Stories from Accrington ......

 This is one of the images which for me sums up the 1920s.

It comes from a French postcard and was sent to Ethel and John Fisher who were on holiday in Scarbororough.

They were staying at the quaintly named Sea Dogs Guest House, 159 Columbus Ravine.

The property is still there and looks still to be in the business of offering bed and breakfast to holiday makers.

I like the idea that even though you were away by the sea you could still get a picture postcard, which in this case came from the mother of Ethel.

I don’t yet know her name but she lived in Benjamin Row which was at the bottom of Rams Clough Lane outside Accrington.  

Today the row is still there and to get to it you will have to traverse a narrow twisty lane which drops down from Broadfield.

And there for now the search for Ethel’s mum runs into the buffers, but it is early days.

I may have had a bit more luck with Ethel and John, who I think were living at 162 Willow Lane Accrington in 1930.

I say this because despite not finding them on the census records, there is a John Fisher who died on September 9th 1930.  According to the Probate records he lived at Willow Lane and left £455, to a “Harold Fisher, clogger”.

There is no mention of Ethel but the connection with Accrington is convincing enough to suppose a link.

And there is a John Fisher listed on the 1921 census, described as a widower and living with his son and daughter.  

They were Rose Ellen and Harold both in the early thirties, and Harold was a clogger working for the Co-op while Mr. Fisher was employed by Lupton Brothers of Accrington as a “iron pattern maker”.

Lupton’s appear to be a small firm employing five others.

All which offers up plenty of further research, but this all might fall down on the date the postcard was sent. For while we have the day, time and month, the year is obscured.

I read it as 1929 or at a pinch the following year, but none of that is possible if Edith died before 1921, so back to the drawing board and historical records.

Leaving me just to ponder on a date using the image of the fashionable young women.

Location; Accrington & Scarborough

Picture; picture postcard, circa 1920s, from the collection of David Harrop

Uncovering the story of Clarie

Now this is someone I will never  be able to put a name to.

Nor can I date the photograph or have any confidence in saying where it was taken.

But I think there may be a clue in the cap badge which while it isn’t very clear I think  belongs to the East Lancashire Regiment.

And I am a little more certain about that because this photograph comes with two others sent by Herbert to his wife.  Someone has added in a different hand “11th (S) BN. E. LANCS REGT”

Of course this maybe a mistake but there is one further connection because on both cards Herbert refers to a Clarie.

And this is the name writtten on the back of our card

Not much I know but interesting enough to want to know more especially as the 11th Service Battalion of  the East Lancashire Regiment was formed in Accrington on September 2 1914 and are more popularly  known as the Accrington serving first in Egypt and then in France.

They took heavy casualties during the Battle of the Somme but as for Herbert I have no idea.  There is no surname or address and so for now that pretty much is that.

It was uncommon for young women or wives to have their photograph taken wearing part of their sweet heart's or husband's uniform but the identity of this soldier is now lost.

And our young women may instead be Herbert's wife who was called Sophia.

I just don't know.

The handwriting identifying it as Clarie is in the same handwriting as that of the “11th (S) BN. E. LANCS REGT” which may mean I am on a loop to no where attempting to fit clues together which someone in the past got wrong.

But it is also possible that she was from Manchester who had a sweet heart in the East Lancs.

The photograph is part of a larger collection of picture postcards from Manchester in the possession of David Harrop.

David will be mounting an exhibition marking the centenary of the battle this July in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

Picture; of an unknown young woman possibly called Clarie, date unknown from the collection of David Harrop