A HISTORY OF MY FAMILY IN 100 IMAGES : A Bradford Family Icon

A HISTORY OF MY FAMILY IN 100 IMAGES

1 : A Bradford Family Icon

ENOCH BURNETT (1878-1948)  : Enoch was thirty-nine years old at the time of this photograph. He was married and had the four children pictured with him and his wife, Harriet Ellen. When the photograph was taken he was absent, serving in France in the Labour Corps, digging trenches and tunnels - the very architecture of that most difficult time in the history of mankind. At the end of the war, Enoch returned to Bradford and returned to the life he knew before - cleaning windows in the summer, mending watches and clocks in the winter and playing the euphonium at Chapel music evenings.

HARRIET-ELLEN BURNETT (1871-1956) : Already in her mid-forties when this photograph was taken, Harriet-Ellen was, I suspect, the glue that kept the family together in good times and bad. There is a strength in that face and a calmness; both qualities that would be needed in the years ahead. She was never listed as having an occupation, but that doesn't mean she didn't work: like so many housewives of the era she worked unceasingly - cooking, cleaning, giving birth and giving comfort.

JOHN ARTHUR BURNETT (1899-1974) : Whilst the family might have been confident enough to leave a space in the photograph for Enoch who was over in France digging trenches, they were realistic enough to know that once a young man went to the front, there was a fair chance that he might not return. And this is probably the reason for the photograph in the first place: for it was taken shortly after John Arthur joined the army a few weeks after his eighteenth birthday. After a few months training in England he was sent to the slaughter fields of France and within three months of arriving there he was posted as missing. But he survived; he was taken a prisoner of war and in 1919 returned to Bradford and his family.

MIRIAM BURNETT (1901-1987) : Miriam was 16 years old when this photograph was taken and already working in the Bradford mills. By the 1930s she was still unmarried but was involved in a lengthy courtship with a local lad, Frank Fieldhouse. They didn't marry until England was once again plunged into war and whether by choice or fate, Frank and Miriam never had children. For a time she ran a seaside boarding house in Great Yarmouth and in her old age, when Frank had died, she returned to live in West Yorkshire.

ANNIE ELIZABETH BURNETT (1903-1980) : Annie was the beauty of the family: a young girl with talent and personality and so much to give. She fell in love with a handsome, young Concert Party pianist and tenor vocalist, Harry Moore and in 1933 they were married. It wasn't a particularly happy or successful marriage, although they remained together until Annie died in 1980. Harry was probably gay, but these were times when such a fact had to be hidden within the camouflage of a childless marriage. Annie was left with significant psychological scars that remained with her all her life. A tragic story, but a common one.

ALBERT BURNETT (1911-2002) : Albert was the baby of the group, born eight years after his closest sibling. Albert became a mechanic who made a career looking after machines in the wrapping and packaging industry. He married Gladys Beanland in 1936 and after a couple of miscarriages, Gladys gave birth to two boys. The eldest, Roger, went on to become a successful artist and sculpture who travelled the world. The younger, Alan, remained in England and started to collect old photographs that could eventually be strung together to provide a history of my family in one hundred images.

Confessions Of A Bookmaker

I make books for two reasons. First of all I am fascinated with the process of making books in this modern digital age. I have become almost addicted to experimenting with different formats, alternative approaches and competing publishing firms in order to discover which is the most effective. In the past I have used Lulu and Blurb, and now I have started using Amazon's own dedicated publishing service, CreateSpace. In some cases these require the use of different software and therefore the challenge is not just to overcome the technical problems posed by the publishing process, but also to become reasonably competent in the use of desktop publishing software.

The second reason is a belief that, despite the obvious and many advantages of digital media and the libraries of books that can be slipped into your back pocket or browsed from your mobile phone, there is something solid, reliable and lasting about physical books. I sometimes think of books like Edwin Muir thought of horses - you may know the poem where  he tells of a time following some apocalyptic war when all the modern machines are of no use and the horses return, "stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent / By an old command to find our whereabouts".  When all the Kindles have crumbled and the tablets have run out of power - these physical books will still be around tempting some great-grandchild to discover what some old fool wasted his time doing.

Anyway, all this is a preface to announcing that my latest book has hit the Amazon shelves. It is called "Pictures From Nowhere" and is a collection of the lost and orphaned photographs that have provided a stimulus for my imagination over the first half of this year.  I can't claim that it was a book that I have slaved over for years: I collected the posts together last Thursday, proofed it on Friday, ordered it on Saturday and it was delivered to me on Sunday.  But it is cheap (£7.50p including free postage if you are an Amazon Prime member) and reasonably cheerful. And as an experiment in relative simple and painless desk-top publishing, I like to think it has been successful.

