Just how many accidents can a sea side pier have in its life time?

Now I thought I had finished the Deal series, but no, I was wrong, because yesterday our Colin and Elizabeth sent me this picture.

Most residents and visitors to Deal will I guess give the plaque only a glance. 

After all, if you are local you will know the story of the accident-prone pier, and if you’re not, the story is just  background to what is "a significant local landmark and public amenity offering excellent views of Deal sea front.

It is internationally recognised as an angling venue and features a glass-walled café-bar at the end of the pier".* 

But armed with the plaque, a tourist information board and Dover Council’s account, I can reveal that the pier has had a chequred history.

The construction of the first pier began in 1838, but suffered from cash flow problems, and was opened unfinished, before being destroyed in 1857 by a large storm.

The second was completed in 1864, but seemed to attract ships caught up in storms, with the barque Merle hitting the pier in 1873, the schooner Alliance, in 1884, and a Dutch vessel called the Nora which in 1940,  after repeatedly bashing the pier in a storm, finally went right through it, bringing down 200 feet of ironwork.*

And soon after this last encounter with a rogue ship the pier was blown up by the army.

There is a happy ending, involving a new pier, but that is another story for another time.

In the meantime, you could just follow the link and read the full official story from Dover Council what happened next in 1954.*

Location; Deal

Pictures; at the pier in Deal, 2019, from the collection of Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick

*History Diamond Pier, Dover District Council, https://www.dover.gov.uk/Leisure-Culture-Tourism/Leisure-Facilities/Deal-Pier/History.aspx

Of lifeboats and shingle .............

This will I think be the last of the short series on Deal.

I say that but I have every expectation that our Elizabeth and Colin who live just outside the town, will be back with their camera, and soon I shall have more pictures to write about.

But for now, it’s the Walmer Lifeboat which sits in its 1870s building looking out from the shoreline.

The lifeboat station was established in 1830 and apart from a short break between 1912-1927, it had ben saving those in peril o the sea for one hundred and eighty-nine years.

During that time there have been stories of saved seamen and awards for the teams that risk their lives to save others.

And that just leaves me with the shot of the beach.

I am prepared to be corrected but the picture shows that broad expanse of shingle, which unlike sand is not as nice to sit on.

Location; Deal

Pictures, Deal, 2019, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

The tank, …….. a piece of porcelain …. and the auction house

Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on military history and certainly not the development of the tank during the Great War.

A Mark 1 tank, 1916

But my Wikipedia tells me that the first tank to go into combat with the British army was the “The Mark I, [which] entered service in August 1916, and was first used in action on the morning of 15 September 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Somme Offensive”. 

And no doubt soon after the battle this small piece of porcelain rolled off the production lines and arrived in shops across the country to be snapped up.

I have long been fascinated at the swift way porcelain companies made the transition from making figures of Blackpool Tower, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage and heaps of other “tourist memorabilia, into war time models of tanks, ambulances, planes, and ships.

"The British Tank" circa 1916

And to guarantee sales the companies added a transfer with the name and sometimes the coat of arms of the places where the pieces were marketed.

What is also remarkable is the way so many of them have survived and survived in very good condition.

This one was acquired by my old “posty” friend David Harrop who tells me it comes from Capes Dunn, who are “an established fine art auctioneer, [who have] operated in The North West and Lancashire since 1826, providing auctions and valuations for private and professional clients”. 

City of Carlisle, circa 1916

David added that they were based on Charles Street off Oxford Road, and I rather think there is another story here.

But for now I shall leave it at that, reflecting that stories of the Great War come in many different forms, and wonder on just why the tank carried the name Creme-De- Menthe.

I suspect we might be dealing with an adverting promotion.

We shall see.

Answers  on the back of a beer mat or any other suitable alcoholic connected piece of memorabilia.

Location; the Great War

Pictures; ceramic Mark 1 tank, circa 1916, from the collection of David Harrop, and An early model British Mark I "male" tank, named C-15, near Thiepval, 25 September 1916. The tank is probably in reserve for the Battle of Thiepval Ridge which began on 26 September. The tank is fitted with the wire "grenade shield" and steering tail, both features discarded in the next models, courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

*British heavy tanks of World War I, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_heavy_tanks_of_World_War_I

**Capes Dunn, https://www.capesdunn.com/

Wilbraham Road in 1913 and the first of six images from Raphael Tuck and Sons

There are some images of old Chorlton which just keep cropping up.

Now that I guess is not surprising given that they were commercial photographs which appeared on postcards through the late 19th and into 20th centuries.

And once a company had a winner the image just kept being used.  In some cases they were sold on or offered to local businesses and with the passage of time many were retouched and even given a colour tint.

