Wheelwomen - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday  photograph features a group  c.1900  standing proudly beside their bicycles.  The prompt made  made me take a look at the topic of women on wheels - or as, one journalist in the 1890's called them, "wheelwomen".

                              

"Velocipedes" were an early form of bicycle, followed by the penny farthing and the boneshaker.

   

The introduction of the "safety bicycle" brought in the first hey days for leisure cycling in the 1890's, with women not going to be left behind. For women, cycling came to represent a freedom they had not experienced before and the activity quickly became associated with the wider movement of women's emancipation.

But there were public outcries at the prospect of these changes in the social norm with much of the criticism focusing on women's dress - notably the new style of bloomers and knickerbockers. these offered more freedom for movemen than women's usual restrictive dresses. These fashions became the subject of ridicule in cartoon of the time.

 

Newspapers of the day ** abound with letters, articles and reports on the vision of women riding around the countryside.  In 1894, the Society of Cyclists called for  "Rational Dress for Wheelwomen"An angry letter condemned "A young woman who spends most of her time in riding on a man's bicycle, has a good deal to learn in respect of simplicity and neatness of attire".  A clergyman refused to give communion to women who turned up for church in bloomers or knickerbockers.

However some doctors said firmly that, "As those best qualified to judge, they were almost unanimous in declaring that the average standard of health among women, who cycle had shown an appreciable elevation."

So this was the image portrayed in advertisements and posters that conveyed a sense of fun and freedom. with illustrations of happy cyclist enjoying the fresh air and exercise.

As one protagonist said  "A most exciting and delightful mode of travel."

          

Images above courtesy of Pixabay.  Sources of quotes:  Find My Past British Newspapers Online

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Below cycling photographs from my local and family history group Auld Earlston :   

 

 

       Three photogrpahs of women cyslists in Earlston in the Scottish Borders.

  

 

But what of my ancestors - next to no photographs exist of them on bikes. My grandfather cycled or walked everywhere until he died. For years, my aunt cycled in all weathers more than five miles to her work as a teacher on a bike with a basket on the front handle bars. When I came to get my first bike, the basket like hers was a "must have" item, along with a bell.

Here is my husband's great Aunt Pat who during  the Second World War rode on her bicycle to work with the Fire Service in Kent on the south coast.

Fast forward more than 110 years from the first image, and here is my granddaughter in the casual dress of the day, plus the obligatory helmet as "health and safety" considerations reign supreme. What a contrast!

Adapted from a post I first published in 2017. 

 

 

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

 

 

Click HERE to see other writings this week 

from Sepia Saturday bloggers.

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All Aboard the Coach - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday's May theme is  "Travel"  with the first prompt photograph a happy  group  relaxing outside their coach.  Cue for me to look a look back at how groups got around in the past - from coaches  and charabancs, to horse drawn carriages and stagecoaches.

 

 A happy group of people in Earlston, Scottish Borders, looking forward to their coach trip to Carlisle, the  city just over the border into England.  The year is 1947 - so it must have been a much welcomed event , just after the restrictions and rigours of wartime life. 

Here I am at the start of a big adventure - taking a jounrey around the  USA  on a Greyhound Bus, on the offer their offer of "99 days travel for $99".  The date  - summer 1966,  as I finished my year long stay in Cambridge, Mass.   as a trainee librarian on an exchange scheme.
 

Looking back to the age of the Charabanc 

  

I like the image  as a happy holiday photograph, (notice the little girl standing up to be photographed),   though  again I wonder how safe I would find the vehicle with so many people on board  I could imagine someone might need to get out and push, if going up hills!  

 

I knew next to nothing about this photograph. It was in the collection of my Great Aunt Jennie Danson  of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, and judging by the style of dress e.g. cloche hats it must have been taken in the 1920's. There was no inscription on the reverse, but the photographer/publisher was identified as Arthur Hadley, Photographer, Ramsey, Isle of Man. This could be a clue, as one of Jennie's eight brothers, Albert, worked on the Isle of Man ferry between Fleetwood, Lancashire and the Isle of Man.  And on the side of the charabanc is the famous three legged man that became the island's badge.

 

Another charabanc of the same period in the collection of my local heritage group, Auld Earlston.   To me it has an air of a vehicle cobbled together from various spare parts and  indicates an even more precarious jounrey for its passengers on crowded seats!

