This is a public park in the early 1900s. The kids are having fun on a rather unusual type of play equipment, presumably provided by the local authority. At today's prices, there's several thousand pounds worth of rocking horses here and they would need to concreted...
Boys will be boys and dipping a net into a stream to see what you can find has always been part of childhood. They seem to be delighted with their catch! Enjoy this original photograph from our archive. It is low resolution and has a 'keasbury-gordon.com' watermark....
Stick and hoop must be one of the oldest known children's games. There is evidence that it was played in Greece two and a half thousand years ago. This photograph taken in Glasgow Docks in the 1890s, shows children having fun with the simplest of toys. Perhaps I...
Pigeon fanciers (keepers) are growing in number in the UK and the USA. There are over 50,000 of them in Britain, most of whom also race their birds. The Queen is a pigeon fancier with over two hundred birds on the Sandringham Estate which regularly race other...
Ah, a Summer picnic .... what a delightful, Edwardian scene of family harmony. What we can't see, hear and smell are the flies and wasps, the arguments about who forgot to bring the salt and the football, the screaming baby and the sweat from wearing those ridiculous,...
Photography was invented in the 1830s and by the early 1900s, when this photograph was taken, thousands of camera clubs were established throughout Britain. Taking a photograph required physical strength (to carry all the heavy equipment), skill, technical know-how...
Royal Norwich Golf Club was founded in 1893 and, unlike many other clubs, from the start, lady members were allowed to play. Even after fifty years of viewing Victorian photographs, I am still amazed by the clothes ladies wore to comply with society's expectations....
Douglas motorcycles were made in Bristol from 1907 to 1956. The company produced thousands of them during the First World War and in its latter period made Italian Vespa scooters under licence for the UK market. We really like this eco-friendly wicker sidecar (well,...
This photograph from the early 1900s is interesting in a couple of ways. Firstly, the car was made by the Star Cycle Company of Wolverhampton. This might seem strange but in the early days of motoring there were hundreds of car manufacturers, most of which failed or...
In our archive we have many photographs of sports teams, some still active and famous, others less so. This one, taken in 1895, is from a large collection of rugby teams and demonstrates that the game was well organised by that time, with local and national leagues,...
Albert Schweizter was often on the TV when I was young but has, it seems, been forgotten. Born in 1875, he was a polymath, musician, medical missionary, humanitarian, theologian, philosopher and much more. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 and died in 1965. His...
The caption on this photograph taken in the 1890s is 'lovers'. I suspect that they weren't, in today's meaning of the word. It would be more appropriate to say that they were courting. Well, that's what we did in the 1960s and 70s and now they would be 'going' out' or...
The two young ladies in this photograph taken in the late Victorian period are, by today's standards, somewhat over-dressed. Perhaps it would add to the excitement of Wimbledon if our star players were required to dress like this for the finals. Matches would be a lot...
We don't know where this photograph was taken but it probably dates from the early 1900s and would have been typical of thousands of similar shops throughout the UK. The brand names on the window are unfamiliar but that's not surprising, as many early bicycle...
Blacksmiths tend to be associated with shoeing horses but in Victorian times, when this photograph was taken, their roles were much more varied. Virtually every village had one and they were commonplace in towns and cities as, before the days of mass-produced consumer...
This photograph of Deep Ghyll in the Lake District was taken in the late Victorian period. When we compare the specialist clothing and safety equipment used by climbers today, with this lady's long, heavy dress and rope, we can only admire her courage and physical...
I'm not sure that shooting birds can be classified as a sport but lots of people enjoy it and it's probably in our hunter / gatherer DNA. What I like about this photograph from the early 1900s is their smug expressions. There is no caption, so we don't know who or...
How many men does it take to repair a puncture? Six, one to do it and five to give advice! We love this photograph from the early 1900s when tyre technology was still in its infancy and punctures were a routine part of any bike ride. How fortunate that they had a...
This photograph was taken in the 1920s. There is a large crowd, so it might be at a carnival or fair but we don't know where or whether it's an amateur or professional match. What the photo does portray is the attraction for many of watching a contest of raw brutality...
London Zoo is the oldest in the world and opened in 1828. Its purpose was to study animals from around the world but it very quickly became a huge hit with the public and it was inevitable that some animals, particularly elephants and camels, would be used to provide...