The longevity of some can be counted in decades, and companies were not averse to reissuing a card for Christmas with a seasonal message, printed over a scene of the township in high summer.

All of which is an introduction to a short series of six pictures issued by Raphael Tuck and Sons in 1913, although each of the actual photographs may be older.

I wrote about Tuck and Sons yesterday and all of our six have appeared in the blog before but together over the next six or so days it will be fun to explore them again and in some cases focus on the messages rather than just the image.

Our first is of Wilbraham Road on that stretch from the Albany/Corkland junction looking down towards Barlow Moor Road.

To our left on the corner is Gable Nook once the doctor’s surgery and next to it the three houses which were bombed in 1940 and replaced twenty years later by the modern post office.

Directly opposite are the two blocks of shops of which the nearest had once been private residences.

And so the message on the back which was sent by Marie to Annie in late 1914.

It begins with the usual pleasantries about Annie’s health but concludes with “hope you are well enough to hear all the war news.”

And that is what lifts this card above the rest and at the same time confirms the importance of this type of source.

We may not be told any more but what a wonderful link with a conflict which has now passed out of living memory, but here is written about as a continuing event.

Pictures; Wilbraham Road, from the series Chorlton-cum-Hardy, issued by Tuck & Sons, November 1913 courtesy of TuckDB http://tuckdb.org/history

Stories with a camera in Deal ….. on a day in April ……… part 5

Somewhere there will be a book which records all those bits of seaside architecture the rest of us take for granted.

Now, I bet there are plenty of images of the iconic buildings from Blackpool Tower to a host of 19th and early twentieth century cast iron piers.

But I wonder how many of those mid twentieth century seaside structures make it into the books.  I doubt many do. 

And if they are photographed hey will be in the form of a holiday snap or one destined for the official tourist guide.

So here is the one in Deal taken by our Liz and Colin earlier in the month.

I don’t have a date, or a name, but someone will, and I hope they make a comment.

In the meantime, I think it is a wonderful example of its type.

Location; Deal

Picture; Deal, 2019, from the collection of Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick

Two picture postcards ... two operas ........ and two young singers .......

Now I am indebted to Tony Goulding for finding these two picture postcards and sending them over to me.

Aileen Davies, circa 1920s

They are of singers in the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, which my Wikipedia tells me "is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The company was revived for short seasons and tours from 1988 to 2003, and with Scottish Opera it later co-produced two productions”*.

And apart from their names and the company that published the cards that is about it.

But a trawl of the internet offered up the biographical details for one of the singers and I travel in hope that I will find out something about the other.

So as yet Aileen Davies remains in the shadows.  

I know she was born in Cornwall in 1902, and died in Edinburgh in 1981, that her father was listed as a Master Mariner and she was married and had a daughter. She appears on several picture postcards, is in National Portrait Gallery and has a brief biography on the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company which records she joined the company in 1923 and performed with them till 1928.**

Aileen Davies, in The Gondoliers 1920s

Ms Winifred Lawson has left more in the way of a digital footprint, including a Wikipedia entry and another in D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.***

Winifred Lawson in Patience, 1920s

She too was active with the company in the 1920s, and again in the 1930s, went on to become Vice President of the Gilbert & Sulivan Society in 1944, and published her autobiography "A Song to Sing-O!," with foreword by Sir Malcolm Sargent, 1955.

I could write more about both of them, but that would only be by lifting my research from other people’s work, so if you want more follow the links.

I am off to search for the post card company, secure now in the knowledge that they date from the mid 1920s.****

Location; 1920s

Pictures; Aileen Davies , and Winifred Lawson from Parksle Pictures, 1920s, courtesy of Tony Goulding

* D’Oyly Carte Opera Company,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Oyly_Carte_Opera_Company

** Aileen Davies, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, https://www.gsarchive.net/whowaswho/D/DaviesAileen.htm

***Winifred Lawson, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company https://www.gsarchive.net/whowaswho/L/LawsonWinifred.htm

****Parkslee Postcards, https://www.gsarchive.net/postcards/pksle151.htm

Stories with a camera in Deal ….. on a day in April ……… part 4

So, any trip to Deal, just has to include a walk beside the sea.

And if you are going to do that you had best add a few pictures, which is just what our Elizabeth and Colin did last week.

The sun shone, there wasn’t a rain cloud in the sky and while it was a tad cool, it was a perfect day to see the sea, along with the bits that are left along the shore line.

In this case it included a few beached boats and of course those huts.

I did wonder how much they might be going for, but wisely decided it would be a price too far.

Location; Deal



Pictures; Deal, 2019, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick