A "Must Have" Man's Accessory - A Pocket Watch: Sepia Saturday

A miner, a ship's riveter, a general labourer, two business men, a group of schoolboys and a station bookstall manager - all feature in my post for this week’s Sepia Saturday challenge.  What is the link?   They are all wearing pocket watches on a chain. 
  

This week's Sepia Saturday  prompt photograph shows a man, formally dressed,  standing across the wall of a house, with a chair nearby - well, I did "chairs" the other week   My eye caught the pocket watch chain that the man was wearing, so I turned to my family collection to see what I could find.  

Pocket watches were invented in the 16th century and were the most common type of watch  until the First World War and the introduction of wrist watches.  They  generally had an attached chain so they could be secured to a waistcoat, lapel or belt loop.  The casements varied from brass to gold, so they appealed to a range of budgets.  Pocket watches were often a prized family possession, passed down through the generations.   

 

I remember my grandfather wearing one on a Sunday with his best suit - but unfortunately I do not have any photograph of him wearing it.  

From the extended family of my cousin:

Edward Henry Coombs(1857-1922) was the great grandfather of my cousin' s wife.  In 1879 Edward  married 19 year old Ann Elizabeth Shaw and in 18 years, they had a large family of 10 children.   He was foounder of Coomb Bros - a wholesale brocery business and manufacture of sweets and jams in Essex.  

The period 1917-1918 was a tragic time for Edward,   with sons Percy and William killed in the First World War; the death of his wife  and of his daughter Lilian.  Edward died in 1922, aged 65.  

 

As you can see from this photograph, Edward was an extremely big man, said to take up two seats on a bus  - and his pocket watch is very evident in this photoraph.  

 

Anna Holt and Charles Oldham (c.1861-1937)  

 

Charles Oldham was brother of my cousin's great grandfather Joseph Prince Oldham (1855-1917).  Born in Blackpool, he joined the family business and in the 1891 census was described as a self-employed coal merchant. But by 1901 he had had a complete change of both address and occupation, setting up a mineral water manufacturing business in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Looking here very much like a serious businessman, and wearing his pocket watch and chain. 

 Wiiliam Dower (1837-1919) and his wife,  Jesse Edward. 

 

Jesse  who was sister to my cousin's great grandmother, married William Dower, born in Banchory, Aberdeenshire. William   worked as a joiner before training as a minister of the church.   He was appointed as a Wesleyan Missionary in South Africa and he and his new wife Jesse set sail there  in 1865. 

 

In March 1870, William and Jesse set out on an ox wagon journey to East Griqualand and the town of  Kokstad, where he was asked to take on the role of pastor.  William helped build both his own home and the church there.  He went on to write a definitive history of the area in "The early annals of Kokstad and Griqualand East".

The photograph above of  William Dower and his wife Jesse was taken in 1913 when they visited Jesse’s sister in Blackpool,  Lancashire.  

 

William died in Africa in 1919 at "Banchory"  - his home named after his Scottish birthplace.  He left behind a legacy in the country he had come to love and a family who made their mark i many different fields.  

 William Bailey Bastow - my mother's second cousin.

 

Elizabeth Bailey born in Poulton-le Fylde, Lancashire  was William's mother. She married Peter Bastow, a Blackpool stone mason, and they had three children.  But Peter could not have survived much beyond the birth of his youngest son in 1882, as by 1890 Elizabeth married her second husband Henry Robinson.   In the 1901 census William was described as stepson, 20 years old and a general labourer.

Here he is dressed formally in the traditional style of waistcoat and pocket watch.

From my husband's family:

 

 

Alice Armitage and Matthew Iley White  - 

my husband's grandparents of South Shields, County Durham.

Matthew (1886-1956) and Alice (1888-1967) married in 1908 and this photograph is thought to  mark their  engagement, with Matthew wearing a watch chain with the watch itself hidden in his waistcoat pocket. 