This is Lochnagar in Scotland, made famous by Lord Byron and Prince Charles who wrote, respectively, a poem and children's book of the same name. However, what's more interesting is the process used to produce the picture. The chromolithographs in our archive date...
The first recorded use of a bathing machine was in Margate in 1750 and by 1900 they were considered very old-fashioned and most had disappeared from Britain's beaches. The concept was simple, you would enter via the rear steps whilst on the beach, change into your...
Scraping a living from a small piece of land has always been hard and never more so than in rural Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ireland has had more than its fair share of life-threatening crises with chronic, grinding poverty; the potato famine;...
Pheonix Park has been the home of Irish polo since 1873 and is still is. The sport originated some two thousand years ago in Iran and, in the UK, during the days of Empire, was a training game for Army Cavalry units. Known as the 'Sport of Kings', it has long been...
The is the Guinness Brewery in Dublin in the early 1900s. The site was first leased by the Guinness family in 1759 for just £45 per year for 9,000, yes, 9,000 years. If ever a lessor got it wrong, this is it! The thousands of barrels in the yard are amazing but I like...
This RAF recruitment poster probably dates from 1919 and includes an image of Airship R34. Dirigibles were used during the First World War for reconnaissance and were filled with hydrogen which was highly flammable and led to some serious accidents. R34 was the first...
This delightful hand-coloured photograph dates from the 1880s and shows children picking hops in Kent. Hops are, of course, used to make beer and picking them was a very labour-intensive process. Up to 40,000 people, including whole families, would migrate from London...
The RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service) was the Royal Navy's air department during the First World War. These pilots are a happy crew but they were flying early biplanes on very hazardous missions and their chances of returning to base must have been small. The British...
Long distance communication was always a challenge for armies and governments, especially when a country was under threat and advance notice of an invading force could mean the difference between victory and defeat. One of the earliest forms of signalling was lighting...
These ladies are meticulously hand-decorating vases at what we believe to be the Royal Doulton Faience factory in Lambeth, London, probably in the 1880s. The work of the more famous porcelain artists is, of course, very collectable today but for every one of those,...
Known as the Old Dutch House, the building in the foreground was built as a family residence in the 1670s. It had many uses over the centuries, survived threats of demolition for road widening and was finally restored and given a steel interior frame to ensure its...
This is a hilltop area in Cornwall called Carn Brea, not far from St. Ives. The remains of some of the County's tin and copper mines have survived as heritage attractions and are fascinating to visit. The lives of the miners are well documented and the chimneys and...
When the War Department called for motorcyclists to volunteer for despatch work at the start of August 1914, the response was huge. The London office had 2,000 more applicants than they needed and a similar response was reported across the country. If a rider and his...
This is one of the most remarkable images in our archive .... and we have many. The Charge of the Light Brigade took place in 1854 during the Crimean War and would have been just another British battle had Alfred, Lord Tennyson not immortalised those who fell in his...
It's the First World War and these British Tommies are in a trench, far from home, probably up to their eyes in mud, filth and the blood and bodies of their friends. But life goes on and while one is sniping at the enemy, another brews the tea! We have hundreds of WW1...
Our archive of almost 20,000 images contains photographs, lithographs, maps and illustrations. This dramatic painting of the Titanic sinking was included in a set of glass projection slides, published in 1912, to be shown in village and town halls to raise money for...
This is one of my favourite photographs in our collection, three children blackberrying in a country lane. A lovely, beautifully composed image of childhood in rural, Victorian England. Wonderful! Enjoy this original photograph from our archive. It is low resolution...
In the early days of motoring, racing played an important part in developing car technology, as indeed it has done ever since. In the 1930s, wealthy sponsors met on Southport beach to test their cars to the limit. No safety barriers, no seat belts, no health and...
This rather unusual subject matter for a photographer one hundred and twenty years ago is a stall selling jet jewellery in Whitby on the Yorkshire coast. The term 'jet black' comes from this gemstone mineral, found on the local beaches. The jewellery became popular...
In the 1920/30s, ocean liners crossing the Atlantic were steam powered. The steam was generated by burning coal which had a journey of its own, from being mined underground to the surface; loaded onto trains; by horse and cart to the docks and barge to the ship then,...
