Saturday 19 January 2013

Sepia Saturday - 160

I thought this week I might share a few family snaps of different methods of transport.

This first photo is the only one I have of one of my Grandfather's brothers.

This a photograph of the Coronation Parade taken 2nd June 1953. The reverse of the photograph is written by late Great Aunt Dorothy May nee Butcher. The man holding the horse is her brother, my Great Uncle Dick, who was christened Percy in Wanborough in 1906.

My Uncle moved to Horley with his wife Molly nee BEST, so it could have been taken in Horley, but a hunch tells me it is Manor Farm at Guildford.


This photo I may have shared before. This was taken in Guildford in 1968 when the River Wey flooded its bank. My Grandparents are in fact looking out of the window and can just be seen. (Copyright of this photo goes to Allan)

The final photo was given to me by my Grandfather's cousin, James Butcher. Apparently it is of "One of the Crook Grandmothers". The Crook family were originally, I have established from London, but they moved South to Guildford, where they farmed in Worplesdon outside of Guildford. The Crook family often intermarried with part of the Butcher family, not always too successfully!




Taking part in Sepia Saturday

30 comments:

  1. I love old pictures! These were fantastic, and I loved the one with the lady in the hat. Thanks for sharing these.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. I tend to join in most weeks and share either photos from my family collection or those from a project I did about my home town (Guildford in Surrey England)

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  2. That flood is quite something! So who took the picture and where were they standing??

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    1. Thanks Wendy. The person who took the window was Allan who was the son in law of the lady who lived at number 8, which was diagonally opposite from my Grandparents at number 17. He took it from a bedroom window and my Grandparents were looking out of their bedroom window!

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  3. How did Guildford fare for floods this year? Somehow I can't envisage flooding happening there. That picture with the lady and the dog in the horse and trap is something special.

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    1. I think after the floods of 1968 they really did put in place some robust plans to prevent it further. At the time my Mum worked at Plummer Roddis (now Debenhams) and they were also flooded. The floods occurred then because of the locks not being attended to properly.

      Immediately behind the row of houses on the right of the photo (where my Grandparents lived) is the River Wey, which does still flood. I recall during the 1980s - around 87 the water came across the bank and rose that it crossed the fence at the rear of the garden and then came up the garden. It got as far as the back steps. It was close.

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  4. I always think of Guildford being on a hill. I don't know wht because I've fished the Wey and the wey Nav often enough. But, whenever I go there I seem to be slogging it uphill.

    Is the Policeman real? His Helmet looks too small and his nose too large. Maybe just the angle. When you say the Crook/Butcher marriages were not always too successful; do you mean in terms of relationship or breeding?

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    1. Hello Mike,

      Guildford is on a hill - the High Street on one side and the Mount on the other with the Wey and Wey Nav in the middle!

      I think this was a parade for the Coronation, so no I don't think the policeman is real.

      As to the marriages there was too many on this particular Cousin's side that was between the Crook and Butcher family and the lack of success was with breeding. Indeed, one of the females on this particular line - My Grandfather's cousin spent most of her life in various hospitals - that Victorian mentality for dealing with different. I am not too sure what the official diagnosis was to her admission, and I would like to find out. A fact that I had not thought of until I pulled out the photo for this post.

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  5. I sure wouldn't want to be driving around in all that high water. The dog looks proud to be sitting in the cart. Great photos.

    Kathy M.

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    1. The dog does look happy, but the horse looks a little under nourished, or is that me?

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    2. I had to go back and look, and I agree, the horse does look a bit bony. Such a bunch of dogs in the cart! The first thing I thought was how bumpy the ride would be, or would it?

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  6. Uncle Dick looks almost like he's wearing a disguise. He's leading such a beautifully groomed horse.

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    1. Of all my Grandfather's brothers he was the less jovial one! so I can image that he felt uncomfortable at such a parade. The horse he was very proud of.

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  7. Wow, what special photos these are! Hope everyone was okay during it. At least the dogie was okay! The first photo man on the left has quite a cool hat on himself!

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  8. I like the last photo. At first I though there was only one dog. I didn't notice the other dogs until I enlarged it.

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  9. The Coronation parade photo looks bizarre.

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    1. Yes, Brett it was the 1950s after all! - I wonder what the rest of the parade was like.

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  10. Love the first photo. The horses were huge weren't they.

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    1. They were big! All references to "The farm" in my family history refers to Manor Farm at Guildford where my family farmed from 1930. The farm was where the University of Surrey stands now. There was two other horses, looked after by my Grandfather's other brother, Arthur. Those were called Dolly and Jack, but sadly no photographs. Pre 1930 the family farmed at Manor Farm Wanborough with a short interlude at Strawberry Farm Worplesdon.

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  11. My first thought when I saw your Uncle Dick was that I looked at Groucho Marx :)
    As for the flood in Guildford, I hope your grandparents did not live on the ground floor...

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    1. My grandparents had the whole house, so what they had not moved upstairs was damaged. The army was drafted in to alert the residents that the river was going to flood. By the time they found out the water was already coming up the garden!

      They lived upstairs for 3 days. No evacuation then! The story goes that after 3 days my Grandmother was fed up of not having a cup of tea. Without my grandfather realising she had gone downstairs to put the kettle on. He heard a bag and wondered what it was and a short while later my Grandmother came back clutching two cups of tea.

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    2. Important things first! :)

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  12. Wonderful photographs : the vehicles are so much more interesting than the stuff you get these days.

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    1. They were indeed Alan, although my husband has spent hours recently looking at a different car for us and still hasn't decided. Personally I suggested we get a horse and cart as they are even lower on emissions! I received an unimpressed look!

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  13. Ah yes you've shared that wonderful parade picture before - wasn't he 'under arrest' ? The flood picture is interesting too especially as your grandparents are in it.

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    1. Oh yes Marilyn I remember now. My memory.....it's not what it was!

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  14. I love the idea of your grandmother making her cup of tea regardless... a girl has to get her priorities right! I'm with her. A great collection of photographs.

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    1. Absolutely! - My Grandmother was pretty set in her ways so I can imagine how irritated she was having her routine changed. Even though, I am with her -a girl must have tea!

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  15. great photos Julie. Love the white fluffy feet on the Clydesdale. Couldn't work out what the man in uniform was holding then realised it was behind him. perhaps the horse in the cart was old rather than under nourished? Great to have a pic of the grandmother (yours?) in the buggy. That was some flood. I was xurious about the marriages- unsuccessful emotionally or in terms of offspring?

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    1. Thanks for telling me the type of breed of horse it was, I am not a horsy person! Yes, the horse might have been old, I had not considered that.

      Yes, the family intermarried too much - well this branch did. My Grandfather's cousin's branch was the most affected - too many inter marriages resulting in issues with offspring.

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