Pictures From Nowhere is available from Amazon.Com and all the various local manifestations of that monolith (just do a search for "Alan Burnett Pictures From Nowhere"). It's cheap and it's cheerful and for every copy sold I get enough to buy myself half a pint of beer!

Sepia Saturday 343 : Working On Inverse Relationships

Our theme this month on Sepia Saturday is "Work And Play".  I will start with work - weren't we always taught that work came before play? - and with these two fine fellows who are obviously kitted-out for a day on the footplate. I have no idea who they are: running, as I do, a home for orphaned old photographs, people often hand me old photographs whose provenance has been long forgotten.  By posing in front of the insignia of their employer we have a good idea of what they did and - because it is "British Railways" and not British Rail nor one of the handful of silly names rail companies now posses - when they did it.

There are no doubt experts out there who will be able to tell us more (feel free to write in, I am a magnet for trivia) by examining the cap badges or the bogey wheels or identifying the precise meaning of what appears to be an Amazon Dash button on the shirt of the cheap on the right. But I love photos for their own intrinsic value and sometimes there is an inverse relationship between added information and added visual value. There should be  a mathematical formula to express that relationship - I will play around with the idea and see if I can work one out.

To see what others are doing with work and play, go to the Sepia Saturday Blog and follow the links.

Random Times : Depression, Sin And Amy Johnson On Roller Skates

RANDOM TIMES : 7 September 1931

Our random number generated time machine has whisked us back to the start of the 1930s and made a landing alongside the Humber Estuary near the city of Kingston-on-Hull. We can't see the magnificent Humber Bridge because it is still forty years in the future, but the port of Hull is full of deep sea trawlers although the fishing industry, like all others, is suffering from the great economic depression.

Economic problems and their political implications dominate the national, and international, news. The Labour Government had just fallen and been replaced by a National Coalition and the decision of the Labour leader, Ramsey MacDonald to participate in the coalition had split the Labour Party. Our window on history is provided by the pages of the Hull Daily Mail.

TUC WANTS BANKS POWER CONTROLLED

WAR ON ECONOMY

LABOUR SAID TO HAVE BEEN BROKEN BY SECRET FORCES

UNNATURAL ALLIANCE

OPPOSITION TO NEW NATIONAL GOVERNMENT UNALTERABLE

he attitude of the Trade Union Congress towards the economic crisis, and their "unalterable" opposition to the National Government, were made plain in the presidential address by Mr A Hayday MP, to the Trades Union Congress in Bristol today. Mr Hayday said: "Political and financial influences of a sinister character, working behind the scenes, have taken advantage of the difficulties arising from policy pursued by private banking interests to dictate to the British Government and people a fundamental change in national policy”.

There is something remarkably familiar about the lead story in the Hull Daily Mail on this day: the power of the banks, economic crisis, a fundamental split in the Labour Party - history may not actually repeat itself, but in tends to wander along familiar pathways! And what the writer of this article didn't know was that this was just the beginning of the crisis. Within a few days the new National Government had devalued the pound, cut the wages of government workers and reduced benefits to a minimum. A long, long economic recession was awaiting Hull, and the rest of Britain, in the 1930s

AMY DELAYED

Bad Weather Keeps Her At Koenigsberg

HOPE OF START TODAY

Berlin, Monday

Unfavourable weather prevented Miss Amy Johnson, who is on her way home from Tokio, from leaving Koenigsberg, East Prussia, at five-o-clock this morning as she had intended. She proposes to start at noon on a direct flight to Hanover, which she expects to reach in four or five hours. Miss Johnson has with her a Siberian pup with which she was presented in Moscow.

Amy Johnson was one of the great British heroines of the 1930s. Born in Hull, she worked as a secretary in a solicitor's office before getting her pilot's licence in 1929. She them embarked on a series of record-breaking flights, becoming in 1930 the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia. In July 1931 she had undertaken a series of record-breaking flights to Tokyo and Moscow and she was returning from these when she was delayed in Konigsberg (now known as Kaliningrad). She did manage to leave Konigsberg later that day and she eventually returned safely to the UK. The following year she married fellow pilot Jim Mollison and during the rest of the decade she continued to undertake record-breaking aviation flights. 

At the outbreak of World War II she volunteered for the Air Transport Auxiliary and was responsible for moving RAF planes between bases in the UK. In January 1941 she went missing during one such flight.

