Photographs I've gleaned from flea markets, junk shops and sometimes ebay. The cheaper the better. Anything with a story that can be extracted from hand written notes, location research, local histories, census records......anything. A small band of fellow enthusiasts worldwide have helped me with many of these. Of course there are always mysteries that defy research, but there's even a story inside these. All images can be viewed at super-size on Flickr.

Monday, 6 June 2011

Methwold Fruit Colony, Norfolk, 1890s. A utopian experiment.

Methwold fruit colony, Norfolk.

A photo I bought off an ebay seller in Malta. The photographer's stamp identifies him as E. Freund of Methwold Fruit Colony. A colony? There had to be a story behind this. Founded in 1889 near the Norfolk village of Methwold, the colony was an idealistic 'back to the land' communal experiment led by London businessman Robert Goodrich. It was intended to be a self-sufficient co-operative of fruit growers. Initial efforts were enthusiastic and the colony even published its own newspaper "The Methwold Express". However, they lacked the resources to market their produce properly and were never able to make a profit. The colony faded away in 1917 and is now just a residential village called Brookville.

There is the 'ghost' of a dog or cat in the corner of this one.

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