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...
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 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...
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 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,...
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...
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...
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 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...
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,...
This delightful photograph from the 1890s captures a touching moment between father and son. The boy, perhaps twelve years old, is already a seasoned fisherman and will grow up to follow in his father's footsteps. In the background, we can see Scarborough Castle on...
Football clubs were big business in the 1890s. Whilst many of the players would have been amateurs and paid very little, the sport had, by then, been organised into leagues with national competitions and the marketing and merchandising that we're familiar with today...
Britain in the 19th century was an industrial nation but also had a rural economy employing vast numbers of men, women and children in labour-intensive, physically-demanding work. At harvest time, whole families shared the task of cutting, gathering, transporting and...
Coal was the fuel that powered industrial Britain and mines were dangerous places to work in a pre-health-and-safety world. When disaster struck, as it often did, one of the main hazards for rescue workers was the presence of toxic gases. Here we see miners wearing...
Many middle-class families employed a nanny to care for their children. This young lady has taken her charge to a park in a rather fancy perambulator. This particular type of pram was known as a bassinet. They don't seem to be having much fun but maybe that wasn't...
This photograph dates from the 1920s, the heyday of transatlantic crossings by luxurious ocean liners, and although not captioned, probably shows 'RMS Majestic' (a sister-ship to Titanic and owned by the White Star Line) in dry dock for repairs. RMS stands for 'Royal...
This is the cockle beach at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex but, far more importantly, it's a precious moment shared by a young girl and her grandfather, captured forever by a Victorian photographer. Enjoy this original photograph from our archive. It is low resolution and has...
St. Ives in Cornwall is known for its picturesque town and harbour, the Tate Gallery and even for hosting a G7 meeting of World leaders just around the corner in Carbis Bay. However, in Victorian times it was, quite simply, a fishing village. Here we see the...
You have to admire the guts and determination of climbers of any generation but Victorians did it without special clothing or equipment. They were amateurs who relied solely on friends, ropes and, of course, a trusty pipe! Many of them must have had serious accidents...
This photograph of Brighton shows the Chain Pier in the distance which was destroyed by fire in 1896 and Volk's Electric Railway which still operates today. Enjoy this original photograph from our archive. It is low resolution and has a 'keasbury-gordon.com'...
We are very wary of taking photographs of children, especially other people's. Victorian photographers would not have understood our concerns and, as a consequence have, thankfully, left us with some remarkable images of children's lives. We tend to think of Victorian...
We like the irony in this photograph. The location is Pontefract racecourse, one of the oldest horse racing venues in Europe. The chauffeurs have deposited their wealthy employers at the grandstand for a day of gambling, dining, drinking and networking. Meanwhile,...
This is the City Arcade in Birmingham. Built in 1898, it was originally much larger than it is today but part of it was destroyed in a WW2 air-raid and never rebuilt. There is an elegance to Victorian arcades that eludes their modern counterparts, our mega-malls. It's...
This bridge across the River Clyde in Glasgow has had three names at various times in its history .... Glasgow Bridge, Broomielaw Bridge and Jamaica Bridge. This photograph, taken in the late Edwardian period, shows the reliance on horse-power at the time. It's...
These rock dwellings are in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Cut from sandstone, they were occupied for hundreds of years. Some had four rooms and large families lived in them. The last known occupant is thought to have left for a more conventional home in the early 1900s....
This interesting photograph was taken in July 1907. The gentleman on the cart with the white beard is William Booth, founder and leader of the Salvation Army and he was visiting Denby Dale in Yorkshire. For such a small and remote place, it must have been a very...
Crofting has provided a subsistence living for the inhabitants of Scotland's islands for thousands of years. It involves farming a small piece of land to raise animals and grow crops, to provide enough food to stay alive. For most, there was nothing romantic about it...
Denby Dale, a village in Yorkshire, has a history of making huge pies (claimed by some to be the World's largest) to celebrate national and local events. The first was in 1788 and the latest in 1988, with just five other occasions in-between. In this unusual...
For Victorians, oysters were cheap street food, the equivalent of burgers today. At some point in time, they moved up a class or two and became a rare (and expensive) delicacy. Whitstable, on the north Kent coast, has long been famous for its oysters and, indeed, has...
This photograph, taken in the early 1900s, shows a school cookery class. The societal view at the time determined that cooking and sewing were for girls, woodwork and metalwork for boys and their purpose was to enable the children to make a living, not as a hobby. The...
Madame Tussaud was born in 1761 and brought her travelling waxwork exhibition to Britain in 1802. It has been hugely popular ever since and is now a global business. You would never imagine that in a world dominated by moving and 3D imagery, static models of...
This is a very unusual view of the Crystal Palace. It was originally built in central London to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 but later moved to Sydenham, south of the the Thames. Virtually every photograph of the Palace shows it in its own grounds, thereby...
Trafalgar Square is so busy, all of the time, that we often don't see it for what it is, a magnificent, beautifully proportioned, people-space in a noisy, crowded, bustling city. Designed by John Nash and opened in 1844, it reflected Britain's wealth and our place in...
Today, tunnels such as those for the London Crossrail and HS2 railway line projects, are dug mechanically by huge machines but much of the London Underground system was excavated by hand, moving forward one inch at a time. This photograph from the Victorian period,...
When this photograph was taken in the early 1900s, Castleford was an industrial town and these men's working lives would have involved hard, physical graft. Despite that, in their spare time, they were members of the local running club and here we see them about to...
An interesting photograph, taken in the early 1900s, of Epsom Racecourse. The men taking bets (in cash, of course) had hand-written sign-boards showing the odds for each horse. There were no mobile phones, calculators or computers with complex algorithms, so making...
The original photograph, on which this photo-art is based, was taken in the 1890s. It's great to see a woman as the 'star player' and the men caddying at this early tournament. Enjoy this photo-art based on an original photograph from our archive. It is low resolution...
This photograph was probably taken in the 1930s and shows the proud drivers of the Shredded Wheat fleet. Perhaps these were new lorries and this was a publicity photo. Industrial photographs from this period are relatively rare and this one reminds us that some of our...
Haworth Parsonage in Yorkshire was the home of the Bronte sisters, whose books are as popular as ever. The parsonage, shown here, is now the Bronte Museum and thousands of Bronte enthusiasts from all over the world visit each year. If we stand in the same position...
This photograph was taken in Levenshulme near Manchester, probably in the 1920s. Notice the BP petrol pump and the various oils for sale .... everything needed to ne oiled manually to keep the engine working and wheels turning. The breakdown truck with the crane on...
Glencoe, famous for the 1692 massacre of the MacDonald Clan, has some of Scotland's most dramatic scenery and driving or hiking through it today is a must-do experience. Imagine taking this excursion on a bright Summer's day, in the 1890s when this photograph was...
Wicksteed Park near Kettering has been a much-loved theme park for one hundred years. The narrow gauge railway, shown here, which takes visitors around the grounds, was built in 1931 and is still running today. This photograph was taken in the 1930s. Enjoy this...
We consider the clothes that these ladies are wearing to be traditional Welsh costume but I suspect that, for them, it was simply their 'Sunday best'. Those on the bottom row are knitting and the presence of a spinning wheel would suggest that this is a gathering of...
This striking photograph of a lifeboat and crew was taken in 1900. The boat is named 'James Stevens No. 14', presumably as it was paid for by said Mr. Stevens and perhaps it was the fourteenth lifeboat to be based there. A local heritage group has preserved and...
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