The couple had a background of mariners and miners.   Matthew, a ship's riveter,   was named after his father  Matthew Iley White;  his mother was  Louisa Moffat,and both came from a family of seafarers. 

Alice hailed from South Kirby, Yorkshire where her father Aaron Armitage (1851-1889)  was a miner, the eldest of a family of ten children born to Moses Armitage  and Sarah Galloway. 

Aaron aged 36 married  19 year old Sarah Ann Cuthbert in 1887 but within two  years he was dead,  leaving fatherless his infant only daughter Alice.   His widow Sarah remarried a year later another miner George Hibbert and the family moved to the Durham minefields, settling in South Shields.  The 1901 census saw the family there, with Alice now 13 years old with a step brother Robert and step sister Violet. The two half-sisters remained close throughout their lives.

 Moses Armitage, (1824-1878),  Alice's grandfather.  

 I was lucky to get this photograph from an Ancestry contact and it is the oldest photograph we have of my husband's ancestors. 

Moses was a Yorkshire miner  and in 1844  married Sarah Gallaway (1826-1896)  and in the next 20 years between 1845 and 1868  they had 10 children  in Barnsley.  It was a hard life both at work and home,   and  Moses, like his son Aaron,  made frequent appearances in the law courts,  because of their criminal activity  - well recorded in the local press.  

And Finally - photographs from my Danson family collection  of my great uncle George Danson (1884-1916).

Young George Danson, my great uncle is on the left of this group of  boys and  three of them are wearing watch chains, yet they look  only around 12-13 years old.

George has featured many times on my blog.  He was the youngest of eight sons  of William Danson and Alice English of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire and worked on railway station bookstalls, run my W.H. Smith.  He served as a stretcher bearer in the First World War and was killed on the Somme in 1916,. aged just 22.  

Is this the same watch  - found in a box of Danson memorabilia?

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Adapted from an earlier post published in 2018.   

Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photograph

 

 

 Click  HERE to see more of this week's tales from 

Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

 

 

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Swans, Rivers & Bridges - Sepia Saturday

 

 This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph features swans on a river bank, with a bridge in the background.  What should I  focus on ?  A trawl through my holiday collections - not vintage images but with plenty of historical interest.   

 

 I begin with the Swan theme.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swans and Cygnets at Hawick in the Scottish Borders where we lived for 40 years.  

Across to the Continent of Europe 

 

18th century  Nymphenburg Palace , Munich, Bavaria 

 

 This was the birthplace of King Ludwig ll of Bavaria who was often referred to as the Swan King and adopted the Swan as one of his symbols.

 

 

 

 One of the most distinctive and most visited places  in Bavaria, Southern Germany  has to be Neuschwanstein  Castle.  (in Engish the New Swan Stone  Castle.

 

Built in the 19th century above the Swansee (Swan Lake) it served no defensive purpose, but was  one of four fantastic castles commissioned by King Ludwig.  It was opened to the public shortly after his death in 1886; provided the inspiration for the Disneyland castle, and features in the film "Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang". You  can walk through the extensive grounds and this photograph was taken from the high outlook of the Mariabrucke (Maria bridge).

 

Swan boats on the Hallstatter See, near Salzburg  in Austria.

 

 

 Swan boats on Lake Bled in Slovenia 

Take a journey through my photographic collection of bridges & rivers across Europe and the USA.  

 

Ramsau  was designated Germany's first mountaineering village  and is a small community  near Berchtesgarten in Bavaria, close to the  Austrian border.   The church of St. Sebastian was built in 1512 and extended in 1692 in the baroque style.   Ramsau  is one of the most photogenic images of rural Bavaria and this has to be one of my favourite holiday photographs.  

 

 Wooden steps up to a covered bridge in Kaprun, Austria.    

An old bridge in Bruges, Belgium.

 

Another old bridge, taken by my uncle on holiday years ago in what was then Yugoslavia - now Croatia.  

 

  

Bridges over the River Seine in Paris.  
 

A reconstruction of the old wooden North Bridge at Concord, Massachusetts, USA,   where in 1775 local Minutemen fired the first shot in the American War of Independence and forced the British to retreat back to Boston. 

 A  traditional covered wooden bridge in New Hampshire, New England.

London  

Tower Bridge over the River Thames in London with HMS Belfast in the foreground. 

 

Tower Bridge is one of London's iconic landmarks built in the Victorian Gothic style.  It was opened in 1894, with two walkways linking the two towers.   The road can be raised and  "opened" to allow tall shipping to pass through.  The Bridge is open to the public and you can walk along the top glass-covered walkway and take in fantastic views over London - we have done it!

 

 

HMS Belfast, launched in 1938 is a cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy. The ship saw active service during the Second World War, primarily supporting the Arctic Convoys on the trade routes to Russia.   She is now permanently moored as a visitor attraction museum on the River Thames.  

 

Westminster Bridge over the River Thames with the Houses of Parliament in the background, wsith the clock tower of Big Ben.  

 

The current Houses of Parliament, also known as the Palace of Westminster, was rebuilt after a major fire in 1834.  The oldest part of the building which survived the fire is Westminster Hall built in 1097 by William ll,  son of William the Conqueror and used for national ceremonial occasions and the lying in state  of Kings and Queens.  

 

The first Westminister Bridge opened in 1750, with the second in 1862.  It is the oldest road structure which crosses the Thames in central London. 

 

 "Earth has not anything to show more fair" is the first line of a poem composed by William Wordsworth on Westminster Bridge in 1802. 

A silhouette of the Houses of Parliament with the River Thames in the foreground. 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs

 

   Click HERE to see what other bloggers have spotted in this week's prompt photograph. 

Take a Seat - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows a man standing  by a very utilitarian desk and chair .  Cue for me to show far more interesting looking  chairs used by my extended family.  

 

A large medieval style chair for Elsie Oldham (1906-1989), my mother's second cousin.  

A heavily scrolled chair with an ornate back for seated Joseph Prince Oldham  (1855-1917) with his granddaughter Elsie Oldham  (1906-1989)  and grandson Joseph Butler who was born 1918.  

Joseph Price Oldham  became a carter and coal merchant in Blackpool, Lancashire, in a house with stables, opposite the North Railway Station. His son John William Oldham carried on the business, until it fell to Elsie. 

In the 1920's, Elsie also  ran a hairdresser's from the family home,  giving her name a French twist as "Elise". 

 

 

Here an older Elsie Oldham with her cousin Joseph Butler,  standing behind her - presumably in clean boots! 

 

 

 

 

A charming photograph of the young Joseph Prince Oldham, born 1855,  (the grandfather above).  It seemed to be the fashion to stand children on chairs  for photographs - see below.  

 

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My Great Uncle George (the youngest of my grandfather's seven brothers), is looking very studious, here, hand on chin, seated sideways  on a large solid oak chair 

George, born 1894,  son of James Danson and Maria Rawclliffe of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire,  worked on W. H. Smith bookstalls at local railway stations.  He was killed  whilst serving as a stretcher bearer on the Somme  in 1916, a week after his 22nd birthday.  I have written bout him a number of times on my blog - take a look at  A Stretch Bearer's Tale  

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A portrait of my husband's uncle  - Matthew Iley White, looking determined   in his uniform of the Durham Light Infantry.  

Photograph taken by T. W. H. Liddle, Photographer, South Shields.  

 

 

 

Matthew's sister , Ivy Donaldson, nee White,  my husband's mother,   with her grandaughter perched on high on the back of that seat. 

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Sitting on a throne-like seat, is   Annie Jolly, a friend of  my Great Aunt Jennie Danson.  The Jolly and Danson families were at one time neighbours in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire and there were distant family connections too  through marriage.  This photograph was in the large collection of Jennie's,  taken mainly  around 1916-1920.  