The surprising thing about the case of Charles Curtis Hardy is the fact that fowl-stealing was still a specific offence in British law in 1931. I am not sure what sentence he eventually received, let us hope it is not as severe as a certain William Ansell of Bedfordshire who was transported to Australia for 7 years for fowl stealing a hundred years earlier.

The situations vacant columns of local newspapers always provide a powerful economic and social commentary on the state of a local community. Here we see that, whilst there are still jobs available, they tend to be of a specialist nature and - in the majority of cases - for women workers. New skills were at a premium, and in these times shorthand writing and typing were very marketable skills. It is interesting to note that a "Lady Shorthand-Typist" could expect to earn 30s (£1.50) per week, whilst a junior mistress at a school was lucky to be getting £5 per term.

The newspaper situations vacant columns were of little use to the vast numbers of unskilled working men that were being thrown out of work by the Great Depression. In 1931 there were more than 15,000 unemployed men in the city of Hull, men who had little hope or opportunity of finding work for much of the rest of the decade.

CONFERENCE AT BRIDLINGTON
How 970 Delegates Will Be Entertained

Excellent arrangements have been made to entertain the 970 delegates and their ladies who are attending the 44th annual conference of the Sanitary Inspectors' Association at Bridlington during next week. Weather permitting, bowls matches on the various greens have been arranged and several social events will be held at the Spa Royal Hall, while motor tours round the district and to Scarborough are included in the programme.

The 970 Sanitary Inspectors hopefully had a good week at Brid and between the games of bowls and motor trips to Scarborough had time to examine the state of public health in the 1930s. Life expectancy was still less than sixty years old and the figures for Hull were some of the lowest in the country. 

We tend to think of the 1930s as a era of cinema classics which is far removed from the puerile dross of the modern screen. But we are, of course, cherry picking and a quick look at the cinema programme in September 1931 in Hull shows us that titillation was even then a prime ingredient of popular entertainment. There seems to be a concentration on marital relationships - "kept husbands", "Bachelor Fathers" and "What a Widow". My favourite title is perhaps "Sin Takes A Holiday" which was a convoluted romantic comedy about a rich divorce lawyer and his "dowdy" secretary. Some movie executive forgot to renew the copyright on the film when it ran out in 1958 and consequently it is now in the public domain and available in full on YouTube.I'd like to say it is worth a viewing - but it's not!

I have not been able to find any evidence that Fred Laverton managed to break the World Roller Skating Record at the Hull White City Skating Rink in September 1931. Such record-breaking attempts were commonplace in the early 1930s - an era of marathon dances and endless skating performances. People would pay a few pence to watch others suffer in an attempt to achieve a meaningless feat. Which, it must be said, sounds like a lot of modern reality TV.

The Generously Muted Municipal Buildings Of Keighley

Towards the end of the nineteenth century municipal competitiveness was all the rage in the north of England. The rivalries between neighbouring mill towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire was fought out on the football field, the cricket field, and the rugby ground: but as town treasury coffers grew in size, that competitiveness began to extend to the scale, design and elegance of the municipal buildings themselves. A Great British Town Hall Race was instigated to achieve the most striking edifice that would reflect the grandeur of the local community.

For some reason, the town of Keighley never seemed to have entered the race. Perhaps the civic leaders were too canny: they spent their money constructing a technical college worthy of a Venetian Prince, and two or three grand looking pubs as well. The Municipal Buildings - which are shown on this early twentieth century postcard from Fowler Beanland's collection - were generously muted and even then they were shared with the town's post office. The post office has now moved across the road to a modern shopping centre: but the municipal buildings are still there and still generously muted.

Random Times : Taking A Holiday To Photograph The King's False Teeth

RANDOM TIMES : 30 August 1902 

Our random time machine has this week taken us back to the beginning ofd the twentieth century and north to Morpeth in Northumberland. Our news is being delivered by the Morpeth Herald which, as well as serving the towns of Morpeth, Blyth and Bedlington, seems to be the "local organ" for every town and village north of the Tyne. It is the end of August 1902. The news is dominated by the coronation of King Edward VII which took place earlier in the month after being postponed from earlier in the year due to the King being ill. Edison had just invented the battery, Renault had just won the first Paris to Vienna motor car race and the United States Government bought the Panama Canal. Closer to our northern home, other items dominated the news.

SIR CHRISTOPHER FURNESS ON TOO MANY HOLIDAYS

The second annual general meeting of the Broomhill Collieries Ltd was held at the offices of the company, 10 Dean Street, Newcastle, on Friday. Sir Christopher Furness M.P. (chairman) presided, and those present included Mr Davison Dalziel and Mr Montague Maclean (members of the Board)...... The Chairman (reported a worrying trend, telling the meeting that ......) he might tell them that the output of their coal last year was 616,819 tons. It was quite true that was between 30,000 and 40,000 tons less than the previous year, but that reduction was caused by two circumstances. First, they had too many holidays during the past year, and as one engaged with large commercial and industrial concerns, employing thousands of workmen, and knowing the disturbing influence of these stoppages, he trusted that they might not continue to encourage, as had been the case during the past two or three years, the frequency of holidays. It added to their cost, and placed them at a disadvantage as a nation with the countries with whom they had to compete.

How lucky we are to have the likes of Baron Furness and Baron Dalziel, not to mention the Hon Montague Maclean to remind us that providing workers with too many holidays can be bad for trade - and bad for profits. How unlucky it is that those eighty-four miners who were killed whilst trying to earn a living digging coal from Broomhill Colliery over the seventy or so years of its existence where not on holiday on that dreadful day when they descended into the earth never to see the light of day again.

Although false teeth had been available in Britain since the end of the eighteenth century, being made out of gold and porcelain they were an expensive luxury available only to the rich. By the latter part of the nineteenth century artificial teeth made from porcelain and Vulcanite were becoming widely available at a price that made them an option for a far broader spectrum of society. At a time when dental hygiene was poor and dental treatment expensive, the idea of having all of your natural teeth removed and replaced with a full artificial set for a guinea or two was attractive. This trend continued for the first half of the 20th century and a survey conducted in 1968 revealed that 80% of those aged over 65 had no natural teeth at all. 

SOCIAL AT SCOTLAND GATE. 

A large gathering of the friends of Mr. Marlow of Barrington, met at Mr. G. A. Scott's, Choppington Inn, Scotland Gate, on Saturday evening to wish him god-speed and good luck on the occasion of his leaving for South Africa. Mr. Jas. Cox, under manager, Choppington Colliery, occupied the chair and said they were all sorry to part with their friend, Mr Marlow, but as the step he was about to take was made for the best he could assure him he took with him the heartiest and sincerest wishes of his numerous friends for his future success and well being. The war was now happily over, and England had obtained another very rich colony which she would undoubtedly develop and make it possible for the industrious settler to become highly prosperous. They all knew Mr. Marlow to be an industrious, steady, sober young man fitted to make his way in a new country, and although they parted with their friend with regret they confidently looked for early news of his success. (Applause). Mr. Geo. Atkinson gave the health of Mr. Marlow and spoke in eulogistic terms of him. The following programme was gone through;— Song,"Home, Sweet Home" Mr. T. Phillips; hornpipe. Mr. James Thompson; song, "Genevieve" Mr. James Jordan; song, “Full of Contradiction" Mr. G. Atkinson; song, “Goodbye, Sweetheart" Mr. James Thomson; song, "Sweet Silver Light Bonny Moon" Mr. James Cox; song, "Kiss Me Mother in my Dreams" Mr. Jas. Jordan; song, " “Sentenced to Death" Mr. C. Teasdale; song, "Annie Dear" Mr. W. Marlow; violin solo, "Robin Gray" Mr. S. Tait; song, "Far Away" Mr. Edward Carr; song, "Under Her Apron" Mr. R. Donald; song, "The Blackbird" Mr. G. F. Barnfather; song, "Queen of the Earth" Mr. J. Marlow; song, "Break the News to Mother" Mr. R. Robson. Messrs. M. Lackie and S. Tait accompanied on the violins. A vote of thanks to the Chairman and the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" brought a pleasant evening to close.

You can imagine the scene. It's Mr Marlow's leaving party and friends and family are gathered together at the Choppington Inn to give him a good send-off before he leaves to start a new life in South Africa. The South African war is over and the new colony is now seen as a land of opportunity where a young man can make his fortune. But South Africa was a long way away and in those days emigration was for life. Picture his old mother, sat in a corner listening to the eulogies about her son. Drinks are drunk, tunes are played, and songs are sung. And then Mr R Robson starts to sing that well known ballad, "Break The News To Mother" :

"Just break the news to mother, 

she knows how dear I love her

And tell her not to wait for me 

For, I'm not coming home;

Just say there is no other 

can take the place of mother

Then kiss her dear, 

sweet lips for me, 

and break the news to her." 

The coronation of King Edward VII coincided with the birth of popular photography. By the early years of the twentieth century, cameras and photography was leaving behind the confines of the specialist in his or her studio and becoming a practical possibility for the enthusiastic amateur. In today's prices, the cost of these cameras varies between £48 and £280. Darkroom equipment was not as easily available and therefore photographic suppliers would often make darkrooms available for customers to use.

WOMEN'S DARING LEAP

Two women jumped from a train as it was passing through Pelaw Station, near Newcastle on Tuesday, and fell full length on the platform. When they picked themselves up they explained to the astonished railway officials that as the train had not stopped where they lived they decided to jump out at the next station, which happened to be Pelaw. Neither of the two women appeared to be hurt, and they seemed quite pleased that they managed to escape being carried further from their homes.

I wouldn't fancy the chances of someone trying this trick today. If they weren't killed by the jump from a high speed train, they would no doubt be arrested by the transport police. Perhaps the women would have been better off with a horse and cart, if they only hadn't sold the horse to John Gibson in the first place.

Here Are The Football Results : Questions 4, Answers 2

There is such a story behind this photograph, bought for a few pence in a second hand shop. There is such a story behind this odd collection of individuals that together make up a football team. Thanks to a stray pen we know a couple of answers: that is Ray, second from the left of the back row, and that is Bert, the tall one in the middle of that row. 

But the questions have a clear lead. When? Where? Who are the rest of them? Why are they all smoking cigarettes? This wonderful collection of sporting individuals is a million miles from the carbon-fibre professionals of the modern game, but they seem to have enjoyed the game they have just played. And that makes them winners.

Sepia Saturday 342 : The Drainpipe Leading To My Grandmother's Head

My final contribution in the Sepia Saturday Love and Marriage Month is this wedding photograph which features my uncle, John Arthur Burnett, and his bride Doris Metcalfe. Some of the other faces are fairly easily recognised, others are not. From the left are my grandparents, Harriet and Enoch, my Auntie Annie, my Father holding on to my cutely-dressed page-boy brother, and that is, of course, Auntie Miriam, third from the right. Neither my mother nor I were present: she was in the process of giving birth to me at the time and therefore the date is June 1948.

I have photographed many weddings in my time and it is a task I always dread given the importance of the occasion and the likelihood of something going wrong. These digital days you have instant feedback and assurance that the necessary photographs are being captured, but back in these bygone days you would just have to hope for the best until the film was developed. Even if the shots were not a complete disaster, there would often be some minor irritation that would kidnap the attention and drag it away from the important factor which is the bride and groom and guests. 

Being otherwise engaged, I was not responsible for the photographs at this wedding and therefore the drainpipe which appears to come straight out of my grandmothers head and the wanted sign that hovers just behind the bride are nothing at all to do with me.

There are a month's worth of Sepia Saturday Love and Marriage photos to see over at the Sepia Saturday Blog. 

Random Times : Why Mischievous Boys Should Avoid Foreign Concoctions And Consume Their Own Steam

Random Times : 23 August 1884

This week our random number generated time machine is whisking us back to 1884 and the very heart of Victorian Britain. Gladstone was Prime Minister and the Third Reform Act was passed by parliament. However, this did not make Britain a democracy: many men - and all women - were still denied the right to vote. That year saw the foundation of both the National Society For The Protection Of Children (compare and contrast with the Royal Society for the Protection Of Animals!) and the Fabian Society. The first skyscraper was being built in Chicago and bicycles were just beginning to become popular throughout the world. For reasons best known to itself, our time machine has landed in Whitstable, Kent and therefore our news comes via the pages of the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald.

WALTHAM WATCHES. EXPLORATION OF NEW GUINEA.

"Acting on the advice of the Government Astronomer, two WALTHAM WATCHES were procured for Mr Morrison (the explorer of New Guinea). These were kept at the Melbourne Observatory for a fortnight, and thoroughly and carefully tested, and were pronounced by Mr Ellery (Government Astronomer) at the end of that time, to be better suited for Mr Morrison's requirements than any Chronometer" Extract, Melbourne Age. H W BEDFORD, Agent to the Company, 67 Regent Street (next St Jame's Hall)

I am sure that the two Waltham watches will have been great comfort to Mr Morrison when he was struck by two spears thrown by the angry residents of New Guinea during his expedition to that land. No doubt he could take comfort from being able to tell the exact time whilst he was lashed to the back of a horse and transported through the jungle in search of medical assistance. He was eventually evacuated back to Australia complete with the two spear heads that remained lodged in his body. Whether or not he was complete with the two Waltham watches, history does not record.

MISCHIEVOUS BOYS

Alfred Gambie, 13, Samuel Sweetman, 13, and Alfred Milles, 10, respectable looking boys, were charged with stealing a quantity of milk. John Clinch, a farmer, living at Westgate Court, deposed: I was going along the Whitehall Road when I saw prisoner and two other boys driving one of my cows, They drove it through a dyke before I could get to them. I drove into the field, and got within four rods of the boys before they saw me. One had hold of the cow by the head and the other by the tail and the big boy (Gambie) was milking her into a cap. I value the milk taken at a penny. Prisoners ran away, but I drove after them. I overtook one of them and conveyed him to the station. This cow has been milked before. The Town Council pay me to let boys bathe there, and it is hard for me that they should behave so.

The Bench sentenced each of the prisoners to receive twelve strokes with the birch rod. Superintendent McBean said that the offence with which the prisoners were charged was getting very common. Prisoners were removed crying, and the mother of one of them was seized with hysterics.

Perhaps Mr Morrison in New Guinea should count himself lucky - he only had angry spear-throwing natives to content with. These three lads from Whitstable had the town magistrates determining their punishment and it was a harsh punishment indeed. The use of the birch was not abolished in Britain until 1948 (and it was still in use in the Isle of Man in the 1960s). If anyone for a single moment thinks that such punishment might restore order to society, I urge them to think for a second of a frightened ten year old who is about to be beaten for holding a cow by its tail.

STRAYED OR STOLEN : On Sunday last a BLECK RETRIEVER and BROWN OTTER HOUND. A reward of 5s will be given to any person taking the same to the Town Crier, Whitstable; and any person keeping the same after this notice will be prosecuted.

What is interesting here is not that someone pinched the otter hound (they are grand looking dogs) but the role played by the Town Crier. It would appear that the post of Whitstable Town Crier still exists today and the current incumbent is a Mr DP Allen. Perhaps I will take my dog to him and claim the five bob reward.

HOME GROWN WINES v FOREIGN CONCOCTIONS

In these days of chemical adulteration the public will do wisely to see that they get STONES BRITISH WINES. The high reputation of which has stood the test of more than two centuries. STONES celebrated QUININE WINE. Specially prepared. Strongly recommended by the highest medical authorities. Sold everywhere. FOR PARTIES AND FAMILY USE. WHOLESOME FOR CHILDREN

Only the British could advertise wine - and quinine wine at that - with a headline that proclaimed HOME GROWN WINES v FOREIGN CONCOCTIONS. In these days when we seem to have turned our backs on the rest of the world, perhaps we will need to start drinking Stone's British Wine once again. Pass a glass of quinine if you please!

AN ELEPHANT'S JOURNEY : The large elephant which belonged to Wombwell's Menagerie was disposed of, it will be remembered, to Mssrs Sanger, and it was decided, owing to its aversion to railway travelling, that it should walk from Liverpool on July 31, and reached Margate on August 14 at eleven o'clock a.m. and covered the distance in 13 days (not reckoning Sundays when the animal did not travel), doing an average of 22 miles a day...... The animals daily diet on the road was ten loaves (two at each of five meals), half a bushel of oats, half a sack of bran, 12 pailful of oatmeal and water, a truss of hay night and morning, and a gallon of beer.

Travelling menageries were all the rage in Victorian Britain and people loved to see exotic animals. Both George Wombwell and George Sanger were leaders in this form of popular entertainment. It is not clear why Wombwell sold the elephant to Sanger, but the fact of the matter was that, at the time, Wombwell was in Liverpool and Sanger was at the other end of the country in Margate. The elephant, quite understandably, had an aversion to rail travel and therefore the only alternative was to walk the two hundred and eighty miles. The completion of such a hike is quite an achievement given that during the journey the elephant ate more than 100 loaves of bread and drank fifteen gallon of beer.

CANTERBURY POLICE COURT : CHARGE AGAINST AN ENGINE DRIVER. Richard Butler was summoned for having in Lower Bridge Street used a locomotive which did not, as far as practicable, consume its own smoke. Defendant pleaded guilty, but said that he had been through the town several times before without any complaint being made. There was very little smoke at the time. The Mayor said the question was whether everything practicable was done to consume the smoke. Police constable Smith said that there was a great deal of smoke and it came down as far as the wheels. Mr Bing, the grocer, complained about it. When defendant saw witness he turned off the smoke. The Bench fined defendant 2s 6d and 16s costs. The money was paid.

What we are talking about here is a steam carriage running on the public road and not a steam train on a railway. Not being mechanically minded, I am at a loss to see how it could be expected to consume its own steam. It is fascinating to note, however, the environmental cost of road transport was an issue over 130 years ago.

Walkley Ways, Walkley Wars, Walkley Cowboys.

I found myself in the Walkley area of Sheffield earlier this week and I called in Beeches wonderful Inner City Farmshop. where I found a volume of local history - "Walkley Ways, Walkley Wars" - which has been prepared by a group called "The Walkley Historians" and published by the Walkley Community Centre. The one thing I can never resist buying is local history books and therefore I was anxious to acquire a copy of the book. "How much?" I asked the lady behind the counter. "It's a minimum donation of £3 but you can pay what you think it is worth above that" I have to admit, this is a new approach to bookselling as far as I am concerned, but I happily handed over £10 and left the shop still believing I had got a bargain. 

I have not had time to read it yet, but I look forward dipping into what is a richly illustrated volume of local history. As I left the shop, I could not resist taking a photograph of the magnificent former Ebenezer Primative Methodist Church on the other side of the main road. I look forward to discovering if there is further information about this fine building in the book. 

And I couldn't help thinking of the "Walkley Hoard" of old large format negatives I bought on eBay earliet this week. When I got home I had a quick look through the collection to see if there were any photographs of Walkley itseld. The best I could come up with is this fine photograph of a Walkley cowboy, which must date back to the 1940s or 1950s. I am not entirely sure where it was taken, but those back yards have a distinctive Walkley look about them.

Random Times :The Price Of Coal And An Oxydised Silver Electric Fire

This week, our random time machine is taking is back 82 years to the 16th August 1934, and it has come down to land in Derby in the North Midlands. Our cuttings are taken from the Late Final Edition of the Derby Evening Telegraph. To put local events in context, in Germany, President Hindenburg died and was replaced as Head of State by Adolph Hitler (who had been Chancellor since the previous year), in America the bank robber John Dillinger was shot dead, and the British Government published plans for a substantial expansion in the Royal Air Force.

COKE-PICKING ON REFUSE TIPS

SOUTH NORMANTON BAN

A letter from the Blackwell Rural Council, read at South Normanton Parish Council's meeting last night, stated the unemployed cannot be allowed to pick coke on the Council's refuse tips.

The sanitary Inspector, in his report to the Rural Council, stated that coke pickers were destructive and left the tips in an untidy condition.

In one case, he stated, a bank was fired and four men were occupied for three days cutting round it.

The unemployment rate in the UK in 1934 was still over 16% and in mining areas such as South Normanton, it will have been much higher. And life upon the meagre benefits that were available was very hard indeed. The dreaded means-test was still in operation, so in order to get what benefits there were, families had to undergo a rigorous and demeaning investigation into what resources and possessions they still had. Searching tips and spoil heaps for coke and coal waste that could still be used was the only means many families had of providing some heating for the coming winter. The decision by the Council to ban such activities because they made the tip "untidy" is a powerful reflection of the state of society after four years of the Great Depression. The bank that "was fired" was not - some may say alas - a financial institution, but a bank of rubbish in the local tip.

SLUM CLEARANCE AT DERBY

Land which is being cleared in the Willows Row area under the Derby Corporation slum clearance scheme.

The slogan at the end of the Great War was the need to construct "homes fit for heroes". In August 1934 it was announced that 2.3 million new homes had been built in the UK since 1918, but poor housing was still an issue and the slums wouldn't finally begin to go until after the Second World War. In 2016 another new housing development is taking place in Willow Row, replacing the development that was built on the newly cleared land in 1934.

DOUBLE COLLISION

THREE LORRY-MEN TAKEN TO HOSPITAL

Jam, cucumber and tomatoes were scattered over the High Street, Weedon, Northamptonshire, today when three lorries were involved in a collision.....

HIT BY AEROPLANE

COMPANY SERGEANT-MAJOR'S DEATH

How a company sergeant-major in the Territorial Army met his death during special aircraft training at Telscombe on July 26 was related at a Brighton inquest today on William George Outlaw (35) of Lowestoft, a lamplighter by occupation ...

The early 1930s were a period of transition for transport in Britain. By 1934 there were some two and a half million motor vehicles on the streets and roads of Britain. Road accidents were becoming more common, a fact brought home to the new Minister of Transport, Leslie Hore-Belisha, earlier that year when he was almost run over in Camden. One of the ways in which he tried to make roads safer was the introduction of the flashing beacon (which was named after him) at road crossings. In the air, plane crashes were widespread, and as the case of William Outlaw so sadly shows, the dangers were not limited to the air passengers.