To go back some twenty years earlier to a horse-drawn carriage.

The date  is 1907 and  Earlston Parish Church Choir is setting   off from the Red Lion Hotel in the village  to drive to Yarrow Manse in Selkirkshire -  according to the Distances website a distance of some 29 miles over what would be a hilly, twisting  route.   

Hopefully it would be a dry day as there was no protection from the elements.     rk for part of the route and and then by waggonette to Yarrow.

 

The road today through the Yarrow valley

They must have got there  safely,  for here they are relaxing, with some hats off, outside Yarrow Manse.  

Stagecoaches - Romantic  v. Reality,

 When we look at the Images of stagecoaches on Christmas cards,   they look colourful, dashing and rather romantic, but what was the reality like for our ancestors traveling 180 years ago?

One of the many beautiful wall paintings you see on the outside of buildings in Austria. 

 

This image  of stagecoach travel has been   perpetuated by many writers including Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.  However Charles Dickens, in "David Copperfield" published in 1850,  painted a rather different picture of the reality of a winter stagecoach journe

 

"How well I recollect the wintry ride! The frozen particles of ice brushed from the blades of grass by the wind and borne across the face; the hard clatter of the horses' hoofs beating a tune upon the ground;  the stiff-tilted soil,   the snowdrifts, lightly eddying in the chalk pit as the  breeze ruffled it;  the smoking team stopping to breathe on the hill top and shaking their bells musically,.........."

  A pub sign taken at at Greenwich,  London

 

Stagecoaches were public service vehicles designed specifically for passengers and running to a published schedule.  Eight passengers could be packed inside, with others sitting at the back of the coach and the poorest passengers atop along with the luggage.

Contemporary newspaper reports of the time present a graphic picture of the perils facing passengers and  (and pedestrian) alike.

 

"The Border Watch" - 19 November 1846: 

“A SLOW COACH. – The Edinburgh and Hawick coach, which left Princes Street, Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon at 4pm  did not reach the Bridge Inn, Galashiels, until about 10pm; thus accomplishing the distance of thirty-two miles in the astonishing period of six hours!   

 The coachman did his duty well with whip and voice, constantly urging forward his jaded steeds, and employing the box seat passenger to assist him with a spare thong.

But it was all of no avail. The animals would not move one foot faster than another. Up hill or down hill there was little perceptible difference, and several times the vehicle came to a dead halt, almost on a level.

The coach was full from Edinburgh, but a passenger having been let down on the road, another person was taken up. In spite of the loud remonstrances of the passengers, a second was buckled on behind, and a third was allowed standing room beside him. It appears there is now no restriction as to the number a stage coach may carry, and consequently three poor miserable horses were forced to drag, throughout a weary stage of fifteen miles, a heavy coach loaded with eighteen or twenty persons."

 "The Kelso Chronicle" - 16 June 1837: 

"ACCIDENT. – On Tuesday evening when the coach from Kelso had passed Ord, the reins broke, and the driver left his seat, and went along the pole to recover them. His foot slipped, and he fell between the pole and the horses to the ground. Fortunately, the wheels passed on both sides of him, and he escaped with no other injury than a slight blow to the head.The horses set off at rapid pace, and ran through Tweedmouth. The passengers kept their seats, and the horses while running furiously along the bridge, were stopped by a young man who, with great personal risk, seized the horses’ head.  Had they not been stopped, in all probability, from the speed with which they were proceeding, the coach would have been upset at the turn of Bridge Street.  The conduct of the young man deserves great praise.”

"The Kelso Chronicle" -  4 October 1844:

“WONDERFUL ESCAPE. – As the Defiance Coach was leaving the town on Friday last, a girl, about 10 years of age,  who was hastily crossing the High Street, and not perceiving the coach, ran in betwixt the fore and hind horses, by which she was struck down, when the horses and coach went over her, to the horror of the spectators, who could do nothing to save her. The wheels on the one side passed over one of her legs, bruising it most severely in two places, while the opposite wheels went over the top of her bonnet, close to the head, but without doing any injury. The poor girl’s thigh was also much bruised, apparently by one of the horses’ feet. We are glad to state that she is recovering from the effects of her injuries.”.

 

And Finally 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were on holiday in Warsaw when this stage-coach drove into a square  - but we  never found out what it was all about!

