We call it social housing today but in the 1920s when this photograph was taken, it was simply council housing. Judging from the state of the gardens, this is a recently-completed development. Often, the residents were from slums that were beyond repair and scheduled...
In our archive, we have thousands of street scenes with Victorians doing then what we do now .... shopping, working, travelling on public transport etc. but it's always fascinating to see a close-up view. This is Frome in Somerset, 'though it could be any market town...
Chasetown is an area of Burntwood in Staffordshire. Originally a coal mining village, the pits are long-gone. This photograph, taken in the early 1900s, is interesting as the bus is owned and operated by a railway company, the London and North Western Railway (LNWR)....
"Not the most interesting photograph" I hear you say. I would agree but it's worthy of a place in our gallery because of the uniqueness of this shop in Grasmere. It is selling just one product .... gingerbread. The business was started in 1854 by Sarah Nelson to serve...
We have many lifeboat photographs in our archive. This one shows the Great Yarmouth crew around 1910. There were two lifeboat stations on the coast here, the other being at Gorlestone on the other side of the River Yare. They combined in 1926. We love the clarity of...
There is something very satisfying about a symmetrical image, whether composed deliberately or not. This one of the Clifton steps in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, is a far cry from the tourists' delight that the island is today. The steps are still there, of course, but...
Pudsey is a real place, not just the name of a bear on the BBC. I like this photograph because although it's one hundred years' old, the play equipment is so familiar. Parks, of course, were the 'lungs of the city', public spaces where people could escape from the...
What a wonderful photograph, taken in the early 1900s, of yachts racing on the Norfolk Broads. At this level, it was, and still is, a rich man's sport but sailing, even in the smallest dinghy, is truly exhilarating. It's interesting that despite the motion of the...
These Royal Navy sailors are on HMS Excellent but it's not a ship. In the early 1800s, a gunnery training school was established on board HMS Excellent moored near Portsmouth. The Navy then purchased nearby Whaley Island and, in the 1890s, moved the facility ashore....
Wyke is an area to the east of Halifax in Yorkshire. This photograph from the 1890s shows the practice of 'coal getting' in Judy Wood nearby. 'Getting' involved sorting through the waste from coal mines for the tiniest scraps of coal that remained after the pit had...
This unusual view of the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh was taken in the 1930s and shows a gang of maintenance workers walking to work, far above the Firth of Forth. It reminds me of the famous photograph of skyscraper construction workers in New York, eating their...
Disused railway stations are normally demolished but not this one. We see it here in the early 1900s at Foulridge near Colne in Lancashire. Following the closure of the line, the building was moved, stone by stone, to a new home at Ingrow West on the Keighley and...
King Edward VII is seen here seated in the rear of the boat being taken to his yacht. The event is Cowes Week, an annual gathering of society's elite, on the Isle of Wight, for yachting competitions. British royalty was always in attendance and the Keiser (also...
Crewe in Cheshire has always been know as a railway town. It was built on a greenfield site in the 1840s specifically to serve the burgeoning railway industry. Located at a major junction, it developed a range of construction, maintenance and administrative services...
Corby is a town in Northamptonshire which, unusually, has a fair every twenty years. This photograph of the fun of the fair (not many smiles here though) was taken in the early 1900s. The fair's various traditions are lost in the mists of time and it's not even known...
Clovelly is a picturesque fishing village on the north Devon coast. Interestingly, the whole village is privately owned, development is strictly controlled, no cars are allowed and residents have to carry everything they need from the car park at the top of the hill....
We Brits enjoy an excursion when on holiday, usually a coach trip to local places of interest. It was no different for Victorians, although the vast majority could only afford to be part of the mass migration to hotspot seaside resorts such as Blackpool. These...
This is Clitheroe Railway Station in Lancashire. The town is in the glorious Ribble Valley and the station is still in use. Photographs of railway stations taken in the 1890s usually show ranks of horse-cabs waiting for the next train to disgorge its passengers but...
Travelling fairs seem to be less common than they were in my childhood, when one would visit our town a couple of times a year. There was an excitement about the fair tinged with wariness and unease, not just about whether the rides were safe but the people operating...
Brodsworth Colliery, located near Doncaster, was a major coal mine employing, by the 1980s, thousands of men. The first shaft was dug in 1905 and this photograph was probably taken just a few years later. Given that our pits our now long gone and their spoil heaps...
