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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Hairstyles to the Fore: Sepia Saturday.

A head and shoulders portrait  of a young girl features in this week's Sepia Saturday  prompt photograph.  Cue for me to look at hairstyles of my family down the ages. 

 

         

My paternal grandmother  Mary Barbara Weston, nee Matthews (1876-1959) 

 

Nana Weston was born in Wolverhampton in the English Midlands, one of 10 children born to John Matthews and Matilda Such.    Her sister Fanny died tragically when her apron caught fire whilst she was carrying a candle, and she died from her burns.  Brother Arthur died in the First World War at Gallipoli,  leaving a young widow and 3 children. 

 

Her hairstyle is typical of the  1880s and 1890s.  

 

My other grandmother Alice Danson, nee English (1883-1945)

 

 

 

 

I never  knew Alice as she died when I was a baby. For many years she was my major brick wall, until last year I discovered  she had been born in a Liverpool Workhouse, though she  quoted another birthplace   in the 1911 and 1921 census returns. This photographs is part of a large family photogaph taken in 1916 as my grandfather was setting out to war.  

 

 Again her plain no nonsense hairstyle was typical of the times.

 
The impact on the First World War on the changing role of  women saw an abandonment of the  traditional long hair styles of the Victorian - Esdwardian  period to the new short styles of the bob, finger-wave, Marvel wave, shingle and Eton crop, with their popularity continuing well into the 1930's. 

                                          

My great aunt Jennie Danson (1897-1986)  who sacrificed her long plait for the new look, without telling her mother.  This is one of my favorite photographs in my family collection. Jennie by all accounts was a feisty woman  - she needed to be to hold her own, growing up with eight older brothers whose ages,  when she was born,  ranged from 3 to 20. 

 

  

 An elegant unidentified portrait in my husband's collection - thought to be a relation of his aunt Annette.   

 

 

My mother Kathleen Danson - Jennie's niece.

My mother again - with more waves this time

In the 1930''s and 1940's,   a  softer look crept in, with curls and waves all the rage, and during the war the "roll" was the defining style.  This was the age of trying to emulate  Hollywood glamour, despite the realities  of life during the  depression and war.  

My aunt Edith Danson

 

 

 

Another new look for my mother who seems to have adopted an Austrian style, with what looks like  plaits  over  her head.  She was always very proud of her distinctive widow's peak.  

Below some typical 1940s looks from my aunt Peggy Danson (in WAAF uniform), my mother and finally  my husband's elegant aunt Annette.

Pigtails to Pony Tails  to Perms characterised  my look from the  1950s onwards.

 

 Pigtails complete with kirby grips and ribbons.  

On village gala days and on special occasions, my hair was wound into rags overnight  to hopefully create ringlets - which soon fell out.  

By my early teens my hair was long and worn now in a pony tail. It was washed with a final rinse of  vinegar and rain water - my mother's idea of a beauty treatment -  and it took ages to dry in front of the fire as we had no hair dryer.

 

There is a pony tail hiding behind this Plain Jane look  What is it about moving from childhood to teenage years, as this is the only family photograph I could find.  No holiday snaps, no school photos - nothing.  

 

 I became a librarian, so had to work hard at counteracting the traditional dowdy image.  So here  is the young professional look for my first job - worn with a   mini length sweater dress  and long necklace  - all the rage then.  

 

By the late 1960's,    vanity prompted me to try contact lenses and they proved a great source of stories with friends as we recalled  tales of losing them.  I remember one occasion where I was scrambling around on the floor of a pew at church, (not praying) but  trying to find this miniscule lens. 

 

Pals Together : Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph fesatures four  happy lads  together,    Photographs below, largely from from my mother's Danson family,   fit the bill. 

 

My great uncle George Danson (1894-1916)  of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire  is standing on the left with his  teacher and fellow pupils.  

The three photographs below were in my great aunt Jennie's collection.   Unfortunately only the first one  is identified - as "George's Friends in Manchester" where he worked on a W.H. Smith station bookstall.  George, is on the back row  on the right.   
It must be the hat, as here he looks older than his age.  He  could only be  20-21 years old, as in 1916 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a stretcher bearer in the field in the /First World War. WAr    He was killed on the Somme, on the  16th September,  a week after his 22nd birthday.

 

The photographs below were also George's  friends.  The group on the left seems very formal and serious.  Is that the same threesome in the second photograph having a bit of fun?  Two are wearing pocket watches which are not visible in the first photograph and I was also  trying to match the partings in the haircuts. I am not convinced they are the same group - what do  other bloggers think?  

All three photographs were taken at Gale's Studios who had branches in both Blackpool and Manchester. 

The photograph below looks like it is an informal occasion (out for a drink, perhaps?), but it still is the time to wear a formal suit,waistcoat, collar & tie. 

 My grandfather William Danson is in the middle of the group,  with his brother Robert (and dog) on the left  plus an unknown friend.  Robert was the third son of the family, and William  the fifth  out of ten sons (eight surviving infancy),  followed by the only daughter Jennie, to whom I owe a great debt for being "the keeper of the family archives".  

 

Friendship Through Service 

 

This photograph  below of my great uncle Frank Danson  identified in Jennie's writing,   seems to be some kind of celebration.  Frank is front row left,  dressed formally in his uniform and cap, but what about those two fellows on the  back row in what appears to be their pajamas and beanie hats. 

 

 

                       

 

Jennie worked  in Poulton Post Office  and she recalled when a war telegram came through for her widowed mother. Maria Danson.   Fearing the worst, she was allowed to run home with it.  Fortunately it was good news - that Frank had been wounded but was recuperating hospital in Malta.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photograph   was unfortunately unidentified, but I think Frank could be on the right of the front row.  Wounded soldiers, fit enough to go out and about, wore a distinctive uniform of blue flannel suits with white revers and a red ties. 

 

Jack Riley is identified in the centre  of this group,  wearing sailor’s uniform  and a cap HMS Chester.  He was the grandson of my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe's sister  - Jane.  On the left is Marcus Bailey, a neighbour of Jack in Fleetwood. 

I have  a postcard  (above) sent by Jack's  mother to my great grandmother Maria 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  or 18. 

I have tried to trace Jack  in service records without success.  HM Chester was a ship involved at the Battle of Jutland in the First World War, when young sailor John Travers Cornwell was awarded the prestigious Victoria Cross for "a conspicuous act of bravery".   Was Jack Riley another young sailor  on board HMS Chester at this time? Something else to add to my "Research To Do" list.

 

 A photograph from my husband's family collection with  this group of young sailors,  obviously relaxing!  The postcard franked 15th December 1909 from Beverley (Yorkshire?) was addressed to my husband's great grandmother, Mrs S. A. Hibbert, 169 Maxwell Street, South Shields, with the message:

Dear Mother, I write these lines hoping you are keeping well, and to ask if you can pick me out  in this group?  

 

 

 

 

 

My husband's uncle Matty (Matthew Iley White) of South Shields, County Durham is among this group of soldiers perched on a rock in India.  Matty (1914-1978)  served in the  Durham Light Infantry in India 1933-1937, as listed in his service book below.

 

 

 Matty, seated on the left) tucking into his food at army camp. 

Friendship Through Sport

 

My father  John Percy Weston (1912-2003) is on the second row right  as vice captain of his school team at Broseley, Shropshire.  This is the earliest photograph (1926) I have of my father and the local historical society was instrumental in me getting a copy. 

On a generation to a similar photograph of my brother  in the hockey team of Broughton School, Edinburgh, in the 1960s - (on the front row second from the left)

 

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers 

       to share their family history through photographs

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