Pictures with no stories ........ no 2 .... off in the Chara

I was way too young to have ever travelled on a “chara” but our dad drove one back in the late 20s and early 30s, and we have the pictures to prove it.

And here is another full of smiling holiday makers out on a trip.

There will be someone who can describe the type, make and date of the vehicle and perhaps even suggest a location.

Chara’s were often only brought out in the summer and placed on the chassis which at other times doubled up as a lorry transporting goods.

They were by all accounts pretty uncomfortable things to travel but that said they offered up the promise of fun and new places.

Sadly there in no date on the back or a hint of where our people were and not even a comment.

So that is it.


Location; unknown







Picture; from the collection of Ron Stubley

Pictures with no stories ........ no 1 on a beach sometime before now

Now I am fascinated by stories  and more than that the way that a photograph can offer up a story even when there is apparently nothing there.

And this is one of those.

It comes from a collection of picture postcards which were found by a friend of Ron Stubley who looked after them and recently passed them over to me.

They are a mixed bag, consisting of saucy seaside cards, more than a few of holiday destinations and some which are of a family but have no names and no dates.

Many were sent to addresses in north Manchester from resorts on the Welsh coast and that is about it.

Over the last few months quite a few of them have featured on the blog but until now I have not used those which have no means of identifying the place or the people.

And that brings me to this one.  We are clearly on a beach with a pier and judging by other cards in the collection I think the date will be sometime in the 1930s.

Someone may well recognise the pier in the distance, although I am not counting on it.

For me the story is just that the picture perfectly offers up a day at the seaside.

That mix of sand, sandwiches, warm beer, tepid tea and very cold sea water.

Location; unknown






Picture; somewhere on a beach, date unknown, from the collection of Ron Stubley

“Come .... where the sun shines longer” .............. down at the holiday camp

Now we never went to holiday camps which had nothing to do with my parents being sniffy.

It was just that Dad worked in the tourist trade driving people across Europe on sight seeing tours and was away from Easter till September.

And given that there were five of us I rather think mum never fancied taking us all away to a holiday camp.

That said my mate Jimmy always went every year with his mum, dad and brother Fred and always came back sun tanned with heaps of stories about the entertainments, the food and the sheer fun of the place.

They usually went to Butlins, and I think preferred Margate.

The first holiday camps had started up before the Great War but the real growth was during the 1930s and in the years after the Second World War.

The big players were Warner, Butlins and Pontins who played to their strengths offering an all in holiday which was affordable with no hidden charges.

But with the development of cheap foreign packages in the sun the traditional British holiday became less attractive and many were closed.

And last week my friend Andy showed me this brochure from Campers Ltd which family regularly visited

They had three camp sites, one in Kent a second on the Isle of Wight and a third in Norfolk.

I am hoping that this will be the first of a series and that subsequent posts will include memories and descriptions of all the camps.

Location; 1950s and 60s





Pictures pages from “Come .... where the sun shines longer,” Campers Ltd Brochure, circa 1960, from the collection of Andy Robertson

This year we will holiday at home

Now here is one I couldn’t resist.

And for all of us who have at times pondered on saving the holiday money and staying at home our friend on the deck chair with fan, fish and paddling pool might just have hit on something.

Picture, “WITH A LITTLE IMAGINATION YOU CAN TAKE YOUR SEASIDE HOLIDAY AT HOME, from the series, Economy Hints, date unknown, by Tuck and sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

A house in Harpurhey, the holiday in Weston-super-Mare and the start of a story

Now I will have to take advice on this one but I think Beach Lawns at Weston-Super-Mare may be all that is left of a trail I have been on for the last half an hour.

It began and looks as if it will end with the detail in this picture postcard which was sent to Mr and Mrs Turner c/o Mrs Hanman at 15 Oxton Street, Harpurhey in the August of 1933.

Eve wrote to the Turner’s  "Dear Eddie and Bessie.

Having a very nice holiday.  Had a visit from Flo and Frank yesterday.  How’s this for a lovely spot?”

And as you do I went looking for Oxton Street but it has vanished and appears to have had a short existence.  It dates from some time at the beginning of the last century but is now no more.

Nor without a surname will I be able to find Eve or for that matter Fred and Flo, leaving only an outside chance that the Turner’s or Mrs Hanman will turn up in the historical record.

Not that I will be deterred, there are always the city’s burial records, the directories and  the census returns.

The 1939 Register had quite a few Turner’s so with patience and a bit of luck something might come out of the shadows.

So for now I am back with Beach Lawns.  We did Weston some years ago but I have no recollection of this bit so I shall have to ask my friend Lois who has lived there on and off for a long time.

Location; Weston-Super-Mare and Harpurhey

Picture; Beach Lawns at Weston Super Mare, circa 1933 from the collection of Ron Stubley

At the seaside in 1906

In the light of what was to come later this 1906 seaside picture postcard seems very tame.  

Sadly neither of the two in the collection has a message on the back which given the subject matter would have been interesting.

So for now we shall just have to be content with L.Thackery’s painting and an acknowledgement that this was about as far as the publisher Tuck & Sons were prepared to go.

Picture; in Camera, from the series, At the Seaside, 1906, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

On the beach in 1902

So as summer approaches its end what better than another postcard.

