Focus on Wedding Fashions - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Satuday's October theme is "Special Occasions" which this week focuses on Weddings, with the prompt photograph showing a bride arriving at the church with her father.    

Where do I start on this topic, as I have no shortage of images! So I am focusing  on fashion.Takea look at styles down  decades from 1879 to 1971 - and read the stories surrounding the events.

One of my favourite photographs as it is so typical of its period - 1929,  According to her daughter, Jennie Danson (my great aunt)  by her late twenties decided she had had enough of fulfilling a domestic role for her four brothers,  following the death of their parents.  The  brothers   showed no inclination to marry and set up their own homes.So  1929 saw Jennie marrying Beadnell (Bill)  Stemp at St. Chad's Church,  Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.   This move prompted her brothers all to get married in the following few years! 

A local newspaper report gave an  account of  Jennie's dress. Written  in an effusive, over the  top   journalistic  style,  it makes entertaining reading:

"A wedding of much local interest took place in the Poulton Parish Church on Saturday afternoon the bride being Miss Jennie Danson daughter of the late Mr and Mrs James Danson, Bull Street and the bridegroom Mr Beadnell Stemp, son of Mr and Mrs B. Stemp, Jubilee Lane, Marton.

The bride,  who was given away by her brother Mr R. Danson,  was stylishly gowned in French grey georgette, veiling silk to tone.  The bodice which was shaped to the figure was quite plain, with a spray of orange blossoms at the shoulder, while the skirt, which was ankle length, was composed entirely of five picot edged scalloped circular frills, and the long tight sleeves had circular picot edged frilled cuffs in harmony.  Her hat was of georgette to tone with uneven pointed dropping brim, having an eye veil of silver lace and floral mount.  She carried a bouquet of pink carnations with silver ribbon and horsehoe attached."

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 Here is the 1931 wedding of Albert Leslie Williams and Hilda Florence Coombs in London, the parents of my cousin's Stuart's wife.  It is two year's after my great aunt's wedding above and in another part of the country, but Dutch style hats for the little bridesmaids were still in fashion.

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 My mother's cousin Annie Danson  married on 4 October 1928 and the local press report again provided a fascinating picture of the fashion of the day.    Do take time to read it as it gives such a colourful and evocative description of the dresses, with the headline "Gowned in Delphinium Blue".

“A member of an old Poulton family Miss Annie M Danson, daughter of the late Mr and Mrs J Danson was married in the Parish Church, Poulton. 

The bride, who was given away by her uncle Mr R. Danson, was gowned in delphinium blue georgette, the sleeveless bodice being plain, while the circular skirt was side slashed and bordered all round with deep silver lace.  Her hat was ruched georgette to tone and she wore silver shoes and hose to tone.  Her bouquet was of pale pink chrysanthemums. 

The bridesmaids were Miss Jennie Danson (aunt) and Miss J Ditchfield (sister of the bridegroom).  Miss Danson wore pale shell pink georgette over silk, the picot edged skirt having shaded crystal motifs at intervals.  Her hat was of fine black felt with alternate shades of pink chiffon velvet on the drooping brim to tone with the gown.

Miss J. Ditchfield was in mauve taffeta, veiled with fine Brussels lace, with a hat of fine grey felt.  Both bridesmaids carried bouquets of russet chrysanthemums.

The reception was held at the home of the bride’s uncle, after which Mr and Mrs Ditchfield went to New Brighton for the honeymoon, the bride travelling in a dress of rose-rust silk, with ecru lace en relief, over which she wore a cost of dove grey, with fox fur trimming and hat of grey felt”.   

 

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  Isn't this hat magnificent?  This was the wedding photograph of George Butler and Sarah Alice Oldham who married in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1910.   Sarah's husband George worked for the Oldham family's  coal merchant business.

 

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Below is a charming photograph of the marriage of Sarah's sister Beatrice Oldham and Jack Clark on 26^th December 1919.

 

 

 

I feel the significance of the date after the First World War is reflected in the fashion,   where there is a certain air of informality (shorter skirt, trilby hat etc.)  It contrasts with the very formal opulent dress of  Sarah's wedding above nine years earlier in 1910.

 

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 Back some 40 years to more opulence depicted in a    copy  of "The Illustrated  London News", issue no. 2074 ,  March 15th 1879.  Many years  ago when in London I discovered a pile of the magazines in a shop by the Victoria and Albert Museum and bought several editions, as I love the old engravings.