But the iconic image of the stagecoach as a mode of travel still captures our imagination. especially at Christmas time. 

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

Click HERE  to see  more Travel Tales  

from other Sepia Saturday blogger.

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Postscript  - I have had trouble formatting this post  - I have no idea why some of the body text has come out in red, although I had it in my  Blogger draft as black. 

Brothers & Sisters in Twos

 With the last of April's 's "Twosome" theme. I take a look at brothers and sisters together - beginning with an ideal match to the prompt of two brothers.  

 The Danson Brothers

 Two of my great uncles  - Tom and George Danson  in World War One army uniform.

The brothers   were from a large family of eight sons and one daughter, with five sons serving in the army, two  of whom died in the conflict.  

Tom (left) worked as a clerk at Poulton Station, but I know little else about him.  But George's story is a tragic one that I have featured  before on my blog.

 George Danson (1894-1916)   was the favourite uncle of my mother and aunt, perhaps because he was nearest to them in age and took on the role of the big brother.  He worked on W.H. Smith bookstalls at different railway stations, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was killed 16th September 1916 at  the Battle of the Somme,    just a week after his 22nd birthday, buried at The Guards Cemetery at Les Boeufs.

 I was lucky enough to find  on Ancestry his service record, as many were destroyed in bombing in the Second World War. His  medical report stated he was 5'3" tall, weighed 109 lbs. (under 8 stone), with size 34 1/2 chest and he wore glasses - a slight figure to be a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.  

"I had to assist the wounded at a dressing station 
and stuck to it for about 40 hours".
 It's blooming hard work being a stretcher bearer in the field.

On Friday I was in a big bombardment and will say it was like a continual thunder and lightening going off.  As I write there are blooming big guns going off abut 50 yards away every few minutes. Don't I wish that all of us could get home.  Wouldn't that be great, lad,  there's a good time coming and I hope we shall all be there to join in."

Sadly it was not to be.

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The Weston Brothers  

 

 

Unlike my Danson family, I have very few images of my father before he he married.  Left - my father John P. Weston proudly showing off  his first car to his younger brother Charle, c.1936.   During the Second World War Charles experienced the horrors of being a Japanese POW.    

Dad with his older brother Fred c.1960s I feel this is such a happy picture of them.  Dad had graduated to towing a caravan! 

 The Danson Sisters

 

The two little girls at the front  are my Aunt Edith and my mother Kathleen,   taken around 1911 in what I was told was a procession to mark Empire Day.  I love their frilly dresses, little boots and large hats.  

Many years on, my mother and aunt, with the Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh in the background. Even  for a causal drive out, it was  hat, court shoes, gloves and large handbag.  My mother must have been around 50 plus years old at this time - what  a contrast to casual wear today.

 

 

My mother and aunt in 1981.  

And Finally - My Brother and I

 

1948  with my baby brother Chris.  My earliest memory, though it is somewhat vague,  is of my Aunt Peggy holding my hand and taking me (at nearly 4 years old)  into a room to see the baby in a Moses basket.  

 

 

  A formal studio photograph  - the  anecdote passed down was the photographer had an awful job getting Chris to stay still.

c.1951 - I am dressed for taking part in the local village gala - in what I remember as a peach coloured dress, and with my hair in ringlets,  with brother Chris looking so angelic here.  

 

 

Much much later  - Chris  and I in 2016, with the River Tweed in the background, near my home in the Scottish Borders. 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Click HERE to see  more Twosomes from other Sepia Saturday blogger.

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Family Pets in Happy Twosomes - Sepia Saturday

 

Continuing the April theme of Twosomes, a look back back at our three cocker spaniels who over thirty years  were part of our family.

 Two  - plus One!

 

Daughter with the first of our three cocker spaniels - very aptly named Beauty

 When Beauty died, we said we were not going through that experience again  of losing a well loved pet, but surreptiously we were scouring the classified adverts in the paper for another dog. The result was  two year old gentle blue roan cocker spaniel Coleen  joined the family.

 

 Two sleeping beauties! 

On the beach at Beadnell on the north Northumberland coast.

 Two plus two - this time with my parents taking a break from a walk in the park.