Here are those Edwardian beauties, followed by It’s Ripping in Folkestone, the Dainty Fish Maid and preceded by the all together very risque view from a tent wall.*

They are all from that wonderful treasure trove of postcards produced by Tuck & Sons, and available to view at Tuck DB.**

Here can be found pretty much everything spanning the late 19th and 20th centuries ranging from buildings, street scenes, celebrities and of course a tranche of seaside posters some humorous, some bordering on the naughty and some just plain sentimental.

But they are a powerful insight into a lost world, and one that conveys not just the physical appearance of Britain and elsewhere but also some of the values, and prejudices of the time.

All of which brings me back to the two girls on the beach from the series Seaside Glamour.

I am not quite sure whether the two girls are the same, and that we are being presented with the realities of bathing on an Edwardian beech with the wish of what might be, or just two bathing beauties out for a dip on a sunny day.

What makes the card interesting is that it was photographed in Austria and marketed by Tuck in France as well as Britain.

It is one of  six which not only border on the risque but explore the murky world of voyeurism with three of the series focusing on Peeping Toms and the efforts the of the young woman to be free of these unwanted intrusions.

So in one, we have “Man with camera peers over rocks at two girls,” in another “Four girls in the sea splash man with a camera,” and in the third “Six girls in sea as a peeping Tom has fallen after breaking a post.”  Not to be outdone the fourth has “Two girls scared by a barking dog” which may also hint at the problem the two women have given that their clothes are on the bank by the barking dog.

What makes this card all the more intriguing is that it bears a French stamp and the reverse reveals that it was printed in France.

Of course within a few decades these will seem tame and merely an oddity but back in 1903 they were just the ticket for that friend in the factory or the office, although I doubt that mother would have approved.

For her this image of Manchester’s City Art Gallery might just have been more appropriate it dates from the year before and bears the logo of the American YMCA.

The card was made and marketed in Britain so I wonder about the American connection.

No doubt someone will tell me.



Picture; Two Girls, from the series, Seaside Glamour, 1903, and Manchester City Art Gallery, from the series MANCHESTER, BY C.E. FLOWER, 1902,  issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

*Raphael Tuck & Sons, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Raphael%20Tuck%20and%20Sons%20Ltd

**Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

“Having a Ripping Time at Folkestone”

“Having a Ripping Time at Folkestone” is the sort of a line you could expect in a parody of the early 20th century. It would not be out of place in any of a number of shows, and films lampooning the period.

But here it is complete with a young couple gazing out at the pier and all it had to offer.

Picture; Having a Ripping Time at Folkestone, from the series, At the Seaside, 1912, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

At the seaisde in 1902 with "A Dainty Fishing Maid"

A Dainty Fisher Maid, pretty much is what passed for a pin up from the seaside in 1902. 

I doubt that our young Fisher Maid was very close to the sea when the picture was taken.

But I doubt that was a major consideration for the young holidaymakers who paid the price of the card and sent it on its way to Manchester, London or Birmingham.

The comment was written in the space below.

Sadly this one was not sent, and so we will never know what was on the mind of the person who bought it or for that matter what message they might have wanted to share.

Tuck & Son who marketed the card ran a number of different "Seaside series, some a little more sedate, others full of humour and some like this.

Picture; A Dainty Fisher Maid, from the series, Seaside, 1902, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

On holiday with Mrs Fisher

We never went to a holiday camp which was nothing to do with the idea it was just we never did.

That said I often felt just a little envious of my friend Jimmy O’Donnell whose parents always went to Butlins through the 1950s into the 60s.

He would come back suntanned and full of stories of the entertainments, the food and the sheer fun of the place.

So with that in mind I fell on this picture from Ken Fisher’s collection of his grandmother who is sitting on the chair and staring back at us.

I would love to know where we are and the clue might be in the lettering on the building in the distance.

It is only a partial name or word but could be Capstan.

And that might help in trawling the holiday camps near Blackpool.

So far I have drawn a blank but there is a modern holiday company operating with that name.

Mrs Fisher regularly went to Blackpool so perhaps this is a holiday camp somewhere on the edge of the town.

There is no mistaking the  accommodation in their neat rows facing each other with the neatly trimmed lawn in front.

The first holiday camps had started up before the Great War but the real growth was during the 1930s and in the years after the Second World War.

The big players were Warner, Butlins and Pontins who played to their strengths offering an all in holiday which was affordable with no hidden charges.

And looking at the lady with the bike, its clear that the modern upmarket version often centred in woodlands has nothing new in providing push bikes to explore the resort.

But with the development of cheap foreign packages in the sun the traditional British holiday became less attractive and many were closed.

Now I don’t know when this picture was taken but I think it will be the 1950s just at the time that Jimmy was off on his Butlins break.

So while I never got to a holiday camp, Ken’s picture is the nearest I will come to a holiday camp.

And just after I posted the story, Ken got back in touch telling me that, "it was taken at Butlins Skegness in 1957, the lady on the bike was my Mam Edna and the lady looking through the bike was my sister Dot, also on the holiday was my Dad , Trevor who was Dot's Husband and their son Paul who was my nephew.

It was the best holiday I had, with great memories, but sadly I'm the only one left."

As for the building at the end I have no idea.  And that just rounds off the story perfectly, and just reminded me I should have asked Ken first!

Location; Butlins Skegness

Picture; Mrs Fisher and friends, date unknown courtesy of Ken Fisher