Coppers - Sepia Saturday

Those who read my post last week will remember that I was born in the village of Ketton. You may even remember the blue car in this picture.

Stocks Hill, Ketton looking down the High Street

That blue car in the distance was near Mr Robinson's, the cobbler's house.

The monument in  the centre contains a water tap at the far side. It was erected to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887.

But I am in danger of digressing from this week's prompt

which contains three 'coppers.'

The house on the left in the photo of Stocks Hill is occupied by the village policeman. It just so happens that I knew three of its incumbents before I left the area - PCs Swann, McDonald and Hodgkinson, and the latter's daughter (over whom I will draw a discrete veil)

All this was was nearly 60 years ago - a time, in those pre-decimal days, when the currency of the realm was based on pounds, shillings and pence .

As a boy I was always pleased to have three coppers in my pocket.

A Farthing (1/4 of a penny)

Halfpenny (Ship design)

Britannia on the reverse of the one penny coin

(Images scanned by Retroplum; created by HM Government))

Why is it that these designs beat the modern coppers every time?

OK, officer - I'll go quietly, no need for handcuffs, to check the links at Sepia-Saturday-251.

Drink up! - Thematic Photography

The theme this week is drink up, celebrating any form of consumable liquid, and a theme that can be interpreted in many different ways.

This summer in the UK has not given us many chances to sit out and celebrate in the sun so there has only been the odd day like this.

A Half Empty Glass

Or is it half full?

One of my favourite books begins with the line, "It was a cold grey day in November." - the day that Daphne du Maurier's heroine, Mary Yellan, arrived here.

Cornwall's Jamaica Inn

For one reason or another it's several years since I had an alcoholic drink but not so long ago as when this source of water was in everyday use.

Stocks Hill monument, Ketton

The monument at Ketton, the village where I grew up, was erected including the cold water tap to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. Forty years later I was born in a house a stone's throw from Stocks Hills. The only water available twenty years after that was still from a cold water tap on the outside of the house.

Many years later with two children as well the opportunity came to drink up something stronger abroad.

Who's been in the sun

You should be able to date this pair in the process of drinking up from the size of those shoulder pads.

Eat your heart out, Sue Ellen

Just occasionally I managed to get in on the act too, when home from Norway for Christmas.

Brandy, Sir?

They say you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink - not true in this case at least.

Police horses - Rochester, Michigan

There really is only one way to finish this post.

So grab your glass and go over to Thematic-photographic-217-drink-up

Sepia Saturday 100 Not Out!

Sepia Saturday began for me exactly a year ago. It all began with Amy  here

Amy

As I had very few sepia photos it wasn’t long before I became a ‘themer’ and a lot of fun I’ve had along the way to SS 100.

‘100’ has not been as easy as I thought it would be. I’ve almost had a writer’s block. Then I remember that in 2008 to overcome this affliction I joined a site www.100words.com on which the challenge was to write a post each day of the month in exactly 100 words – no more, no less.

To my surprise my entry for 16 June was featured on the site.

June 16, 2008

BY Samwin

I sat in the garden this afternoon watching the sprinkler going round and round. A buzzing sound caught my attention; it sounded like a bee. Finally I located the bee on the small pink lavender bush set this year in a terracotta pot on the patio. Some of the lavender’s forty flower heads are fully open revealing the petals, on others only tips of the unopened petals may be seen. The bee visited each in turn, its golden thorax contrasting with the pink flowers. On each back leg it had an orange pod, full of the nectar it had collected.

Samwin you’ve seen before; named after Sam my daughter’s Golden Labrador, Samin is the headcover for my driver (golf club)

Samwin

Many of you are into tracing your family tree so I thought I’d make a start with the 1911 census of England. I had to cheat a big and go to the previous census in1901 to find the family of my grandfather and grandmother. George Arthur Scotney (29), Saddler and Harness Maker and his wife Sarah (32) had three sons – Henry C S (5), Charles W A (3) [My father] and Douglas L P (1) – at that time. I have never heard of Douglas before but I do know that later there were two other sons and two daughters(the uncles and aunts that I knew in addition to Henry, known to me as Stan)

Unfortunately I have no photos of any of them. But now I know that my elder brother was named after our grandfather.

George Arthur Scotney

You have seen a read about Arthur before in Sepia Saturday Posts My Brother's War.and War Photos

The census results confirmed to me that my grandparents were living at High Street, Ketton.

It so happens that on 6 June 2008 I wrote on the 100words.com site

“I was born in a house made of stone, with a roof of Collyweston slate. The house had no name although it was eventually given the number 100 on the High Street in a village in Rutland. Rutland was the smallest of the counties in England at that time.

The village school, for children up to age 11, was just across the road. A village shop was a short distance up the road. When my brother went to war I had pennies with which to buy a gobstopper each day. He had gone to stick a bayonet up Hitler’s backside.”

High Street,Ketton

The postal address for this house where I was born is 100 High Street. The people who live there now have put up a name plate and called it Sadler's Cottage so my grandfather's trade is commemorated.

Stocks Hill, High Street, Ketton

The shop to the left of the car is where I bought the gobstoppers with the money left for me by my brother. The monument in the centre was erected to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

Sepia Saturday was launched by Alan Burnett and Kat Mortensen in 2009, Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind (they don't have to be sepia) become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.
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It has reached the grand old 'age' of 100. My thanks to Alan and Kat for their marvellous idea to which I am proud to contribute. Here's to the next 100.

Check out other contibutions to SS100 here. 

Shopping for Thematic Photography

I have to declare that my heart sank when I saw this theme. Over the years I've worked hard at avoiding shopping,  with some measure of success. I thought I had used up all my photos, deliberately taken, of shops in my recent post Sepia Saturday takes the biscuit.

However I managed to find a few.

Stocks Hill, Ketton

If you look closely you will see a flower shop. Ketton is the Rutland village in which I was born in a house less than 100 yards away from this shop. Then it was a grocer's run by Mr Hall. It was here during WWII that I bought a gobstopper a day with pennies left for me by my brother Arthur when he went off to war.

I've mentioned several times before that I worked in Norway for a number of years. So I can add some 'shopping' pictures from Stavanger.

Stavanger - Torget - SS Norway visit

Torget means the square and this is the place where the market is held and just the place to go for fish. Away from the square there are busy shopping streets like the one below and whose name escapes me now.

Stavanger shopping street

I also caught Torget at a busy time.

Torget on Market Day

Now I live in a village in North Yorkshire a few miles outside Yarm where the High Street was once voted the Best in Britain.

Yarm - Georgian High Street

Yarm High Street on Gala Day

(Taken from a window in the Town Hall)

For more on the dreaded  theme 'shopaholics' should visit Carmi at Thematic Photographic 160