A 1930s Courtship

We are heading back almost 100 years for this blog entry, to a collection of photographs from the late 1920s to the 1930s. They come from the collection of my maternal grandparents, Frank and Eva Metcalfe whose romance led to marriage.

12 July 1932 was the date of their matrimonial joining. The bridesmaids are Frank's sisters, Nora and Muriel. Groomsman, Cecil Mercer, Eva's step-brother is on the left and Best Man was Ivan Taylor. Eva's step-father is on the right.

Most of these photographs have been scanned from the tiny enprints held in a photograh album of the time. Some of them showed signs of much wear and tear. I've done my best!

They show a loving relationship between Frank and Eva that lasted until 1971 when Eva passed away at the age of 65 having developed multiple sclerosis which over a very short time robbed her of mobility, speech and the ability to swallow.

This and the previous photograph were taken at one of their favourite places, the Promenade lake at St Annes, near Blackpool.

Frank's parents, Frank senior who I remember as my only great-grandfather still living during my lifetime and his wife, Anne-Marie, who I never knew.

Eva's family, my Great-Grandmother Eleanor Mercer and her second husband Mr Mercer, whose forename I don't know. My Gt-Grandfather was called Holcroft - again I don't know his forename.

Oy! Will you two stop flirting and pay attention to the camera?!?

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Grandma's Souvenir Photo Album

These photographs were scanned from a souvenir photograph album, bought by my grandparents in Douglas on the Isle of Man. As many of the photos in it depict Douglas in 1924, it's possible that it was bought then, but the photographs in it are from 1918 to 1924.

We start off with a charabanc trip from 1919. Great-Grandad Fred Brearley is standing and holding the open door near the rear. It looks like the "charra" may have overheated as the bonnet is open.

My grandparents John "Johnnie" Burke, for whom I was named and Annie Brearley in 1920. They married in 1921. Here Johnnie would be around 27 and Annie 22. Johnnie's right hand shows the loss of two fingers - an engineering work accident that kept him on Essential War Duties at home during the First World War, perhaps ensuring my future existence!

A 1920 charabanc outing. Great-Grandad Fred Brearley is amongst the group of standing men and Great-Auntie Elsie is the girl in the white hat standing towards the middle of the picture at the back of the coach. Johnnie is wearing a straw boater and can be seen over Fred's left shoulder.

1920 again and a woman's work is never done! Annie wields a posser or washing dolly in the laundry tub. She is looking very cheerful about it here, but this was hard work, and the harsh detergent chemicals of the day would leave hands red raw at the end of it.

A group on Blackpool beach from 1921. In the centre of the front row is Annie Burke with Johnnie Burke second from the right, back row. Great-auntie Elsie is sitting on someone's knee on the right of the front row. Between her and Annie is Great-Great-Auntie Florrie with her daughter, Doris. Great-Grandma Maggie Brearley is next to the end of the front row on the left and her husband, Fred Brearley is far left of the back row. Blackpool Tower identifies the location beyond doubt, but also discernible on the extreme top right is Blackpool's original Ferris Big Wheel that was demolished in 1928.

I had to include at least one photograph taken in Douglas, Isle of Man in 1924 and this (though it shows no clue in itself as to the location) is it. Sisters, Elsie and Annie, with Johnnie's sister Mary - always known as "Cissie" at her insistence as she hated her name being pronounced as though it rhymed with "furry"...

The small snapshots album, bought in Douglas, Isle of Man, measuring 4.5 inches x 3 inches (11.25cm x 8cm).

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New Brighton Postcards

A couple of postcards sent from New Brighton in Merseyside in the early decades of the 20th century. The first features New Brighton Tower.

New Brighton's Tower was built just after the Blackpool one and set out to be better, higher, more sumptuous and with extensive gardens. Like Blackpool it rose from a building surrounding its base which incorporated a luxurious ballroom with sprung floor for 1000 dancers, a menagerie, shooting gallery and billiard room. The tower itself was octagonal in plan and 40 feet taller than Blackpool Tower so that when it opened somewhere between 1898 and 1900, it was the tallest building in Britain. Initially hugely successful, the tower remained closed during World War One and maintenance during that time was neglected so much that renovation was beyond the finances of the owners once the war was over and the tower was dismantled from 1919. The building and gardens continued but a massive fire in 1969 gutted the building and it was demolished.

The postcard was bought in New Brighton but not posted until the purchaser, Edie, had arrived home to Horley near today's Gatwick Airport. She wrote a message to her mother in Anerley, south east London which says:

Dear Mum, I arrived home safe and sound. The train reached Horley about twelve. Love to all from all, Edie

The card was posted on 3 June 1909. Unconnected but an interesting fact all the same - some three months later on 7 September 1909, a woman and her twelve-year-old son were stranded at the top of New Brighton Tower for the night when they missed the last lift down. They were found the following morning at ten o'clock and, presumably embarrassed, left the building quickly without giving their names!

This postcard has the feel of a genuine silver gelatin photographic print and is on quite sturdy card. It shows New Brighton Promenade in the late Victorian or very early Edwardian period. Not a single person without a hat can be seen amongst the many people walking up and down the pavement. Most of them wear what look like quite thick coats too, though the young girl nearest to us at the left of the photograph is carrying her coat over her arm.

The sender, only identified by initials which are open to interpretation, probably kept their coat firmly on as the card was posted on the second of January 1922 and it seems the weather was typically northern and rough! He or she writes to a Miss D Dugdale in Blackburn, east Lancashire:

Many thanks for the pretty handkerchief. I'm staying here for a few days. It is terribly rough, the boats are unable to land today. A Happy New Year. Love from (G.M.L.? F.K.L.?)

Having a Good Time At Blackpool, 1926 (with a hint of 1970s)

I love this one. A postcard sent home to Grandma almost 90 years ago. The postcard has a sentimental theme, guaranteed to appeal to a Grandma wondering how her little treasure was getting on away from home on holiday.

The bit of the caption reading "from Blackpool" is in a different font than the main caption and in fact has been stamped on either by the printers or later. The stamping has been done by machine because it is indented a tiny bit which you can feel by running your finger along the card.

In this way the card would sell to any seaside holiday town with the appropriate name stamped on later.

Postmarked on the 1st July 1926, the card is written in pencil to an address in Colne, in east Lancashire and is totally of its time and place in the message.

Dear Grandma,

I am having a good time in Blackpool. We are in a deck chair swanking.

Your Elsie.

And for added bonus a couple of comic postcards from somewhere not too far from the 1920s.

"It's very full down here, but I've got a little room to myself, with a nice frame to put your photo in!"

This is quite funny and these days we would laugh at the idea that anyone would put up with such conditions. But in living memory holiday guest houses were very different places to those you generally find now. My own parents came to Blackpool in 1974 to open a guest house or small hotel. En-suite rooms were almost unheard of then. Instead there was a toilet on each floor and you scurried to and from it, hoping you wouldn't meet anyone else to see you in your nightwear.

Advertising features then, displayed on signs hanging in the front window, were things like Colour TV Lounge - even the "colour" bit was fairly new then... Or Goblin Teasmade in every room. This was a combined alarm clock (analogue, naturally!) and tea-making apparatus that made a pot of tea for the time set on the alarm clock. In practice the hiss and eventual bubbling of the warming water woke you about half an hour before the tea was ready...

Two of the larger bedrooms in the hotel they eventually bought had three double beds in each room. Strangers might no longer share a bed, but some would obviously share a room. "We've been so full at times we've had to have people sleeping in the bath..." they were told at one place they looked at. Just for the record, these practices came to a stop once they took over...

"Waitress! What does this mean? There's a fly in my cup!"
"How would I know, I'm not a fortune teller!"

Ah, the hotel dining room... My parents, on occasion, tried to be just a little too sophisticated for their clientele. Having served cauliflower florets with the roast one night, they took small jugs of cheese sauce into the dining room. Clearing them up at the end of the main course my Mum noticed they were all still full and as she picked one up someone said "Why are you taking the custard away - is there no pudding?"

The "good old days?"

Blackpool Postcard - A Real Photograph

I like this one! I love old postcards. So often they were 'enhanced' by the makers - daytime shots made to look like night; seaside illuminations painted on with blobs of colour, other photographs printed over the top to add an item of interest such as a tram... or a wave...

On the face of it, this is a straightforward photograph of the sea crashing up at Blackpool. Not an uncommon occurrence - though it may become less common with the new Promenade steps hopefully to be completed this year.

However a closer examination has me convinced that these waves are flowing over into the sea from the Promenade side!!! I suspect they may have started life as a waterfall somewhere!

Although the sea can spout upwards quite spectacularly and at least as high as these waves appear to be, you would not get such a wide expanse bursting upwards all at the same time. The waves approach the sea wall at a slight angle and so out of the cluster of three waves at the left you would see the left hand one, followed a few seconds later by the middle one and then after another few seconds by the one on the right. This isn't a time exposure because the waves are not blurred from a long exposure.

I'd date this in the late 1920s. The Big Dipper, far right, was built in 1925. The Rainbow Wheel is the centre with the Scenic Railway and the familar Maxim Flying Machine to its left and the original casino building on the extreme left.

Now, where was that water coming from???