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A Victorian Album

Loveley photos. It is difficult to set exact time by fashion, but it would appear about 1885 - 1890 circa. The photograph taken alongside yours is dated 1885, note the similarity in dress and the pose set by the photographer.
 
Thanks Beamish I was a few years out, hard to tell ages really by looking at them, but i did think maybe he was 5 ish maybe a bit older in the pic, it is so hard to tell really isn't it. Being so old and copper it's obviously tarnished over the years, so the background isn't very clear unfortunately lol
 
I don't know the dates of the photos but would suggest that the boys shown are about 5 years old and had just been "britched". Wearing their first trousers - in those days boys wore dresses until they were about 5 years old and then went into trousers - so my dad used to tell me.
 
Claire, you say that it is on a brass or copper plate. Is the surface holding the image silvered and can you only view the image from one position, ie by moving the plate until the image catches the light?
 
Annie Keight Standing (b 17.06.1880), Emily Keight Seated (b 10.08.1876) my great grandmother who I knew nothing about until a couple of weeks ago.
I got the photo through contacting a distant relative through ancestry.com
The quality is quite poor but I`m amazed that I`ve got a photo at all !!
 
Thank you Mike. I have been round those colleges years ago but this does not ring a bell. There was no clue on the back of the photo I am afraid. Jean.
 
Really interesting thread - please find my paternal grandmother Sarah Ruth Barns (nee Emery) born in Cradley and lived in Water Orton and my husband's Great Grandmother - Sarah Anne Hooke lived in Erdington (husband Edward, local Stonemason)View attachment 46365
 
What a lovely photo my grandfather's sister and brother in law lived in Water Orton. He was the organist and Choir Master at the local church.
 
Hi - My family ran the bakery/village store just around the corner (past the Digby pub) now sadly demolished - John and Sarah Barns. ....my father was born in 1912 and the bakery was there previously, so they must have known each other - I have some lovely photos of the village school - about 1920s but a bit late for this thread!
 
I recall asking my grandfather who the little girl was in this photo and my embarrassment when he replied that it was him!
Oh dear, hope he wasn't too offended........but the boys did look like girls because of the clothes they wore.
It is a lovely photo - I am sure someone on here could 'clean it up' for you.
Thanks for sharing it with us
Polly
 
That first photo is one of mine see POST 6 on this Tread, I still have no reply to the request is it ashe or a he?
Thanks John for reposting
 
This is my Gt Gt Gt Grandfathers sister, Catherine Maria Pedlingham, 1820-1900. The family came from Ledbury.
Catherine married Robert Ballard, who owned and ran The Ledbury Brickyard. The Ledbury Railway Viaduct was built using bricks from his yard.
Robert was the brother of Stephen Ballard, a Civil Engineer who was influential in the shaping of the village of Colwall. Stephen also engineered the canal and railway lines in Herefordshire.
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lindyloo what a redoubtable lady; a real Victorian matriarch!

I don't know if a time-warp existed in the Great Bridge/Tipton area, in the mid 1950's; but my maternal grandmother STILL dressed in the same fashion...full-length black bombazine and little frills of white lace...even the headress is similar! In the evening she changed to a small lace square, wore point-down, like a diamond-shape, with little seed-pearls dangling from it. If it weren't for the 50-60 year difference, they might be sisters!
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An wonderful portrait photo of Catherine a real insight of the time.
 
Hi JohnO, It is one of my favourite photos....It does sound like a time warp ...but they do say fashion trends go round in circles. Not sure it is one I would follow though :)

Thankyou Wendy :)
 
lindyloo .....since writing the above I've been wondering about it all; it seems absurd that anyone would be wearing clothes like that in the 1950's ... and it certaily wasn't due to fashions reappearing again. Perhaps my gran had taken to wearing her mother's clothes, so as not to waste them, perhaps? You know, I'd never asked myself why she had dressed like that....it's amazing what we except on face value, and never question. Mind you, I do recall as a child, seeing lots of old ladies down in the deepest , darkest corners of the Black Country, still wearing full-length, bombazine skirts, and shawls. Some wore flat caps and tacketty-boots too; and still a few smoked pipes! I reckon the back-end of places like Tipton/Gornal/Bilston were fifty years behind the times cpmpared to Birmingham. Even Wolverhampton was years behind Brum. I suppose, in those largely pre-TV years, if you didn't travel far from home, you wouldn't have much of a clue as to the outside world. I know I didn't, and I thought we were light-years in advance of Tipton folk!
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JohnO, I did think it strange but thought it would be rude of me to say so. I have read that Black Bombazine was used a lot for mourning wear at one time, maybe your gran had lost someone and was carrying on a tradition?...just a guess mind you. Although my Nan and Great Grandparents came from Lye, Im afraid I dont know much about the Black Country, so I have found what you have written very interesting !
I hope I am not straying to far from the Victorian Album topic, as I am unsure of the years that are acceptable, but your words put me in mind of a photo I have of my Gt Gran, which was taken in Spring Street, Lye. But I think it would have been after 1911. I know she was born in 1870, but do View attachment 50333not know how old she would have been in the photo..I apologise if I am posting it in the wrong place but I would just like to share it.
 
lindyloo - Lye was just like one of those places I mentioned, or would have done if my memory was better than it is! Although I never went ther myself, I do recall my mother mentioning 'Lye Waste' (whatever that was?). It often gets a mention in the Black Country Bugle.

This subject has thrown up lots of memories; near to my Grandmother's house was an old lady who my mother visited a few times, with me in tow as a toddler....I remember that a part of her kitchen was a forge, where the old lady still made chains. Imagine that, frying your sausages whilst hammering a few links of chain....I'm sure people think I make this stuff up, but it's all perfectly true!
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