Well what a time I've had over Easter. Sometime ago in the Facebook Lancashire Genealogy Group someone posted a photo and asked if anyone knew where it was. One of the members suggested that they put it in the Unidentified photographs of the British Isles Facebook private group.
Grandfather Jack Armitstead had 3 photo albums that Dad had very carefully kept. Unfortunately Jack did not name, date or place any of the photos. He also mixed the photos on the page so there might be an Australian one with an American one and as well as a British one.
These photos have intrigued me for quite a while so when this Facebook group was mentioned I ventured to post my first photo on April 3. I had a reply within the hour with a corresponding view of it to prove it. I have now added 20 and only 1 remains to be solved.
From the scattered photos it looked like Jack had travelled with 2 friends. So where did Jack and his friends travel? As Jack was listed in the 1901 census as a trainee chemist living in Ripon, Yorkshire and he left Liverpool for Australia in 1910 after having married in Liverpool. It looks like he did his travelling in the UK between about 1902 and 1910.
After getting the identifications of the photos I have tried to piece together where these adventurous fellows went.
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| UK places mentioned below |
The Eastham locks are the beginning of their journey from Lancashire to Scotland. I assume that there were 3 of them. Jack is in this photo on board the boat with one other but in other photos it appears he is the photorapher and a fellow in a boater hat joins the other one with the cap.
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| Eastham Docks Mersey River |
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| On board Jack is the one on the right. |
The SS Setter plies between Liverpool and Glasgow so their voyage has begun,
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| SS Setter |
If you are travelling up the west coast of England what will you see? You may see a steam coaster or collier and, of course, you would have to see the island Ailsa Craig.
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| Steam coaster or collier |
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| Ailsa Craig |
The Steam coasters were used for shifting cargo before land transport was in common use. Ailsa Craig provides the rock for making curling stones and Mauchline on the mainland has the only curling stone factory left in the world. This information was supplied by members of the group
Now that they have reached Scotland they are off to the highlands. There is no indication as to the itinerary of the trip so I'm guessing they travelled by train from Glasgow.
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| Places in the Scottish Highlands |
We have them at Taymouth Castle in Perthshire having probably travelled on the train. They visited Kenmore to see Taymouth Castle
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| The 2 travelling companions outside Taymouth Castle near Kenmore. |
They also visited the village of Killin that is at the other end of Loch Tay and here are his 2 mates again.
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| Lyon Road, Killin |
They have to go to Edinburgh as it wouldn't be a visit to Scotland without Edinburgh or Edinburgh Castle. They were a bit early for the Edinburgh MilitaryTattoo as it didn't officially start until 1950. So they were about 45 years too early.
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| Edinburgh places |
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| Outside Edinburgh Castle |
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| Outside Edinburgh Castle |
Now they head off to visit Holyrood Abbey, John Knox House in the Royal Mile and then Calton Hill
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| John Knox House, Edinburgh |
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| Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh |
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| Calton Hill, Edinburgh |
As we have no dates on the photos we have no way of knowing how long he was away from home. To get home did he go by train or coach? Probably didn't swim!!!
However he has travelled again and remains dedicatd to photography.
Look at the pubs and flint church in East Anglia.
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| Norfolk places |
The Kings Head pub was identified in 7 minutes from when I put it up-amazing. The church one had been languishing waiting to be identified. As there were a lot of Scottish photos going up one fellow said he dared to suggest East Anglia for the church as it was a flint church and there are no flint churches in Scotland. Once the pub was identified as King's Head in Heathersett Norfolk I asked if the church could be there too. It took a little while for a suitable reference photo to be found but there it was St Remigius in Heathersett, Norfolk.
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| The Kings Head, Hethersett, Norfolk |
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| Lychgate St Remigius Church, Hethersett, Norfolk |
Then another photo that I didn't think had enough identifiable features. Guess what? Again this only took minutes to be identified as Queens Head pub in Hethersett, Norfolk.
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| Queens Head Pub on L, Norwich Rd Hethersett. |
He definitley liked the pubs in Hethersett.
Two photos took a bit longer to identify and they weren't in Scotland. It had been suggested to me a few years ago that this photo might be from the Lake District. Here he was off in a different direction this time to the Lake District in Cumbria near Kendal where his father was born. Shortly after the father's birth they left to live in Preston. Once his father married they moved to Radcliffe where Jack was born in 1880.
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| Waterhead, Ambleside Cumbria. |
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Cumbria place
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The next one took much investigation. There were all sorts of suggestions but it turned out to be a skew viaduct and as you can imagine I didn't know what that meant. Because of that feature it narrowed the field down but it still couldn't be recognised until I looked for disused ones. Healey Dell
viaduct is near Rochdale in Lancashire. So more or less, it was a local for grandfather not far from his family's home in Bury. It is now a walking track.
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| Healey Dell viaduct Rochdale, Lancashire |
The one yet to be identified is also of a viaduct with another bridge in the background. Watch this space to see if they are able to identify it.
So if you have unidentified photos from the British Isles then answer the joining questions for the Private Facebook group "Unidentified photographs of the British Isles." Just remember they do not identify people.
They are so responsive and very helpful.
Now identified as the River Irwill near Prestwich with Railway bridge and the Manchester Bury Bolton canal aqueduct in the background.
