• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Keith Berry's Photos (bhf Recovered)

postie

postie

Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P.
As a lot of you know the amazing photography of Keith Berry and most of you are also aware that he passed away.
I have been in touch with the hosting company who displayed his gallery, and asked if it was possible to still view his gallery.
they said that his account had been closed because of non payment of their fees.
I explained that it is very hard for someone to make payments when they are dead and I would willingly pay the outstanding amount if they continue to show his gallery.
I have just received their final word on the subject and it aint good news...

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately this account has been deleted. Please let me know if you have any other
questions.

Thanks,
Ashlee
PBase Support

Sorry for the bad news but there is nothing further anyone can do..
Jim
 
Jim

I cannot believe that they would just perfunctorily delete a historic database such as Keith's. Let us hope that somebody handling his estate or at least his publisher has got hard copies. I know Bill Dargue had been paying the subscriptions to PB base at one time, he must have ceased to do so. Perhaps you could contact him he might know more.
 
If the original gallery cannot be recovered and uploaded to a website perhaps the gallery could be rebuilt to show on the BHF Image Host as a Keith Berry Gallery even though it would probably be difficult and would not look the same layout.

Using the link below most of the gallery of photos can still be seen as they originally were, and the thumbnail photos enlarge when clicked on. Although it is obviously slow it seems to function as it did with the original pbase.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120415174502/https://www.pbase.com/beppuu/old_bham&page=all
Obviously the archive in the above link could disappear over time.
Perhaps someone else could test the link in case it is only appearing and functioning on my devices.

Screenshot of the start - I had clicked 'all' and 90% of photos show. They are png files so might not easily display on all devices.
Screenshot (9).png

Screenshot of an enlarged photo after I clicked on a thumbnail ... Atkinsons Brewery.
Screenshot (10).png
 
Clicking on the archive link in post #3 is working on my iPad Phil. I can enlarge too. That's great. Maybe someone using other devices could check too. Will we be able to put this in some sort of permanent file? Excuse niaive question, but know very little about how to do this. Viv..
 
Last edited:
Hi Viv, I think all the photos need to be copied from the 'internet archive wayback machine' as a first step. A very small number of pics do not enlarge but there are so many copies on many sites the full size pics can probably be found.
I must admit I am surprised that they are there and most of them enlarge.
There seems to be 10 pages with 48 or more images per page.
Phil
 
Is there a way that we could share the load ? I'd be happy to take a load to copy to a thread (?) for example. The quicker we action this the more likely we are to capture as many of the images as possible. I guess we might lose the narrative below the photos, but if we made sure we named the photos that would be something. Alternatively, we could take a screenshot of every photo and it's comments. Viv.
 
Last edited:
I've copied 4 pages of images so far. I think the main problem will be arranging them because the image file names do not always relate to the image subject. I have found why some pics do not enlarge, there was a choice of small, medium, or large and the snapshot in 2012 picked up what was on screen at the time.
I will continue copying over the coming week.
 
Some time ago I copied images from the site (though I am not sure if it was all of them ), though not the accompanying notes. They are in five folders, labelled Aston & witton, Birmingham canals c 1980, Keith Berrys photos Old Brum, Keith Berrys photos unknown and other, the folders containing respectively 33, 28, 456 , 15 and 24 files . The total comes to about 60 Mb. As I say I am not sure what, if any were missed out, as it was done in a hurry when the site was temporarily reinstated.
 
Hi Phil. If you're happy to copy the files in the coming week and store them, maybe we could look at how they could be organised on BHF. Seems to me that we need an archive, possibly organised into areas e.g Newtown, Perry Barr, Harborne, etc. (allocating the unknowns when the bulk have been sorted). What does Postie and other members think? Viv.
 
Sorry Mike we were posting at the same time. Great that you have so many already copied. It's probably then just a matter of putting them into an archive with useable categories. The question is what categories.

Also want to say, what a relief we can still get hold of these photos. Thanks both. Viv.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Mike that's very helpful. If Postie would like these stored on the Forum, the next step seems to be to agree how to store them for others to access and enjoy. Therefore a few questions which spring up in my mind are

Are we legally allowed to put them on the Forum?
Does Postie want to do this?
If yes, where do we store them?
As an archive?
If stored as an archive, in what categories?

Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Thanks Mike that's very helpful. If Postie would like these stored on the Forum, the next step seems to be to agree how to store them for others to access and enjoy. Therefore a few questions which spring up in my mind are

Are we legally allowed to put them on the Forum?
Does Postie want to do this?
If yes, where do we store them?
As an archive?
If stored as an archive, in what categories?

Viv.
Click to expand...
One way of displaying the images and accompanying notes could be in a pdf file, an example accessible from the link below. This pdf shows page 1 (48 photos and notes) of the 'Old Birmingham' group. It displays on my laptop, using either IE, Chrome or Edge and also displays on iPads and iPhones. If suitable there would be 10 pages in total containing 480 photos and comments. Each pdf is about 7Mb in size.

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/images2/userpics/10006/kb1.pdf
 
Looks fantastic Phil!! (On iPad) A perfect way of displaying them and very clear on iPad. Viv.
 
Hi Viv - One good thing about the iPad is the view can be expanded with finger and thumb. The browsers IE, Chrome etc have to use + or - buttons. It is the first time I have read all of his comments !
Phil
 
I can't tell you how very glad I am to read that Keith's photos are being saved. Shame that PBase deleted them but they have such a huge amount of galleries and Keith's were just another gallery to them with a defunct account, etc. It's years ago that I came across Keith Berry's photos and he used to send me messages. He lived in Brantley Road Witton where my Mother grew up. He had the most amazing collection of cameras and recorded information about which cameras he had used for his photos. Thanks to everyone involved in sorting the photos out. It's is such a great collection.
 
Last edited:
jennyann said:
I can see the images but not enlarge them on my desk top computer.
Click to expand...
Hi Jenny,
The only way that I could get Keith Berry's photos and comments were from the 'waybackmachine' which can be a strange web site at times. Images can change size and fade at any time. There were 480 in the group I chose and to upload these and then affix comments to them would be a major task.

I used the pdf format because it displays on all types of computers and in all browsers. The images however are part of the pdf and not separate. Also it was relatively easy to show Keith Berry's comments under each image. A pdf can usually be zoomed to fill the screen and the screenshot below shows where I have zoomed to larger than my screen using the zoom buttons in Chrome. There are similar controls in IE. Maybe it zooms on my screen because I have Adobe Reader installed in this laptop.
My Screen
Screenshot (12).jpg

The pdf can be saved to any computer and viewed with 'Adobe' or 'Foxit' etc.

One thing you will note is that Keith Berry's images have been copied and posted here, there, and everywhere across the internet - but that is the way of things ...

ps ... my screenshot shows I have my adblocker automatically switched off when viewing the BHF ....
friendly_wink.png
 
Since my internet access is restricted by something that blocks the Wayback Machine on archive.org I can't do this but...
There is a program called Httrack that will download a website given a base address to a folder on your home pc. You can find copies at https://download.cnet.com/HTTrack-Website-Copier/3000-2377_4-10039773.html . I have used this before from other computers although not with the archive.org backups. If someone can find the base address for the backup (presumably the one in the earlier post) and copy that into the program with the appropriate settings you should be able to download a clone of the original site. If this has the archive.org logos in a top section, it should be easy to edit them out. All you have to do then is upload to a new site. Admittedly, you would have to pay for the space and domain name for the new site but I dare say there are people here who could arrange for that. I have another method I'm working on but that will take a while before I know if I can make it work.
 
Looking through the late Keith Berry's photo archive I noticed this great photo of his first home computer. His comment is posted underneath the photo.
62591954.3M8jXAMX.jpg
My Sinclair ZX80 - My first computer - the height of home technology in 1981!
Click to expand...
 
