Motor Bikes to the Fore - Sepia Saturday

A man and woman, dressed in leather coats,  sit by their motor cycle in the latest prompt photograph  from  Sepia Saturday.

Cue for me to turn to my local heritage group Auld Earlston,  In 2017   we presented an exhibition entitled “Horses to Horse Power” looking at transport down the ages.  The resulting display included images of  enterprising women on motor bikes.  

 

The 1950s was the golden age of the motor cycle and side car    and I have memories of my uncle Harry driving one with my aunt sitting upright in a cramped sidecar.   It could mean a bumper ride with little protection against the elements. 

There was just one photograph in my family collection that fitted this week's theme  and one I have shown before .  Here  in c.1949 is my husband as the little boy on the back of his  father's motor bike, which I am told was a  pre-war 500cc Rudge Spurts Special.

 

The one feature that strikes us now about all these photographs.   - the riders were oblivious in their choice of clothing  to the potential dangers we identify today. 

 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

 to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

 

Click HERE to read posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

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Stand by Your Car! - Sepia Saturday

Cars and their proud owners is this weeks’s theme  from Sepia Saturday - a popular topic  and I revisit photograhs from my family collection and those of my local heritage group - Auld Earlston. 

My parents wth my Aunt Fran in the middle, with my brother and Imyself.  I have my pigtails  pinned on top of my head, Austrian style.  I presume  my Ucle Fred was taking the picture. 

Band of brothers - my father with his older  brother Fred c.1960s 

 

Dad again, John Weston (on the left) with his younger brother Charles. I was delighted to get this photograph from my cousin,  as it  is one of the few photographs I have of my father prior to his marriage in 1938  to my mother, and means a lot to me.   John and Charles were close as  brothers and often went on motoring trips together. Here looking very suave in a smart casual style of the day.  c.1936.

 

A happy photograph of my father  with a later car. 

 

 

A photograph from my cousin's collection on his Oldham Family  

 

 

  Baker's Van in Earlston 

 

From Baker to Butcher  - with a rather rickety looking vehicle  belonging to Donaldson family  in Earlston - no relation!  

 

 

 

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

 

Back to Family 

 

A photograph of my elegant mother taken I suspect before my parents married in 1938.  She never learned  to drive. 

Like Mother, LIke Daughter 

 

 

Fast forward to 1968 (this photograph was dated)  - I am surprised that my father allowed someone to sit on the car.

 

 

This was my husband's first car  - a silver grey Ford Escort, bought just a few weeks before we first met in 1970. He was always proud of his cars and looked after them well.   This brings back memories of our engagement. It must have been love, that he actually suggested I sat on top of the car for this photograph - not something he has allowed since!  But he did spread out the tartan rug for me. For once I am quite in fashion with my  miniskirt, peter pan collar blouse,  and 1970's striped  coat! 
  

 

By 1972 we had graduated to a bronze Ford Cortina (right)  and this reminds me of the time when we were planning for the birth of our daughter - so a larger car was called for with room for the pram and all the baby paraphernalia etc.   This photograph was taken  near  Smailholm Tower in the Scottish Borders.  

 

 

 

My brother (the tiny tot in the first photograph)  with his pride and joy - pity,  though,  that the car bonnet was cut off the image! 

 

 

My mother outside our home in Edinburgh, c.1960s

 

 Mum and my Aunt Edith   - they were very close as sisters (born only a year and a week apart)  and Edith was also my much loved godmother.  Here taken c. 1965 against the far background of the historic Forth Rail Brid and the tower of the new Road Bridge, completed in 1964.  This was most likely a Sunday outing which my father enjoyed doing, but look at their formal wear  - hat, gloves and court shoes for just going out in the car!

 

 

The car daughter and I hired on our trip to New England in 1996 - my first visit there since I had spent a year working in Cambridge, Mass 1965-66.  This was in Falmouth, Cape Cod where we stayed in this wonderful cottage  and made a magical trip on a beautiful Autumn day sailing across to Martha's Vineyard.

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And Finally - to early days of the motor car  as described in a report in “The Southern Reporter” newspaper of 24th March 1898.