This cotton mill could be anywhere in the north west of England but was, in fact, in Burnley. What can't be seen on the photograph is the noise. We have a museum near us which occasionally fires up just a few looms in a room that would have held hundreds and they are...
Prior to the First World War, most jobs were for men while women stayed at home doing domestic chores and bringing up children. It was a very unequal society with men having all the power and, yes, I can hear some of you saying "they still do". Women weren't even...
The original caption on this photograph is 'Bleriot plane, Filey'. Bleriot was an early pioneering aviator, famous for his designs and flying expertise but we don't think this is him. What was this pilot doing at Filey on Yorkshire's east coast and who was he? We...
There has been a lifeboat based in Bridlington, on the Yorkshire coast, since 1805. The earliest lifeboats were simply rowing boats and must have required a huge effort to row to the scene of a disaster. This one is much later, probably the 1880s, and is sail-powered...
It's strange how perceptions change. There had been a windmill on the seafront at Lytham St. Annes since the 1830s but when the town was being gentrified in the 1860s, the new residents objected to this industrial eyesore spoiling their view. Later, the mill suffered...
The Boston Stump, seen here in the background, is a well-known landmark in Lincolnshire. The county has a very flat landscape, so the tower can be seen for many miles. 'Stump' is a nickname, it is actually the tower of the Parish Church, St. Botolph's. The paddle...
The Ffestiniog Railway is a world-famous attraction in North Wales. It has operated since the 1830s as a means of transporting slate from the quarries in Blaenau Ffestiniog down to the sea at Port Madog for onward transportation by ship. At first, it was illegal to...
Durham is a lovely city to visit at any time of year and this Victorian photograph is particularly atmospheric with the Cathedral looming through the early morning mist. However, if you look closer, you'll notice that the romantic mist is, in fact, smoke from chimneys...
This photograph was taken in Duntocher, a village to the north west of Glasgow. It's well over one hundred years old but this delightful family scene could have been taken yesterday (although the clothes would be somewhat different), with a child playing in the water...
This is the Tay Bridge linking Dundee to Fife. In 1879, disaster struck when the bridge collapsed in very high winds and a train carrying some sixty passengers plunged into the river, all of whom died. The design of the Forth Bridge was influenced by the disaster and...
In October 1909, an aviation meeting was held at Doncaster Racecourse. These were the early days of flying, the machines were primitive and their designers and engineers (often wealthy amateurs) learnt and adapted through trial and error. Such meetings were an...
This activity took place at every coal mine across Britain. The coal has been brought to the surface and is then examined and sorted, to remove unwanted debris and size it for different markets / purposes. Those who did this job were often miners who had had an...
Cycling was as popular in the late nineteenth century (when this photograph was taken) as it is now. This happy band of cyclists is the 'I.O.G.T.' in Doncaster. We've not been able to find out what the I.O.G.T. was .... or is. I assume its main purpose wasn't cycling,...
HMS Foudroyant, a British Royal Navy ship was, at one time, Admiral Nelson's flagship. She was launched in 1798 and retired from front line duties in 1812. Fifty years later, in 1862, she was converted into a Navy Training ship and was eventually sold into private...
North Shields, located on the banks of the River Tyne where it flows into the North Sea, has always been a busy fishing port. Early photographs of fishermen are often posed for the camera, partly because too much movement created a blurry image. This action shot...
This is Nechells in central Birmingham. The photographer captioned this photograph 'the last horse bus' and dated it 1906. By that time, horse buses in major towns and cities had been replaced by steam and electric trams and motor buses. Horses were still used for...
In Lancashire, factories producing textiles were known as mills. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, thousands of them existed to process wool and cotton and make finished products ranging from military uniforms to bed linen, dresses to curtains. Why...
Today, London's river police are highly-trained and well-equipped to respond to emergencies and undertake routine enforcement roles associated with a busy river. This photograph, probably taken in the 1880s, shows their Victorian counterparts. Their role was probably...
This striking portrait of a London fireman was taken in the late 1800s. The steam engine behind him was used to power the water pump that provided the jet of water. In the early days, firemen would only attempt to extinguish fires at houses that displayed a plaque on...
This lovely photograph, taken in the 1890s, captures a moment of tranquility and solitude. The young lady has found a spot by an old mill, perhaps to read a book. A few water-powered mills and factories remain in the UK, most as heritage attractions and a handful as...