RECEPTION IN MARQUEE 

LITTLEOVER BRIDE'S FOUR MAIDS 

The wedding has taken place at St. Giles's Church, Normanton, of Miss Margaret Phyllis Jane Brayfield Memmory, daughter of Mr. Brayfleld Memmory, building contractor, and Mrs. Memmory, of Brayfield House, Littleover, and Mr. Cyril Bell, of Osmaston Park Road, Derby. The bride wore a white gown with Brussels lace veil and wreath of orange blossom, and carried a shower bouquet of dark red roses and white heather. She was given away by her father and was attended by four bridesmaids. Miss C. Bell, sister of the bridegroom, and Miss Vera Bonner, the elder attendants, were in powder blue lace model gowns with small net frills and wreaths of silver leaves. The smaller bridesmaids, Miss Marjorie Memmory and Miss Sheila Johnson, the bride's niece, wore powder blue crepe-de-chine dresses and headdresses. The bride's mother wore a dress of cream Swiss embroidered lace and net with picture hat. Mr. Walter Memmory, of Farm Street, uncle of the bride, was the best man. Forty guests were present at the reception held in a marquee on the lawn at Brayfield House. The honeymoon is being spent at Scarborough. 

WEDDING GIFTS 

Presents included: Bride's father to bride, newly-erected detached villa; bride's mother to bride, cheque; bride's late grandfather (to be given her wedding day), case of engraved silver dessert spoons; bridegroom's father and mother, oak clock; bridegroom's sister, case of tea spoons and sugar tongs; bride's sister and brother-in-Iaw, oxydised silver companion set and blue plush nightdress case forming a doll; bride's adopted sister, salad servers; Mr. and Mrs. Waiter Memmory, Pyrex dish in chromium and silver stand; Mr. and Mrs Jess Memmory, silk table runner; Miss Ivy Memmory. afternoon cloth; Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Memmory, glass sandwich dish and fruit bowl and servers; Mrs. Bell (grandmother), embroidered bolster set; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Beil, pair sheets; Mr. and Mrs. Thornham (Hull), case fruit spoons and server: Auntie Florrie, tablecloth; Messrs. A. J. Cash and Sons, solicitors, cut glass; Mr. and Mrs. T. Bonner, electric standard lamp; Miss Vera Bonner, bathroom shower spray. Mr. and Mrs. Pugh, glass trinket set; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur china tea set; Mr. and Mrs. Howe, oak dinner wagon; Miss Joyce Howe. vase; Mr. and Mrs. G Broughton. embroidered silk bedspread: Miss Ward, (bride's godmother) and Ada, case fish knives and forks; Mr. J. L. Shephard (Stapleford), oak canteen of cutlery; Mr. and Mrs. Barker, embroidered afternoon cloth; Miss Walker, china coffee set; Mrs. Fisher and family, embroidered afternoon cloth and jewellery case; Mr. and Mrs. Hockham and Peter, bath towels, tea and glass cloths: Mr. and Mrs. Hodgkinson, oak candle-sticks; Miss Jessie Robson. china coffee set and afternoon cloth; Mr. and Mrs. Philpott. oxydised silver electric fire: Mr. and Mrs. Tester, afternoon cloth and embroidered table centre; Mr. and Mrs. F. Burton, cut glass fruit stand: Mr. George Marsh, chromium plated cheese stand; Mr. and Mrs. Newsham, Empire ware vase. 

Whilst this article is long, it is worth reproducing because it is a near perfect exploration of economic and social history and it provides a fine counterpoint to the unemployed searching for bits of coke on the municipal tips. Not that Mr and Mrs Bell would be needing old bits of coke and coal - their wedding presents included an "oxydised silver electric fire". The gift list itself is a retail list of almost poetic proportions (I can almost imagine Sir John Betjeman reading it). 

The scale of the generosity of Mr Brayfield-Memmory can be judged by the prices of some of the "villas" being advertised in the Evening Telegraph. The villa in Kedleston Road, for example was selling for £450 which in terms of 2016 is the equivalent of about £29,000. If you check on property prices in that road today, the houses are selling for about £300,000. By contrast the oxidised electric fire would be worthless today.

When they returned from their honeymoon in Scarborough, the happy couple could have had a night out at the cinema. Showing at the Cosmo in Derby was that years' "most outstanding screen triumph", "Lady For A Day". Directed by Frank Capra, it was nominated for three academy awards - but sadly got none. 1934 was a great time for the cinema - talking pictures widely available and the restrictions of what could be said and shown set out in the Hays Code had still to take effect.