What was so casually lost ….. is found

“We have just found a box of old photos at 515-521 Barlow Moor Road; I haven’t had a good look at them yet .... but I immediately thought you would find them interesting”.

It’s the stuff that makes for stories, and with some luck and a heap of research the photos may do just that

Or they may lead nowhere but the fun will be in the looking.

515-521 Barlow Moor Road is currently being redeveloped by Armistead Property who have a track record in renovating and restoring old properties and giving them a new lease of life.*

And with all old buildings you can never be sure what secrets have lain undisturbed for generations.

I still remember the story of the  parcel discovered under the floorboards of a house and the momentary excitement of the crew who found it, leading to wild speculation of buried treasure.  

So sure, were the team of builders that something valuable and perhaps historic was contained in the parcel wrapped in old newspaper that they took the find to the museum, only to discover that the discovery was nothing more earth shattering than a cheese sandwich left by a carpenter under a newly laid floor in 1910.  

Just why it was left under the floor space will remain a mystery, but I suspect we are dealing with nothing more than one worker’s lunch left in the house, only to be lost when a fellow builder put down the timber floor.

All of which brings me to the Barlow Moor Road collection.

They consist of fourteen pictures, found in a battered wooden box, and range from images of smart cars, and equally smart “young things” on holiday to a group of men in uniform and the Grand Hotel Oceanic.  

At first glance there is little detail which could lead to clues upon which to fasten some research, but I will persevere.

I had high hopes of the Grand Hotel Oceanic but I guess they will have been and will be many hotels that claim the name.  The first I came across was in Paris and is one of those typical Parisian builds which are narrow, with a courtyard and stretch to seven floors with those elegant iron balconies. 

Alas it isn’t ours.  Ours is an ugly undistinguished modernist box.

But a further search may lead somewhere.

I can’t even be sure of a date or dates for the fourteen, but we will narrow that down and in time may come up with more.

We shall see.  

Location; 515-521 Barlow Moor Road

Pictures; Barlow Moor Road collection, undated

*Armistead Property, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/