young sailor  on board HMS Chester at this time? Something to add to my research "to do" list.

  

I have  a postcard sent by his mother to my great grandmother 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. 

THREE SOLEMN CHILDREN

A younger photograph of Jack (on the right) with his sister Jane and brother Tom, c.1913.

THREE GENERATIONS

 My great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe (1859-1919), 

with her daughter Jennie (my great aunt)  and her little granddaughter Annie - c. 1909. 

Jennie was the only daughter and last child of James and Maria Danson, born on Christmas Eve, December 24^th 1897, with her eight (surviving)  brothers,  George then aged 3, Frank 5, Albert 7, Tom 9, William 12, Robert 16, John 18 and Harry 20 – quite a household in what looked like  a cramped terraced house.  Their father James died in 1906. 

Jennie's photograph collection forms the basis of much of my family history and even better she had identified the names on the back of most of the photos.   

THREE SISTERS

Another photograph from Jennie's collection, identified as Amy,  Edna and Lavinia Dodd, Todmorden.

Jennie's youngest brother George had enlisted  January 1916 at Todmorden, West Yorkshire.  His service record gave his   address at the time as  17 Harker Street, Harley Bank,  Todmorden, with occupation station bookstall manager. 

I turned to the 1911 census online  and found the Dodd family at  17 Harker Street, Harley Bank,  Todmorden, with head of household Elizabeth Dodd (occupation choring) and three daughters Amy aged 15 (a cotton weaver) , Edna 12 (a fustian sewer)  and Lavinia  aged 9.  

George was killed 9 months after enlisting and his name is on Todmorden War Memorial as well as on the  memorial at his birthplace in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. 

THREE HAPPY CHILDREN

 

My cousin's father in his little Lord Fountleroy outfit - Arthur Smith, born 1908 in Blackpool, Lancashire, with his sisters Ella and Edith.

 

THREE ON THE ROCK

My parents, though I suspect this was taken prior to their marriage in 1938, with Mum (Kathleen Danson) on the left and Dad (John Weston) on the right  - plus an unidentified friend.

A FAREWELL TRIO

My father in RAF uniform, with my mother on the right and her sister, my Aunt Edith on Dad's left - taken in the garden of my grandfather's house, c.1940.

THREE IN A ROW

 

Dad on the left  and his older brother Fred - whilst I am the little girl, not looking too happy.  

 

A PROUD TRIO

 

A windy day for my graduation, Edinburgh 1965. 

 

THREE MORE GENERATIONS

With my mother and my daughter, 1981

 

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

 Click HERE to read posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers.