Grandma's 1930s Photo Album Part 2

The second and final instalment from this particular photograph album that was kept by my paternal grandparents.

I'll start with this one. It is undated but my Dad is there - Allan Burke, aged probably one-year-old and certainly no more than two so I'd guess 1933. His brother, my Uncle Geoff, was born in May 1933 and he does not appear in the photo, so either he wasn't yet born or my Grandma, Annie Burke, didn't trust any of the kids to hold him securely. Dad is held I think by Doris Woolfenden who would be his cousin once removed - the daughter of his Great-Aunty Florrie. They are in front of the door on the back row.

There are very few photos of Allan and Geoff playing with other children. Dad always said that Annie viewed most of the other children in the street as "a bit rough..." and discouraged her two sons from mingling. I suppose you have to bear in mind that she had lost three children in childbirth or infancy before Allan survived. It may have made her a bit over-protective.

August 1935. Allan, Annie and Geoff on the beach somewhere. The date is the only caption so I'm not sure where this is. They are paddling in a pool on the beach and I note Dad is wearing sandals in case of broken glass. I'm not sure those knitted romper suits would stand up well to being immersed in the sea somehow...

Happily they make it off the beach with gussets intact and have a go on what looks like some kind of racing game. If only they were tall enough to see what was going on!

Taken on Allan's third birthday in April 1935. I've no idea where this is either, but he has a satisfied and brave smile on his face despite the large piece of gauze plastered to his knee, the trophy of some endeavour or adventure!

Allan and Geoff with an unknown child between them on my grandad's Ariel motorbike. Enthusiasts may drool over this bike now but apparently it backfired once whilst my grandad (also called John Burke) was kick-starting it. It broke his ankle and he sold it soon afterwards.

Allan and Geoff on a more easily managed roundabout somewhere. No clues are given - it could be at the seaside somewhere or at their local beauty spot of Hollingworth Lake where there was a small fairground and amusement arcade.

Geoff in what I take to be a pedal car. The year is now 1936. Those look to be a serious pair of boots he's wearing...

This tricycle had started out as Allan's as another photo exists of him much younger riding it. Now he is riding pillion behind Geoff round the back of the house. The gasworks can be seen on the far right.

Tired out by their efforts - Geoff pedalling to go faster and Allan dragging his feet to keep the speed down - the boys take a breather on the doorstep. Ah... scratch that, there's no door... on the pavement then!

Geoff with my Great-Uncle Percy on a carousel. Once again there's no clue as to where this was taken.

Geoff on Church Street, Rochdale near the gas works. Up until my own teens my Great-Grandma Maggie Brierley and her sister Great-Gt-Aunty Florrie still lived on Church Street and the smell from the gas works was a bit whiffy to say the least! I never knew my Great-Grandad. Fred Brierley had died in 1949.

This looks like Southport boating pool. John holds onto both his sons who are eager to play with their model boats to the point of going in head first... If you look carefully at the far end of the pool you can see that it has a curved end and then immediately gets wider. I remember as a small boy holding onto the mast of my toy yacht and watching it cut through the water as I ran around the end of the pool. I reached the wider bit and plunged straight in up to my waist... My Mum was extremely annoyed but I think Dad thought it rather funny...

Somewhere else I recognise! Blackpool beach, just south of the South Pier. Annie is with both her sons and her parents, Maggie and Fred.

Allan with his Aunty Elsie, Annie's sister and wife of Percy who we saw on the carousel a bit earlier. Both John and Percy had motorcycle and sidecar combinations.

Allan and Geoff paddling in a pool. No idea where this is either. It's not deep enough for the pool at Southport, which in any case is not bordered by hedges. Answers on a comment or on a postcard please...

And we finish this article - and the album - with a photo of my Daddy in 1938. The pier looks like Blackpool's North Pier.

Family Memories - Relatives and Ancestors Index

Grandma's 1930s Photo Album Part 1

Once again we are diving into the photographic memories of my Grandparents. This time it is my father's side of the family and the timing is ripe for some family photos of Dad as a baby and little boy. He was born Allan Burke in 1932 and was joined by a brother, Geoffrey, the following year.

The vast majority of photographs in the album are just 8 x 6 cm (3 x 2.25 inches). Exposures are all over the place, cameras in those days did not work out the correct exposure for you, you had to buy a seperate piece of equipment to do that and then set the camera manually. If indeed the camera gave you a choice... Some are dark, some are too light, some look as though they were taken during a thick fog. In all cases I've cleaned them up as best I can and for consistency have converted all to the same shade of sepia.

Let's open the pages to a period between the two World Wars, when the family transport was my Grandad's motor bike and sidecar. He was John Burke also - I was named after him. His wife, my Grandma was Annie.

At the start of the album are a few photos from 1926. From left to right they are: Percy Alston, the husband of Annie's sister, my Great-Auntie Elsie; then there is Annie; Annie's and Elsie's aunt, my Great-Gt-Auntie Florrie; an unknown child who is perhaps destined to remain a mystery now I imagine; Great-Auntie Elsie; and finally my Grandad, John, often known as Johnny Burke.

Here Percy has taken over the camera from the unknown gent next to the end. Perhaps Auntie Florrie's boyfriend - she never married but did have a child, a girl out of wedlock, causing a bit of a kerfuffle I should imagine at the time. I imagine the boy is the chap's son. Family tradition has it that he (the chap not the son... well both of them I suppose, actually) vanished out of Florrie's life. We don't know his name or the reason for his leaving, it's possible he was already married I suppose.

The two sisters and their boyfriends, later husbands, obviously got on well together at the time and went on many outings and holidays together. Love those plus fours, Grandad!

Ok, so now we move from the 1920s into the 1930s, starting in July 1932. Annie is holding her three-month-old son Allan - my Daddy to be... Three children had been born before him, all either stillborn or who died after just a few days of life.

Allan with his father, John. I'm tempted to think of the day being that of his Christening, although the album does not give any such information.

The following year Allan gained a brother, Geoffrey.

They are photographed outside the house on Church Street, Rochdale. Just a short way down the street was Rochdale Gas Works, with it's huge circles of girders holding the gas storage containers. During my own childhood, although my grandparents had since moved, the street was still home to my Great-Grandma, Maggie Brearley and her sister Auntie Florrie. My great-grandma was always "Grandma Brearley", I don't think I even knew her first name until these albums emerged following Uncle Geoff's passing a few years ago. For some unknown reason he always claimed that there were no old family photographs existing.

A few months later in 1933, Allan and Geoff are playing with what I hope are pebbles rather than eggs, again outside of the house in the fresh air.

Geoff had dark red hair against my Dad's blonde. Here he's playing with a model aircraft. I remember during my own childhood that my dad and uncle were keen builders of balsa wood aeroplanes with tissue fabric and engines that either flew the planes in circles on a set of control lines or that just flew off until the fuel (or a twisted rubber band) ran out.

Family picnic in the park. It looks as though Geoff is not enjoying himself to the full here...

August 1934. Outside the house again. There was very little traffic to worry about in the 1930s and most deliveries would still be carried out on horse-drawn carts or by bicycle. Church Street had a quite steep gradient. I remember Dad telling me once how he used to go sledging down the snow-covered cobbles in winter and how they would always come a cropper because of one woman who insisted on throwing her hot ashes from the fire out into the road to melt the snow in front of her house!

Sitting on the doorstep. Talking of coming a cropper it looks like Geoff has got a bandage and plaster wrapped round his knee. No being soft in those days. Cut knees were cleaned with water and carbolic soap then purple iodine applied which stung enough to make you forget how you came by the injury in the first place...

On the swings at the local park. Geoff is making a bid for freedom whilst Allan is looking very studious about something - or perhaps just wanting his Dad to stop taking photos and give him a push...!

And we come to the end of this article - but not of the photo album - with a view of the boys on the beach at Blackpool, whose South Pier with its distinctive gap under the decking before a row of criss-crossed ironwork gives away the location. The date is given as July 1934, the album has a few years to go yet.

Family Memories, Relatives and Ancestors Index

Fleetwood Tram Sunday 1988

It's another July, this time the year is 1989 and we are once more in Fleetwood for the annual Tram Sunday Festival of Transport.

This is an Austin-Healey 3000. They were built from 1959 to 1967 and had a 3 litre engine that the company claimed could do 0-100 miles per hour in 31 seconds. This was long before the days of a 70mph top limit on all roads in the UK. The white disc roadsign with a black diagonal flash really meant delimited in those days. Production ceased with the Mk.III in 1967 although three proposed Mk.IV cars were built with a 3.9 litre Rolls Royce engine. This car never made it into production however. And after all that excitement it seems that people are more interested in the contents of the butcher's shop window...

An Austin A40 Somerset. It replaced the somewhat chunky Austin Devon in 1952 and enjoyed a production run of a mere two years before it was in turn replaced by the Austin Cambridge in 1954. During that time over 173,000 were produced. This number includes sales of a convertible variant.

A Ford Prefect 100E. The four doors give it away. The Anglia only had two and the slightly later Popular had a different grill. In fact the Popular was just the Anglia refusing to stop being made when a new body shape was given the Anglia name...

In fact the very same thing had happened when the old-sit-up-and-beg Anglia changed to the shape shown previously. Production carried on as though nothing had happened and the new cars with the old shape were called the Ford Popular. Such a one was my Dad's first car.

A Vauxhall Wyvern EIX. ("EIX" - how did they pronounce that I wonder?) Produced from 1951 to 1957, they originally had huge lumps of chromed metal bar around and across the front grill like a grill with lips and an extra bumper across it that with a vertical bar made a cross over the grill opening. That dates this example here no earlier than 1955. The name Wyvern was to die out and the Victor, Velox and Cresta became Vauxhall's major models.

The impressive-looking Jaguar SS Mk.IV. The SS part of the name was dropped in 1948, not long after World War II, because of its unforgetable association with the Nazi SS. It had stood for Sports Saloon although it could also have been a reminder of Jaguar's origins as a small Blackpool-based company called Swallow Sidecars. It's successor became simply known as the Jaguar Mk.V.

The Hillman Minx. This Audax design was built from 1956 to 1967 and this is a later model as evidenced by the lack of splayed out rear fins. I had one as my first 4-wheel car and it was lovely to drive, but less so to stop...

Mystery time and a chance for readers to show off knowledge. This is a 1963 Austin Cambridge which is impossible because production of this body shape finished in 1957 or 1958 depending on whether it is an A40, A50, or A55. The A55 had a longer boot than the A40 and A50 which were identical, but the angle of the photo leaves me unable to guess. From the registration plate it must have been re-registered at some point in time. Over to you: leave a comment if you know.

Fleetwood Tram Sundays Index

Fleetwood Tram Sunday 1995

It's July 1995 and once again the weather is kind enough for us to venture down the road to Fleetwood to have a look at the vehicles at the annual Tram Sunday vehicles festival.

This is a reminder of my own first 4-wheeled car. A 1961 Hillman Minx. Mine had the registration 385 TD. I bought it in 1971 at the the age of 17 after a year of embarrassing myself driving old Reliant three-wheelers about. In comparison this was a tank. The Hillman Minx was a tremendously popular car. Built from 1931 it went though a pre-war (WW2) version, a wartime version then a postwar Mk.1 to Mk.VIII before this version designed by Rootes and labelled the Audax design was released in 1956 going through Series.1 to Series.VI before a totally new body design came out in 1967, known as the New Minx - a basic version of the Hillman Hunter.