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Two more photographs from Jennie's collection.  Here, written on the reverse is  "Mary, Charlie & Nannie Hardisty, Villa Farm, Bispham, Blackpool."  The photograph was taken at W .J. Gregson & Co, W, P. Beck, proprietor, Photographers, 92 Talbot Road, Blackpool.  

I did some quick detective work and found the family in the 1911 census, with Mary,  26 years old, husband Charles Alfred 24 and Nannie Ada 1 year old.  She does not look too happy here  in her best knitted coat and bonnet, plus little boots.   c. 1912.  

 

 

This photograph is so sweet, but I know next to nothing about it.   At least Jennie had written the names of the children  on the reverse as Jesse and Bernard Penington.  I like the seascape background, and is that a spade that Bernard has in his left hand?   

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I could not let this prompt pass by,  without showing this photograph which has appeared before on my blog and is crucial to my family history. 

"Who was that stern, rather Spanish looking woman sitting in the  imposing medieval style chair?"  This was the question  that started me on the family history trail when I found this photograph in a shoebox collection at my grandfather's house.  

 

The answer -  my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe.   There was an apocryphal  story that her dark looks had come from sailors, who after the Armada were shipwrecked on the Fylde coast of Lancashire.

By her side, is her granddaughter Annie Maria (my mother's cousin)  who made her home with Maria after the early death of her own mother.  Annie was born 1905 and she looks to be around 11-12 years old in the picture, so I estimate it was was taken  c.1917.  Annie's father John Danson, died in 1917 in tragic circumstances at military camp,  a few months after the death of his brother George Danson in the earlier photograph. No wonder that their mother Maria looks  forbidding here.    

And Finally:

 Here I am on my own little chair - a bit big for me  as   my feet don't touch  the ground.   The chair was passed down, with fresh covers,   to my daughter and granddaughter - but I never thought at the time to take a photograph of them in it.   A pity! 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.

Click HERE to see what other bloggers have spotted in this week's prompt. 

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Families Together - Sepia Saturday

This week's prompt image from Sepia Saturday features a family group of father,  mother and baby daughter, probably taken, judging by the costume  and hairstyles,  around 1920.

I have an almost identical image, although in my instance the man was in the uniform of the First World War.  

This was one of the many photographs in the collection of my great aunt Jennie Danson of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.  In Jennie's photograph collection, besides family pictures,   were about 50 photographs of friends and I presume friends' children.  Very fortunately in most cases , she had written names on the reverse of the photographs. Many were taken at W. J. Gregson  & Co., W.P. Beck Proprietor, Photographers, 92 Talbot Road, Blackpool or the While-U-Wait Studio, Wellington Terrace,The Promenade, Blackpool.

Was it the custom to exchange such photographs?  Perhaps faced with a household as the only girl with seven  brothers,    the company of her female friends was an important one to Jennie. 

This photograph is simply identified  as "Billy Hopkins, Lizzie Riley  and son."  I have been unable to find anything about them.  Riley was a popular local surname and the Danson family had Riley connections,  though Lizzie was not  a Christian name I had come across. 

As soldiers went to war, this was a time when families arranged to have a photogaph taken  as important mementos. 

 

Here is one from my cousin;s family of his grandfather Edward Ingram Smith. and family with his wife and children Ella,  Edith and Arthur, with the family looking very serious. 

Leaving school, Edward jhad joined  the army as a  Gordon Highlander, but did not settle and was bought out by his parents.  IWe are so used to thinking it was just young  men who fought,  but in 1915,  as a previously serving soldier,  Edward at the age of 44 was called up to return to the army  and he joined   the Liverpool Scottish Regiment (reflecting his Scottish heritage).    He served  in France, but was gassed and injured at the Battle of the  Somme. After the Battle of Delville Wood, where he was wounded in action, he was invalided back to England and hospitalised.   His daughter Ella related how   he went to meet her  at the school gates and she did not recognize him, as his weight had dropped from 15 stone to nine stone.