Colleen died suddenly at seven years old at a time when there were other stresses in the family. We could not imagine family life without a dog and that had to be a cocker spaniel.   So within a few months we had puppy Casmir (Cass) -  - she had such a distinctive orange roan colouring, she became well known around our small town and lived to the grand age of 13.  A pet and great friend of all the family. 

I always thought of Cass as the "princess"  

if she were to star in a Disney animated film.

a

By Loch Etive on the west coast of Scotland.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  It must be love! 

 

Three much loved pets who are a part of our family memories. 

 

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

 

 Click HERE  to discover more twosomes

from other Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

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It All Began on the Dance Floor - Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph show a couple dancing.  There could only be one post from me, that I first published in my early days of blogging - my father’s story of how he met my mother on the dance floor of Blackpool, Lancashire, the seaside Mecca of ballroom dancing in the UK, plus some additional photographs.    

 

 My mother (Kathleen Danon) was born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, a few miles from the north west seaside resort of Blackpool. Mum  and her sister, Edith,  often went dancing in the Winter Gardens Ballroom and in Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

 

Mum in the 1930s

 

 Dad , John Weston, moved to Blackpool in 1936 through his work as a Commercial Traveller.    Here is his account, written in his "Early Memories"  of how he met my mother.

 

 

"One Saturday night I was in the Winter Gardens when I saw a young lady sitting on a settee. She got up and we said "Hello". I tried to find her again in the evening without success, even going to the exit door to watch people leave."  

 

 The Winter Gardens was a major entertainment complex, with theatre, ballroom,  bars etc.  The Empress Ballroom was built in 1896 and with  a floor area of 12,500 square feet (1,160 sq. metres),was one of the largest in the world.  

 

 

Winter Gardens entrance

 

Dad's account continued:  

 

"Two weeks later I was at the Tower Ballroom and who should come along but two ladies - and you have guessed that was your Mum and Aunt. Mum stopped to say "Hello" and we started talking and had a good chat. I asked if she would come to the cinema the next night and offered to come for her and take her home. She agreed. I thought it was rather brave of her to come with me when we had only just met to talk together.   The date was 13th October 1936 and we married 18th April 1938." 

 

 The Ballroom is one of the truly iconic venues of the 19th century with its beautifully decorated ceilings, sparkling chandeliers, ornate balconies  and a stunning sprung dance floor, where you can dance to music played on the famous Wurlitzer organ. 

 

 

 

 

Blackpool Tower was opened in 1894, built   to a height of 518 feet - facts that were drummed into us at school. 

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From that dance floor meeting - Engagement in 1937

This is  the earliest photograph I have of my parents together, taken by the river at Kirby Lonsdale in Cumbria where they got engaged in 1937.  My mother looks very elegant, but how on earth did she negotiate those stepping stones?   

 

Kirby Lonsdale  on the edge of the Lake District is a fascinating small town  with   a mix of  18th-century buildings and stone cottages huddled around quaint cobbled courtyards and narrow alleyways with names such as Salt Pie Lane and Jingling Lane.  The town is noted for the its three span Devil's Bridge, first built across the River Lune c.1370. You catch a glimpse of it here. 

 

Marriage  on 18th April 1938.

 

My parents John Weston and Kathleen (Kay) Danson, 
on their wedding day 18th April 1938

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the only photograph I have of my four grandparents - William Danson & Alice English on the left  and Albert Weston & Mary Barbara Matthews on the right - Taken in the front garden of my grandparents house, fter my parent's wedding in 1938 - with my mother in her going-away outfit. 

 

 

                                                                  

 

My father setting off for war with my mother right, and my aunt left. 

Family Life -  Two plus Two

 

My parents with my brother and myself, c. 1952

 

 

 

 A lovely  photograph of  my parents  in the back garden of our Edinburgh home -ready to go to  my graduation from university in 1965. 

 

 

Dad and I, taken 1965, shortly before I left to work in the USA for a year. 

Mum and I, 1971 

 

 

A Proud Father and a Proud Daughter , July 1971.

 

 In Retirement 

 

In the 1980s

 

In the 1990s

Dad with his granddaughter, late 1990s

Mum  and Dad on their Diamond (60th)  Wedding Anniversary -18th April  1998 with the telegram from  Queen Elizabeth.  Mum sadly died a year later and Dad in 2003, leaving me with many happy memories. 

 

I just wish I had a picture of them on the dance  floor! 

 

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

 

 

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