The woman in a shawl at the foot of Oliver Cromwell in the summer of 1914

It’s the last of my Judge postcards. 

Like the others in the series which Fred Judge took in the summer of 1914 it has much going for it not least because it isn’t the standard view.

Instead we have the statue of Oliver Cromwell matched by the Cathedral behind and balanced by the building to our extreme right.

But for me it is also the figures he has captured sitting on the steps.

There is the mixed group of boys including one in school uniform and beside him what might be a paper seller and the others, two of whom are engaged in a game.

And there is the woman in the shawl not at all interested in the camera deep in thought or perhaps listening to the chap next to her.

She is interesting because you rarely see women in shawls in post cards of the period.

They were there in the city and were often the subject of pictures taken on the poorer streets.

She makes a fitting contrast to the more elegant woman with their fine hats and expensive looking clothes off in the distance.

I wish I knew more about her, or for that matter the group standing by the tram, which is heading up to Market Street.

I can’t be sure but I rather think it is a Sunday sometime in the summer, partly because this is from the same series of pictures Fred Judge took around Manchester and may well be the next after the one on Cross Street.

In his photograph of Albert Square from Cross Street the time is just before three in the afternoon and here beside Oliver Cromwell the Cathedral clock is just coming up to a quarter to four.

Which was just enough time for him to stroll down and set up here.
The crowd by and large are oblivious to his presence and just get on with the day, some no doubt heading on to Bell Vue which is the final destination of our tram.


Picture; from the collection of V & G Harris