 Family life proved unhappy following his discharge. One cannot  help reflect that having to return to active service at the age of 44 and face the harsh physical and mental conditions of the World War One battlefields took its toll on Edward, as on so many soldiers.   He died in 1923 aged 52.    His wife Lily survived him by a further 40 years and married for a second time. 

 

 

 Two of my favourite family photographs of my grandparents and family, taken 1916:  William Danson and Alice English and  below Alice with daughters Edith and Kathleen (my mother), young Harry and baby Billy.  Granddad was awarded the Military Medal for "gallantry in action".   

The happy Danson family 24 years on - my grandparents in the middle with daughters Edith, Peggy (born after WW1,  son Harry and my mother Kathleed. nly son Billy is missings erving in the Navy.  c.1941.

More famiies together 

 

 My cousin's Oldham family of Blackpool, Lancashire c.1900.  In the 1901 census, Joseph  Prince Oldham (in the front row) ,  son of William Oldham and Sarah Prince,  was described as a self-employed carter and coal merchant. Also in the  household were Joseph's  wife Mary Alice, his 20 year old son John William and  two  young daughters Sarah Alice, and Edith,  plus also mother-in-law Mary Ann Knowles. 

Family photograph c.1909 of John  William Oldham, with his wife Mary Jane Bailey, my grandfather's first cousin, with baby Hilda 

and older daughter Elsie. The couple  faced tragedy when their youngest daughter Hilda  died aged 6 in 1915.  Elsie has been a familiar figure on my blog, later running the family business, on the death of her father,  and working as a hairdresser under the name of "Elise". 

 

Four generation's of the Riley family of Fleetwood, Lancashire.  At the centre Jane Riley, nee Rawcliffe, sister of my great grandmotehr Maria Rawcliffe.  Here with her son George (left) grandson (Jack) and Jack's baby son,  George Rober,t  who sadly did not survive infancy. 

 

 Another Rawcliffe sister - here Alice Mason, nee Rawcliffe with her husband John Mason, youngest child Florence,  and son Harold.

 

For over 10 years I puzzled over  "Who is this striking family group?"   The photograph mounted on heavy dark card,  came to me from  my great aunt Jennie Danson,  Unlike many of Jennie's photographs, she had not written anything on the back - perhaps because of the dark mount, and there was no photographer's name and address  to indicate where it had been taken   But it  must surely be of one of of my great grandmother's sisters - Anne, Jane, Alice, or Jennet?  The composition of the family and ages of the children ruled out Anne, Jane or Jennet. So was  this Alice and John  Mason and family?   This was a mystery.

 

Alice and John had six children born in England, before emigrating ot the USA, where she had a further five more children, three dying in infancy,   It was through my blog that a granddaughter of daughter Florence (above)  made contact - she was my third cousin  and had the very same photograph above.  My blog success story!

 

 

The Mason family with all eight surviving children - 

Top - Robert, Jenny (Jane Elizabeth), Mother Alice, Father John, Harold

Bottom - Thomas,  Margaret Alice, Florence, George and James

Onto my immediate family

My parents on the left with my mother's sister and my father;s brother, 1938.  

 

  A typical 1950s family - Mum, Dad, myself and my brother . 

 

 

Relaxing in our garden in Edinburgh, 1960s. 

 

 

 

                                      My brother and I - 1948.  

 

 

Many years later c. 2015 

 

 

A family group taken in August 1965, before I set out for to work in the USA for a year on a library exchange scheme.  

My father with my brother and myself and our two daughters.  1998.  Mum was unfortunately in care and could not make the visit.

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photographs.

 

Click HERE to find out what other bloggers have

spotted in this week's prompt photograph.

 

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