 

The occasion featured  here was the marriage in 1879  of Queen Victoria's third son  Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert,  Duke of Connaught to Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria, third daughter of  Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia.

The wedding report was very lengthy and extremely fulsome in style.  A short extract is given here:  The princess's dress was described as: 

 

"made of thick white satin, the waist trimmed with lace 4" wide, the skirt also trimmed with lace 12" deep with bunches of myrtle.  The train was 13 feet long, with a rich lace flounce 3 feet wide, upon which was laid a branch of myrtle......

The pearl necklace worn by her Royal Highness  was a wedding gift from her most illustrious and venerable uncle King William I,  emperor of Germany.........

The bridal veil was richly decorated  with real point-de-gaze lace, ornamented with flowers, crown and the royal coat of arms  of Prussia, in relief, all worked with real white lace.  The order was given at the beginning of July last  and the work has been done by the hands of 300 peasant girls  in the mountains of Silesia".  

 

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Onto a century  later  - and my own wedding in 1971,

 Here with my father arriving at  the church - my nearest image   to the prompt photograph below.  I was wearing a simple empire line dress, with a headdress in the style of Ann Boleyn, the wife of Henry VIII.   Tudor styles were all the rage at the time, with dramas on TV and in Hollywood films.  

To be honest it not a good omen, given that Ann Boleyn suffered the fate of being executed by the monarch.   But my husband and I survived and have recently marked our 53rd anniversary! 

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their family history and memories through photographs

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Weddings Down the Decades - Sepia Saturday

"Two Together" is Sepia Saturday's April theme  - beginning with Weddings.  Where do I start on this topic, as I have no shortage of images! So focus on fashion and  take a look at styles down seven  decades from 1910 to 1971 - and read the stories surrounding the events. 

With images I have featured before but with many new ones from more recent family contacts. 

1910

An elegant portrait of Sarah Alice Oldham on her wedding to George Butler in Blackpool, Lancashire  and what a showy outfit, magnificently decorated large hat, and a large posy set off by  long broad ribbons.     Sarah came from a family of carters and coal-men. From the collection of my third cousin.  

 

 1918

 

The wedding of Florence Adelaide Mason to Charles Urstadt in New Jersey, USA.  The bride  is wearing  such a distinctive  headdress that I wondered if it had any links to Charles' German background.  And again what a large beribboned  bouquet.

Florence (1898-1963)  was the eleventh  child of John  Mason and Alice Rawcliffe - my great grandmother's sister.  They emigrated, with six children  from Fleetwood,   Lancashire to New York City  in 1888, where they had a further five children, before settling in Jamesburg, Middlesex, New Jersey. I am still in touch with Florence's descendants.  

 

It was my blog that  resulted me in contact with her family  

1919

Beatrice Oldham (sister of Sarah in the first  photograph)  married Jack Clarke in 1919 in Blackpool, Lancashire.   I feel the significance of the date after the First World War is not lost in this photograph where there is a air of informality (shorter skirt, trilby hat etc.), compared with the opulence of Sarah's dress above - and much more natural looking flowers. 

 

The bane of a family researcher's life!   The following two photographs were in the  collection of a Black relative - but nothing at all to identify who the couples were or when the photographs were taken.  

Early 1920s? 

 

  

 

 There were two weddings in the  Black family in 1921 and I feel this image is so similar to the one above with the groom wearing a tribly hat  and his bride in a simple stye of dress with a slightly shorter skirt than was fashionable before the First World wAr.

      Late 1920s 

 

An unmistakable image from the late 1920s for this unidientfied photogaph with the bride wearing a short skirt, a cloche hat  and carrying a huge bouquet.   But I have no idea who they are!  

                                                                             

No question who they are below - members of my mother's Danson family of Lancashire, whose weddings were featured in the local newspaper. The family still have the press cuttings. 

 

 1928

On 4 October 1928  my mother's cousin,  Annie Danson   "gowned in delphinium blue"   married Harry Ditchfield in Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.   The local press report provided a colourful description of the wedding fashions of the day -  do take time to read it as it gives such an evocative description of the dresses. 

“A member of an old Poulton family,  Miss Annie M.  Danson, daughter of the late Mr and Mrs J. Danson was married in the Parish Church, Poulton. 

The bride, who was given away by her uncle Mr R.. Danson, was gowned in delphinium blue georgette, the sleeveless bodice being plain, while the circular skirt was side slashed and bordered all round with deep silver lace.  Her hat was ruched georgette to tone and she wore silver shoes and hose to tone.  Her bouquet was of pale pink chrysanthemums.  

