Box Hill, Surrey.

Box Hill was, and still is, a popular destination for day-trippers travelling out of London by train. A note on the back of this says it was a 'picnic', but the flowers maybe indicate a special ocassion. A wedding perhaps?

Found Album

A £20 bargain I found in a house clearance shop in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. It contained 21 cabinet portraits and two photographs of buildings, dating from the 1870s to 1910, taken in different parts of England and Scotland, and one from San Francisco. Several individuals appear more than once. I assume it was a family album, though the content doesn't pin it down to any one locality. See them all here.

Limpsfield, Surrey. August 1899.

J.S., Doris & Marjorie. In the bottom photo they are in a field of hops. I like the way all their stuff is piled on the pram. Everybody who has ever owned a baby and pram or pushchair has done this.

Women and cars

The Sepia Saturday theme tomorrow is women and cars. Here are two I've found in flea markets. The car in the top picture is a Wolseley with Surrey registration. They've stopped for drinks.

Mickleham, Surrey.

Nothing much has changed here, except that the post office has closed and cars have invaded. One commenter pointed out that modern masonry paints and road surfaces have 'detextured' English villages. I think he has a point. The bloke who runs the village shop now has a copy of this picture and is convinced that the children have been pasted on by some 100 year old photo trickery.


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Lagonda works. 1915.

A note on the reverse says "Lagonda 1915". Lagonda cars were manufactured at Egham Hythe in Berkshire. The company was founded by an American, Wilbur Gunn, who named it after a river near his home town in Ohio. I was disappointed that I couldn't see anything in this photo to connect it with cars. The only objects visible are a line of what I took to be paint tins in a row behind the men. However, a little research reveals that Lagonda were not manufacturing cars in 1915, they had converted to war production of.....artillery shells. Does that explain those cylindrical objects?