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A Victorian Album

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!
 
Minski said:
I recall asking my grandfather who the little girl was in this photo and my embarrassment when he replied that it was him!
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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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John I am sure you are correct. I remember seeing the elderly ladies smoking clay pipes in their 'widows weeds!' How fantastic to see one actually making chains brilliant!
 
JohnO, Lye waste is or was a part of Lye..I found this quote..
" Lye Waste, around Lye village, took its name from being an uncultivated, appendage to Lye, but became settled by a numerous body of men, who acquired a right of separate freehold on the passing of an Enclosure Act, and is now thickly built over."
I believe what you have mentioned about the forge in the kitchen was commonplace and nail making was also done at home.
I havent seen a Bugle in ages, but it once published an article on my Nans Great Uncle, Henry Wooldridge, who invented and manufactured the Frost Cog, I will try and find his photo as he was around in the Victorian Era.
The census image for my Great Grandfather in 1901 shows Chainmakers working "at home" and Im sure it carried on long after that.
I just wish(as is often the case) that I had asked my Nan more about her life in "The Lye" while she was still with us..The life she led in Lye prior to marrying cant have been given her too bad a start as she lived till she was 93, God Bless Her..x
I agree with Wendy, you are correct in what you say according to some things I have read.
 
Can anyone date this photograph please?

The elderly gentleman in the centre is either my mother's grandfather, or great-grandfather; it all depends upon the date ... and it isn't clear from the inscription on the back of the photograph etc. I do wish people would label photographs with both names, date AND relationship. I have loads of pics marked 'Aunty Mary' or 'My Cousin Matilda' et al; but it doesn't help a great deal, on its own!

I've added these pics on another thread too; I hope it is ok to do so?
 
Same with this one too; does anyone have a clue as to the date? Any guessses as to the age of the girls? They are the Miss's Chrisp, cousins of my maternal grandmother, or great-grandmother.
 
I have a photo of my late Mother in Law's mother [taken in her late 2o's] in an almost identical dress (to me) that is worn by the lady on the right. MiL was born around 1910 which would mean her Mother's photo would have been taken roughly around 1875 if that sounds feasible?


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what wonderful family photo's of some remarkable looking lady's I would suggest that as most have a small "bustle" at the rear of the dress then you would be looking mid 1870's early 1880's.
 
Bernie - a wonderful photograph; and a very smart-looking lady! I'm tending towards the 1870's too, as she looks very up-to-the-minute fashion-wise, rather than still wearing an older fashion etc. We need a 'bustle' expert; there must be one on the site somewhere!
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Bernie - I would agree. Early 1970s. It looks to be the 'bunched up' bustle, originally formed from an overskirt, supported by a horsehair pad.
Bustles slipped out of favour briefly towards the end of the decade, only to be revived in the 1880s, but this time as a frame worn under the skirt. These were generally made from braided wire. There was also, in the 1880s the 'Langtry bustle', which was made from metal bands working on a pivot, making it easier to sit down! The bustle apparently sprang back into shape when the wearer stood up!! The 1880s bustles were a more extreme bump in the backside area and relied on the shape of the frame rather than bunched up fabric.
 
Seabird said:
Sorry - I tried to edit the obvious typing mistake in the date and ended up making two posts!! Technology!! I think I belong in the bustle era!!
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Ah but, imagine making a mistake with a 'pivoted' bustle! The very thought brings tears to one's eyes!
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Wonderful photographs it has been a joy to view them all. Once i get used to the forum site i will try to get some of my own posted on. formula t
 
Regarding frames under skirts, whalebone was one of the first things to be used, but I think it was expensive. Then a Birmingham man, Enoch Dance started to make them out of bamboo. Made a fortune, but died at the age of 32.

shortie
 
This photo was in moms box but I am not sure which side of the family the children are from. The older girl has my nan's [dads mom] features though. Jean.
 
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