The reception was held at the home of the bride’s uncle, after which Mr and Mrs Ditchfield went to New Brighton for the honeymoon, the bride travelling in a dress of rose-rust silk, with ecru lace en relief, over which she wore a cost of dove grey, with fox fur trimming and hat of grey felt”.  

 

1929

According to her daughter, Jennie Danson (my great aunt)  by her late twenties decided she had had enough of fulfilling a domestic role for her four brothers,  following the death of their parents.  The  brothers   showed no inclination to marry and set up their own homes.  So  1929 saw Jennie marrying Beadnell (Bill)  Stemp at St. Chad's Church,  Poulton.  This move prompted her brothers all to get married in the following few years! 

 

Another newspaper report gave the over-the-top account of the dress,writing in an effusive  journalistic  style that makes entertaining reading:

"A wedding of much local interest took place in the Poulton Parish Church on Saturday afternoon the bride being Miss Jennie Danson daughter of the late Mr and Mrs James Danson, Bull Street and the bridegroom Mr Beadnell Stemp, son of Mr and Mrs B. Stemp, Jubilee Lane, Marton.

The bride,  who was given away by her brother Mr R. Danson,  was stylishly gowned in French grey georgette, veiling silk to tone.  The bodice which was shaped to the figure was quite plain, with a spray of orange blossoms at the shoulder, while the skirt, which was ankle length, was composed entirely of five picot edged scalloped circular frills, and the long tight sleeves had circular picot edged frilled cuffs in harmony.  Her hat was of georgette to tone with uneven pointed dropping brim, having an eye veil of silver lace and floral mount.  She carried a bouquet of pink carnations with silver ribbon and horsehoe attached.

1934

Another Oldham family wedding, but this time in New Zealand as James William Oldham married Edith Keymer.  I do like the simple classic lines of Edith's dress, but bouquets were growing even longer  - here almost floor-length. 

James'  parents Alfred and Sarah Oldham emigrated to  New Zealand in 1906, where they they  ran a wholesale tobacconists and stationery business on Karangahape Road,  Auckland.  Following James death the family moved to Sydney Australia where his descendants still live today.  

 

1938

 

 

A low key April wedding for my parents John Weston and Kathleen Danson  at St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. My mother was neasrly 30 in age, so was  that anythiing to do with her choice  of dress rather than the traditional long white gown - I never thought to ask her?  Flower wise, corsages were the order of the day

1941

Wartime simplicity was the look for the wedding of my uncle Bill Danson and his wife Louisa Cerone who I always knew as Auntie Lou, and  who had an Italian  background.

 

1946 

 

Horrors to Happiness.  A wintry austerity Britain in December 1946 when my uncle Charles Weston married his bride Vera.  This was a happy day for the family as Charles had suffered harsh experiences as  a prisoner of war in the Far East.     I made my debut as a little flower girl here - the the only time when I was a bridesmaid. 

 

 

Postwar simplicity for my aunt Peggy Danson and her husband Harold Constable, always known as Con. It was a wartime courtshuip  whilst  Peggy was working on the barrage balloons on the east coast. They emigrated after their wedding to Australia.  I  have two cousins there,  but unfortunately  contact was lost following Peggy and Con's death.  A pity!

 

 

1963 

 A beautiful portrait of the happy couple  - my third cousin Stuart and his wife Jennifer  who married in formal style in 1963.  Stuart represents another blog success story  as that is how we made initial contact  and exchanged stories and photographs, including ones of his Oldham family featured here. 

And Finally

1971

 

The omens were not good on our wedding day on 24th July 1971. It poured down and we have no photographs taken outside; my husband Neil looks a bit shell shocked in this  picture; and with the Tudor monarchs all the rage on film and TV at the time, I chose to wear an Ann Boleyn style headdress - she suffered the fate of being beheaded by Henry VIII.   

A few nights before,  I had this awful dream where I turned up at the church in all my finery to discover it all shut up  and there had been some mix up over the date.  Was this a portent? 

Then the evening  before,  we had a wedding rehearsal at the church.  On the way, with my mother and aunt in Neil's car, we had a blow out on the main A1 road into Edinburgh.  We managed to get a taxi and left Neil to change the tyre.   He arrived late at the church with oil over his cream Arran sweater.  He had to spend the morning of his wedding getting the tyre repaired, so we had a spare one, ahead of us driving  north to the Highlands for our honeymoon.

Wedding day dawned and I was with my mother and bridesmaid fitting my headdress on,  when the phone rang  It was the car hire firm to say in the heavy rain one of their cars had broken down on its way.   It seemed to be left to me to suggest that the one car would have to do a double journey for the wedding party and of course I was late at the church.  We never did get any money back on that missing car.

Still we survived - and will celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary this year!  The omens were wrong!  

 

 

 

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A Jilted Bridegroom in Court: 52 Ancestors - Week 23

"Weddings" is the theme of this week's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge. What to choose?  I have written about family weddings down the decades many times in nearly  ten years of blogging.   So I decided to feature something a bit different - not an ancestral tale, but an entertaining account from 1871 of a  court case involving a Jilted  Bridegroom, as reported in  many newspapers across the country. 

A Breach of Promise of Marriage with a difference - for the innocent party here, is the jilted bridegroom, not the bride.

I came across this item by chance  in "The Border Advertiser" 18th March 1871 and  it made fascinating reading.  So here is a summary of a lengthy article. 

"In the Court of Common Pleas an extra-ordinary action for breach of promise was heard.  The plaintiff in the case Lewis Currie sued his cousin Mary Margaret Davidson Currie  and in his declaration alleged that they had during the infancy of the defendant  agreed to marry one another, and that after she became of age they duly ratified  and endorsed the promise.  Yet the defendant had refused to marry him. 

With regard to the young lady, she was possessed of considerable personal attractiveness and,  beyond that,  a dowry of £6000.  There had been a considerable correspondence between the couple, with letters read out in court to much laughter.  The defendant addressing her fiance as "My dearest George", and signing herself "Ever yours, dearest George - Yours till Death" before winding up  most appropriately with a bit of poetry.  Other  letters declared "Since you left, I care for nothing. I live for you".   "Oh my own very darling George.  I have given you my heart and with it my first and only love.  With heaps of love and millions of kisses, I remain my darling George, yours ever" 

The defendant, however, related also that at a the house of a recently married friend, she had met a young Spaniard who expressed the wish "to be the happy fellow in her locket".  

 Wedding Dress - 1879
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In further correspondence with her fiance George, she talked of being married in white silk and the 19th of January was fixed on for the wedding.  On that day the defendant married  - but not to the plaintiff (more laughter in  court).

On the 3rd of January she wrote to the defendant breaking off the engagement on  the grounds that "we are not in any way suited to one another".  She refused to meet the plaintiff who, the court was told,  had spent  £400  in preparing a residence for his new bride.  

The defendant became the wife of Mr J. Fernandez Martini on 19th January 1871 with the certificate of marriage presented to the court.  It was noted that he was in business partnership with a man who had borrowed money from the plaintiff.

It was acknowledged that the defendant had wronged the plaintiff, but no action of this kind brought by a man should be encouraged.

The jury after deliberating the matter for an hour found in favour of the defendant with damages awarded of £250."

This case reminds me so much of the Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operetta "Trial by Jury".  What would they have made of this reversal in roles?

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Wedding Flower Fashions : Sepia Saturday

 

"A Weddmg on the Steps" is the title of this week's prompt photograph from Sepia Saturdyay. Who doesn't like a wedding?  so below are photographs from my family collection (1865-1971), with the focus on Fashion in Flowers.

1865

The oldest photograph in my family collection.  My cousin's  great grandmother was Isabel Edward of Banchory, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  Her sister Jessie married William Dower and they are pictured here with their respective parents.  William   was appointed by the London Missionary Society as a Wesleyan Missionary in South Africa and he and his new wife Jesse sailed  there  shortly after their wedding.   In March 1870, William and Jesse set out on an ox wagon journey to East Griqualand and the town of  Kokstad, where he was asked to take on the role of pastor.  The original of this photograph is in the Kokstad Museum. 

Unless the bride came from a wealthy family, it was generally not the custom to  have a special dress for the wedding, but to wear  the finest outfit the bride owned.  Was the fact Jessie was marrying a Presbyterian minister a factor in the lack of ostentation - not even a small posy?  

 1910 

An elegant portrait of Sarah Alice Oldham on her wedding to George Butler in Blackpool, Lancashire  and what a showy outfit, magnificently decorated large hat, and a large posy set off by  long broad ribbons.     Sarah came from a family of carters and coal-men down three generations and George also worked in the business. 