This hand-coloured Victorian photograph was published by an award-winning professional photographer as a glass projection slide in the 1890s. It was, in an industrial age, a reminder of a simpler, rural, gentler past. One hundred and thirty years later, we love it for...
The R31 was a British airship built in 1918. It was designed (with the help of a German engineer) to provide air cover for our naval fleet during the First World War but by the time it was ready to fly, the armistice had been signed. On its first flight from England...
This could be one of London's top hotels in Victorian times but it's actually the First Class Dining Saloon on Cunard's RMS Mauretania. Some of today's cruise ships are ultra-luxurious but a transatlantic crossing by ocean liner then was more to do with getting from A...
You might think that this is an unusual subject for our historical photograph archive but, over many decades, we have purchased images of all types that we felt should be preserved. It is easy to overlook religious art but some of it can be very beautiful indeed. This...
George Formby was a huge movie star in the UK. In fact, he was the highest paid actor of his time. His films provided light relief during and after the Second World War and they followed the same format every time .... the foolish, hapless Lancashire lad eventually...
We have been fortunate in some of our 'finds' over the last fifty years. They include a remarkable set of County maps, printed in the 1840s and beautifully illustrated, which are a fascinating snapshot of England almost two hundred years ago. It was the age of railway...
Our archive contains hundreds of images of Victorian celebrities. It's not a word they would have recognised and one such collection at the time was called 'Men of Mark' (even though it included women) but 'celebrity' works today. This is America's Thomas Edison (born...
We Brits just love messing about in boats. It might be because we are a sea-faring, island nation but it's probably just that we like a) messing about and b) boats. A recent photograph was of the 'great and the good' enjoying the Henley Regatta in style. This one,...
This is an interesting example of the transition from steam trams to electric trams. Most towns and cities in the UK had a network of steam tram routes in the late Victorian period, operated by private companies. Local authorities took on the responsibility for...
We have a bit of a tram theme today. This one of a horse tram in Northampton probably dates from the 1880s. Trams such as these weren't heated, of course, and had wooden, slatted seats, so we can imagine how uncomfortable they were in the rain and on a cold Winter's...
It would be easy to imagine that life in the early 1900s was a very serious matter with long working hours, poor housing, the struggle to pay the rent and put food on the table and, of course, Church on Sunday. The reality is that people had the same capacity for...
Thanks to the caption on the original photograph, we can be very precise about this factory fire. It happened on the 15th April, 1909 in Huddersfield. Mills such as this, seaside piers and theatres regularly caught fire. Fortunately, we put a lot more effort into fire...
The Lockwood Viaduct was built in the 1840s and has thirty-two graceful arches. At least two men died during its construction and many others were injured. A couple of sport-related records are associated with it, lobbing a cricket ball and driving a golf ball. This...
Honley is a village to the south of Huddersfield in Yorkshire. In the First World War when this photograph was taken, there were hundreds of munitions factories producing weapons and ammunition for our troops on the front line. Some were huge, some tiny, all top...
It is said that Napoleon called us "a nation of shop-keepers" and it wasn't meant as a compliment. They are part of our identity and we take them for granted but they're there when we need them. When this photograph was taken in the early 1900s, there were no...
This is the Crooked House in Himley, Staffordshire. Our photograph was taken in the early 1900s and shows an extreme example of mining subsidence. I wondered what had happened to the building and when it was demolished and, to my amazement, discovered that it still...
Britain was once a world leader in construction and heavy engineering. We built ships, railways and bridges throughout our Empire and all of them needed steel. This photograph of a steel works was probably taken in the 1930s. Even in the 1960s, when I worked in one...
Stonehaven is a fishing village near Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland. It has retained its charm and is well worth a visit. We love the clean lines of the boats leaving the harbour. They are almost in silhouette and the reflections of the sails in the water make...
The home of The Royal Shakespeare Company, the 'New' Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, is pleasantly situated next to the river in Stratford-upon-Avon. It has often struck me that the building is rather ugly, brutalist even, which seems strange given its purpose. Even the...
There has been a regatta at Henley-on-Thames since 1839 and this photograph was probably taken in the early 1900s. It's a festival of fun and relaxation with races, competitions, fine-dining, possibly a glass of champagne or three and, of course, networking. How...
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