Keith Berry's 'Old Birmingham & Surroundings' Photo Gallery
Recovery of 600 approx photos is complete, 15 albums click on any to see.
Keith Berry's titles and comments are in the albums ...
1 1950s /1960s Aston, Birchfield, Lozells, Handsworth. (48)
2 1950s/1960s Handsworth, Handsworth Park, Lozells, Brookvale Park, Erdington. (48)
3 1950s/1960s Erdington, New Oscott, Hockley Jewellery Quarter. (48)
4 1950s/1960s Jewellery Quarter, Onion Fair, Lozells, Moor Lane, Perry Barr, (48)
5 1950s/1960s Witton, Aston Park, Winson Green, (48)
6 1950s/1960s Witton, One Stop Perry Barr, Other Various Places, (48)
7 1950s/1960s Aston, Newtown, Gas Street, (48)
8 1950s/1960s City Centre, Broad Street, (48)
9 1950s/1960s Coventry Road, Sutton Park, Cannon Hill Park, (48)
10 Bromsgrove, Smethwick, West Bromwich and Walsall (28)
11 In or around Birmingham, but where ? (14)
12 Aston and Birmingham Canals 1980s (27)
13 Lozells and Handsworth in 2006/2007. (42)
14 Selection Aston, Witton, Handsworth, Perry Barr, and Erdington (60)
15 Coleshill, Bewdley 1981, Hay-on Wye 1979, Leominster, and Weobley 1979. (33)

They can be viewed from Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Safari, in computers, smartphones, and tablets, and can be saved if required. Pdf reader controls can be used to enlarge the views if required.
They were created using Windows 10 and Chrome. They have not been tested on devices using Android.
 
Last edited:
What a great job you've done Phil. Thank you for all your hard work, it's certainly paid off. One very small point, each page/doc title could indicate the area(s) that the page covers.

Mike - do you think there are more to add to Mohawk's images ?

Will these now stay on this thread or should we set up a separate archive - exclusively for the pages of photos- so it's easy for others to access them? Then if there are any more uncovered over time the archive could be easily added to. Viv.
 
Last edited:
Hi Viv - Keith Berry had arranged this particular group of 400 images into 10 pages in pBase and I kept to that arrangement. I used the pdf format because it was the easiest way to place his titles and comments with the relevant images. The pdf files are in the forum's image host Coppermine and can be accessed there by any forum member.

Uploading 600 jpg images to Coppermine would be difficult without the multi-uploader working. Also it would be a very long and difficult job trying to place the titles and comments with the images in Coppermine because the file names on many images do not give any clue as to what the images are.

There is an existing 'Keith Berry's Photo Galleries' thread
I could post the pdf files in that thread.

Phil
 
Last edited:
Thanks both. Think then it's best to leave them on this thread. But would the thread be best placed somewhere in the photographic category now that the photos are available here. Just a thought. Viv
 
Wonder if the Keith Berry 'unknown' images (page number 11 link in post #23) might be worth flagging up for comment? Some members might be able to name the places. Viv.
 
I think that no 14 (Old Shop 1969) may be 159 Park lane. It is marked Harper's florists, but seems to be more a greengrocers. There is nothing that fits in the 1959 Kellys (where the number is missed out) but the 1967 Kellys lists Alfred Harper, greengrocer, and two doors away at 165 is Young Master Ltd, shopfitters. If you stretch the photo, then this fits that name (see below) the map shows position of 169, Just off picture to the right is the Royal Oak pub
 

Attachments

  • ScreenHunter_1943 Mar. 23 17.48.jpg
    ScreenHunter_1943 Mar. 23 17.48.jpg
    38.6 KB · Views: 31
  • map c 1950 showing 159 Park lane.jpg
    map c 1950 showing 159 Park lane.jpg
    213.1 KB · Views: 23
Flowers and greengrocery were frequently sold together by retailers - think flower/ fruit/veg wholesale providers were generally under the same market roof. So makes sense to me. Viv.
 
On page 1 image 27 there is a photo that used to be on the "unknown images page" I left a message for Keith on the site saying that the building in the background was Nechells House on Dartmouth Street the first flatted factory units in Birmingham and therefore the photo must have been taken from the Aston Rd somewhere near Love Lane. It seems he was willing to accept that the Dartmouth St theory but wasn't quite sure about Aston Road.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top