1914

 

Another Oldham wedding, but this time in New Zealand as James William Oldham married Edith Keymer.  I do like the simple classic lines of Edith's dress, but bouquets were growing even longer  - here almost floor-length. 

James'  parents Alfred and Sarah Oldham emigrated to  New Zealand in 1906, where they i ran a wholesale tobacconists and stationery business on Karangahape Road,  Auckland.  Following James death the family moved to Sydney Australia where his descendants still live today. 

1918

The wedding of Florence Adelaide Mason to Charles Urstadt in New Jersey, USA.  

The bride  is wearing  such a distinctive  headdress that I wondered if it had any links to Charles' German background.  And again what a large beribboned  bouquet.

Florence (1898-1963)  was the eleventh  child of James Mason and Alice Rawcliffe - my great grandmother's sister.  They emigrated, with six children  from Fleetwood,   Lancashire to New York City  in 1888, where they had a further five children, before settling in Jamesburg, Middlesex, New Jersey. I am still in touch with Florence's descendants. 

1919

Beatrice Oldham (sister of Sarah in the second photograph)  married Jack Clarke in 1919 in Blackpool, Lancashire.   I feel the significance of the date after the First World War is not lost in this photograph where there is a air of informality (shorter skirt, trilby hat etc.), compared with the opulence of Sarah's dress above - and much more natural looking flowers.

 1928

"Gowned in delphinium blue" was the description of this dress worn by my  mother's cousin Annie Danson,  who married Harry Ditchfield in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire with the local newspaper giving a fulsome account of the dress. "The sleeveless bodice being plain, while the circular skirt was side slashed and bordered all round with deep silver lace. Her hat was ruched georgette to tone and she wore silver shoes and hose to tone. Her bouquet was of pale pink chrysanthemums." A pity we don't have a colour photograph!

 

 1930

The wedding of my uncle Fred to Frances Green in Leicester in the English Midlands.  My father is the rather stern looking man on the far left, carrying the trilby (or panama?) hat, with,  I think,  his brother Charles behind him.  My grandmother is in the cloche hat next to the bridegroom and unfortunately I have been unable  to identify my grandfather - he could be the man hidden at the back. Fred's sister could well be one of the bridesmaids and I have no idea who the young boy is.  I presume the older couple on the right of the photograph are the bride's parents.   This is one of very few  photographs  I have of  the Weston family, prior to my parent's own marriage. 

 1931

The wedding of Albert Leslie Williams and Hilda Florence Coombs in London, the parents of my cousin's wife.  Blooms are all around with buttonholes for the men, and large showy bouquets for the adult  bridesmaids, to rival that  held by the bride.  

1931

 

The wedding of Henry Robinson and Florence Riddell in Blackpool Lancashir,  with Elsie Oldham (niece of Sarah and Beatrice above)  the second figure on the left - I presume as chief bridesmaid.   I feel rather sorrow for the girl on the right on  her own,looking rather spare - with a much smaller  bouquet, 
 

1938

A low key April wedding for my parents John Weston and Kathleen Danson  at St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. Flower wise, corsages were the order of the day, 

1941

Wartime simplicity was the look for the wedding of my uncle Bill Danson and his wife Louisa Cerone who I always knew as Auntie Lou, and  who had an Italian  background.

1942

A magnificent array of dresses and flowers  for the  wartime  wedding in New Jersey of Ruth A. Urtstadt  and Edward J. LInke -  the parents of my American third cousin Bonny - descendants from my Lancashire Rawcliffe family.  I doubt if you would see anything like this in Britain then,  when clothing was rationed. 

 1946

 A wintry austerity Britain in December 1946 when my uncle Charles Weston married his bride Vera.  I am the tiny shivering bridesmaid, dressed in dusky pink, and holding a big posy, surrounded by what I always thought was a doily more often seen on a cake plate.   Despite the weather this was  happy day, as Charles had returned home after being a Japanese P.O.W.

1948

 

Postwar simplicity for my aunt Peggy Danson and her husband Harold Constable, always known as Con. They met during the war when Peggy was working on the barrage balloons in Hull and emigrated after their wedding to Australia. 

And Finally:  

 1971

• My own wedding , with  yellow, cream and white  flowers for my small bouquet - those large style bunches of flowers were long out of fashion.
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  Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity
   to share their family history through photographs.
  
  Click HERE for other contributions on this week's  theme.