"MOTOR CAR SPOTTED IN EARLSTON  - A motor car passed through the village on Sunday morning.  The two gentlemen who were driving it left Newcastle-on-Tyne the previous day en route for Edinburgh.  In this neighbourhood one of the tyres got damaged  and it was resolved to put up at the Red Lion. 

This was done and the  car when it reached the hotel, being stopped for a little while,  was quickly surrounded  and examined with no small degree of curiosity, this being the first time  such a machine  has been seen  in operation here. "

It was obviously a newsworthy event! 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity  

to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

 

 

Click  HERE to find out what other bloggers have found

in this week's prompt photograph.  

 

 

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Women at the Wheel - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday's prompt photograph for this week features a vintage cars, with a woman at the wheel.  Cars have been a popular topic on the site  and below are some mages  from past posts - and some new.

My cousin's first ever car - a 1932 Morris Minors and the only car he ever had where he made a profit when he sold it.  He bought it in 1958 for £20 and sold it a year later for £30! The photograph is taken near Inverary in the west of Scotland on the Rest and Be Thankful road, - notorious for landslips, snow and road closed warnings

 

The Baker's van in the village of Earlston in the Scottish Borders.  Date unknown.  Photograph  courtesy of Auld Earlston 

My  Father. John Weston (on the left) with his brother Charles. I was delighted to get this photograph from my cousin,  as it  is one of the few photographs I have of my father prior to his marriage in 1938  to my mother, and means a lot to me.   John and Charles were close as  brothers and often went on motoring trips together; here looking very suave in a smart casual style of the day.  c.1936.  My father was the first on either side of the family to drive a car.

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 As for women at the wheel:

 

 Yes,I know - I'm showing off my mini skirt in 1970!

    

1972  and we  graduated to a bronze Ford Cortina  in anticipation of the birth of our daughter, so a larger car was called for with room for the pram and all the baby paraphernalia etc.  as we did the rounds of visiting both sets of parents and relations.  

The car daughter and I hired on our trip to New England in 1996 - my first visit there since I had spent a year working in Cambridge, Mass. 1965-66.  This was in Falmouth, Cape Cod where we stayed in this cottage  and made a magical trip on a beautiful Autumn day sailing across to Martha's Vineyard.   Happy memories! 

Beginning young:

 Christmas Day - and Granddaughter at the wheel of her new toy tractor - we live in a rural area and she loved seeing all the different coloured tractors pass on the road.  

Granddaughter  at the wheel of the fire engine.  This was ;probably taken at Beamish Open Air Museum in north east  England - a wonderful place recreating life in past decades.  

 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers         to share their family history through photograph

   

Click  HERE

             to read more from other Sepia Saturday bloggers

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Horses to Horse Power: Sepia Saturday

Each week, Sepia Saturday, provides an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to share their family history through photographs.  

Sepia Saturday's latest prompt photograph features a 1920s lorry. My mind turned immediately to my cousin's Oldham family of Blackpool, Lancashire, who were carters and coalmen down three generations. The business  went from  using horses to horsepower  - and below is their first lorry purchased in 1921. 

The business was founded around 1890, by Joseph Prince Oldham (1856-1921) and steadily became prosperous.  In  1905 it moved to near North Station, Blackpool, Lancashire in a house with a large yard, hay loft, tack room. and stabling for around 7 horses.

 

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In the 1901 census Joseph Prince Oldham (below), son of William Oldham and Sarah Prince,  was described as a self-employed carter and coal merchant. Also in the  household were Joseph's  wife Mary Alice, his 20 year old son John William and three  young daughters, Sarah Alice, Edith and Beatrice, plus also mother-in-law Mary Ann Knowles. 

 

The Oldham family c.1910 - Back: Sarah and John William 

Front:  Father Joseph,  Beatrice, Edith  and mother Mary Alice. 
 

Joseph Prince Oldham with his granddaughter Elsie 

who later took over the business.

An accident at the coal sidings in the railway station resulted in Joseph being blinded and he died in 1921, with his will, signed with his "mark".

 

 Son John William Oldham on one of the carriages

 in the family business.

 Joseph's son, John William Oldham (1880-1939)

Shortly before his death Joseph had purchased the first vehicle (at the top of this page)   which was used alongside the horses and carts until the 1930's when two new vehicles were bought. 

 

Lorry c. 1936



This vehicle  was requisitioned during the Second World War by Governmentfor use by  the Fire Service. It was never returned.

John William Oldham married Mary Jane Bailey (my grandfather's first cousin)   in 1905 at St. John's Church, Blackpool.  The photograph below shows them standing, with seated John's sister Sarah who went onto marry George Butler (front left) who also worked in the family business.   Look at those hats!!

 

 

 The couple  faced tragedy with  when their youngest daughter Hilda  died aged 6 in 1915.  

Family photograph c.1909 with baby Hilda 

and older daughter Elsie. 

On the death in 1939 of John William Oldham,  his daughter Elsie (below) took the helm with her husband Arthur Stuart Smith and saw the business through the difficult wartime years, combining it with her own hairdressing concern as "Elise"  run from the family home.  

 

 

    

Elsie Oldham (1906-1989)  - my mother's second cousin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The coal merchant business was eventually sold around 1948 to another local firm, thus ending over 50 years of the family concern.   

 

Elsie's daughter Gloria atop one of the last horses.

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 Click HERE to  read this week's blogs 

from other Sepia Saturday blogger.

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Bird's Eye Views - Sepia Saturday

It's  the  final week of Sepia Saturday September theme "High and Low".  So here we are up on high, taking a bird's eye view below. 

 Not a constructed model village, but Neustift in the Stubaital, south of Innsbruck in Austria, taken from the chair lift.

 Memories of us  flying over the Alps into Innsbruck Airport for a holiday in the Austrian Tyrol.  This is not for the faint-hearted air traveller.  You feel that if you could put your hands out of the plane window,  you would touch the peaks.  

 

Another aeroplane view - this time the Europa Brucke, linking Germany & Austria across the Alps into Italy; a photograph taken as we flew into Innsbruck. The bridge is 2,549 feet  long.  According to Wikipedia, it hosts a 192 metre Bungee Jump  - the 5th highest in the world.  Construction began in 1959 and the bridge opened to traffic in 1964. 

Definitely not my idea of fun   - a paraglider, taken from our hotel balcony in Austria.

Munich's Neues  Rathaus (New Town Hall).   Built in the Gothic style, it was begun in 1867 but not officially opened until 1905.  A demonstration of some kind seemed to be  going on below in the Square.  View taken from the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall)  which dates from the 14th century,

 

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 Across to the UK

 

 Flying into Edinburgh Airport and below is South Queensferry and the two bridges across the River Forth  - on the right the Forth Rail Bridge builtx in 1890,  and on the left the Road Bridge, opened in 1964 to replace the centuries old ferry crossing.  

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 I am a Blackpudlian, born in  the seaside resort of Blackpool on England's north west coast. Here looking down on the North Pier, taken from the top of the famous Blackpool Tower, built in 1894.  It was modelled on the Eiffel Tower in Paris and rises to 520 feet - facts drummed into us at school. 

You can get a cranky lift to the top of the Tower and stand on a scary glass floor to view the town below.

 

c.1983.  taking a seat on North Pier with the Tower in the background. 

 

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An aerial view taken as we were coming into land at Newcastle Airport, with a clear picture of the River Tyne, its north and south piers. and on the left South Shields, the home of my husband's ancestors.  The first purpose-built lifeboat in the world was built in South Shields in 1789. 

 Donaldson, White and Moffet ancestors were master mariners, sailing out of South Shields.  Extended family members were in related occupations as a caulker, seaman, river policemen, shipwright, roper, ship's carpenter and marine engine fitter.

Tyne & Wear Archives were invaluable to providing further information on the families' working lives, with added details traced in the mariner records held at the National Archives at Kew.   I discovered the ships that GGGG grandfather Robert Donaldson and GG grandfather Matthew White sailed  around Europe, on ships, many of which came to a sad end - though not under their captaincy.  I also became acquainted with the names of different sailing vessels - barque or barc, brig, sloop, smack and snow   - family history can take you  in many diverse directions.

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On my feet this time, with my local walking group in the Scottish Borders  on a hill walk  looking down on the 18th century Carolside Bridge over the Leader Water.

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 And Finally - looking down on us all, this gargoyle on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris - taken before the dreadful fire in 2019 that did so much damage to  the ancient building. 

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

Click  HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday bloggeS

have reflected Highs and Lows.