This is identical to my car, though later series lost the rear fins, to the detriment of the overall look of the car. Series IV never existed but to make up for it Series.III had Series.IIIa - to Series.IIIc. Confusing isn't it...? Anyway, mine had not so much a bench seat, but two large seats that touched together so the handrake came out from under the dash and the gear lever was... no... not on the steering column but it was a bent affair from far forward on the floor which then bent over the front middle seat. Potentially embarrassing if you had two other passengers on the front seat in those days of mini skirts, but then again I never was one for being easily embarrassed! Braking hard was something of a fear-inducing exercise of holding the steering wheel hard enough and stepping on the brake pedal hard enough that you were in a standing position before the car deigned to slow down...

A 1965 Ford Anglia Super 123E as identified by the two-tone paint jobby with surrounding chrome strips on the side flash. This was the top of the range model effectively replacing for good the Ford Prefect.

Like buses - you don't see one for ages and then two turn up together...

The van-bodied version of the earlier Ford Anglia was known as the Ford Thames van. Note the semaphore trafficators behind the driver's side window.

A Morris Commercial J-Type van. Made from 1949 to 1961, this van could carry ten hundredweight (10 cwt) or half a ton. It was one of the first vans to have the cab right at the front of the vehicle with hardly any protruding bonnet. Over 48,000 were made with the Post Office using them extensively. Their vehicles differed slightly from the standard J-Type in that their front and rear wings were made of rubber.

A 1964 Triumph Herald 12/50 convertible. An deluxe version of the Herald 1200. By the time this car came out the Standard-Triumph company had been bought out by Leyland Motors. They gave the 1200 model a cash injection and came up with improved seating, a rubber-covered bumper (I bet you're all going "Wow!" just at that aren't you?) and wooden trim dashboard. Disc brakes were fitted from 1962 as an option. The following year this 12/50 version came out and front disc brakes were fitted as standard. The Herald had a strange engine covering - instead of an opening bonnet, the entire front of the car including wings and headlights etc. lifted from the rear to stand vertically in front of the car. This meant access was only possible from either side of the engine. They were very popular and photos of Heralds even now draw exclaimations of devotion on online websites and pages where they are affectionately known as "Harolds".

A 1935 single-deck half-cab bus owned by the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust. Based on a Leyland Tiger chassis, this bus originally had an English Electric 31-seater bus body but after World War II was fitted with a larger engine and a new Burlingham body. It remained in service until 1960 then ownership passed through a few private owners before it was spotted in 1972 masquerading as a garden shed in Fleetwood. It was restored in due course and donated to the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust.

BMW Isetta bubble car. These were originally made by an Italian firm Iso - "Isetta" being a derived name from the Italian for "Little Iso". Both 4-wheel and 3-wheel versions were produced but in the UK the 3-wheeled version was more popular because they were classed as a motorbike and could be driven on a motorbike licence and also cost less in road tax. They were made here in a right-hand drive version which caused a small problem in that the engine was also mounted towards the right so counterweights had to be added on the left to cure the tendency to lean or roll over. They were produced from 1957-1962 in the UK, though production in Italy started in 1952.

A loud rumbling noise mingled with the hiss of steam heralds an Aveling & Porter steam roller, from 1912. Named "Betsy" and given the production number: 7632, such vehicles, a regular sight during my early childhood in the 1950s are now only rarely seen on public roads.

There was something familiar about the chap with glasses - it was steeplejack and demolition expert, Fred Dibnah!

Oh, go on... It's Tram Sunday so let's have a look at a tram. Balloon tram 716 on Lord Street. It was sporting a pantograph, rather than long trailing pole to pick up electricity from the overhead wire. These trams were the mainstay of Blackpool's trams, moving people by the hundred from Starr Gate in the south to the Tower, North Pier, Bispham and beyond to Fleetwood Ferry. This type of tram was first delivered to Blackpool in 1934 and were used on regular service until the new light rail tramway system started in 2012. They can still be seen on service as part of the Heritage Fleet. This particular tram though was sold and used as an office and current whereabouts are unknown, presumed scrapped.

1954 Southern National Bristol LS6G coach with bodywork by Eastern Coach Works.

Fleetwood Tram Sundays Index