This lovely photograph, taken in the 1890s, shows part of the haymaking process. The grass has been cut by hand with a scythe and is being gathered into haycocks, which are easier to load onto a cart than loose hay. This photograph was posed (the young ladies are...
This delightful photograph, taken in the 1890s, shows two women passing the time of day, chatting, waiting for a ferry. This would have been a familiar scene in many rural areas, where a ferryman used a rope to pull his boat across the river. This particular...
Goose Fair is one of the UK's largest and oldest fairs and has been held annually, in the Autumn, for more than eight-hundred years. Originally located in the Old Market Square in the centre of Nottingham, it started as a traditional, livestock-trading market and was...
Early photographs of railway stations are always interesting. This one in Skipton, Yorkshire, shows a scene typical of thousands of stations across Britain in the early 1900s. There are at least twelve station staff wearing smart uniforms. Many of them are porters,...
This photograph of an AA patrolman was taken between Watford and St. Albans, probably in the 1920s. He is saluting the passing motorist because the car has a badge on it which shows that the driver is a member of the AA and the driver, who is a chauffeur, is saluting...
This extraordinary photograph was taken on 15th April, 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War. The crew had surrended a couple of months earlier and the boat was being towed through the English Channel when it came adrift and ran aground on Hastings Beach....
This photograph was taken on the Isle of Man in the early 1900s. Such scenes were repeated at fishing ports all over the UK. The boats have returned to harbour with their catch and having unloaded the fish, girls would gut them (remove the inedible bits) and pack them...
We use peat today as a fertiliser in our gardens but for centuries, in rural communities in Scotland and Ireland, peat was used as fuel for warmth and cooking. By its nature, it's full of moisture and heavy and digging it out of the ground was back-breaking work. It...
It's helpful when Victorian photographers caption their images. Most didn't, of course, but this one did, so we know that it is North Berwick golf course, on the coast to the east of Edinburgh. The date is probably the 1880s and, by then, the Club had already been...
Well, a yellow brick path rather than road! Is this bicycle dealer starting a new business by working from home? Did he go on to greater things, with a string of Victorian bike shops? Enjoy this photo-art based on an original photograph from our archive. It is low...
In Victorian times, some wealthy holiday-makers made regular trips to Switzerland and the more adventurous amongst them climbed mountains. Here we see a young lady crossing a crevasse (which is goodness-knows how deep) on a ladder, with a thin rope and the...
In the early 1900s, many UK cities, towns and even villages had electric tram services. This one in Dundee, Scotland, shows the driver, an inspector and a very young conductor (ticket seller), all looking very proud of their, probably new, electric tram. Long before...
British seaside piers were originally built to enable steamers to call at resorts regardless of the tide and depth of water. However, they immediately became attractions themselves, be it for a stroll 'on' the sea or for the various pleasures they offered. Many have...
This Victorian photograph shows a young girl looking longingly at sweets in a shop window. It is deliberately-posed, rather than taken at random by the photographer. We know it's Winter as there is snow on the ground and there might be a clue to the location, as the...
Before the formation of the NHS in 1944 and free dental treatment, most people couldn't afford to visit a private dentist, so resorted to any means available to them for treatment. This usually meant removing the tooth that was causing the pain. This photograph from...
Taken in 1912, this photograph captures a group of boy scouts practising first aid. They've clearly been very thorough and whatever the patient's imaginary injuries are, he's unlikely to make them worse by moving too much before he gets to hospital! Scouting today...
Lifeboat crews are celebrated today for the remarkable work that they do. It was always so and in Victorian times, before lifeboats had engines, they manned the oars to row to the scene of a disaster at sea. They had very little special clothing to keep them safe,...
This alley in Whitby has the unusual name of 'Tin Ghaut'. Ghauts, of which the town had several, seems to be a term used only in Whitby and possibly derives from 'gate'. Taken in the early 1900s, this is an interesting study of life in the back-streets of a Yorkshire...
We take it for granted that when we need water, we simply turn on the tap. It was not always so and this photograph, taken in the 1890s, shows a young girl fetching water from a communal well, which would have been fed by a local spring. This was heavy work,...
Cycling in the late nineteenth century was very popular with men and women. Most women's hobbies and pastimes prior to that, had been in the home, so this was a new freedom. It was liberating to be able to cycle where and when they chose although, in practice, they...
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