phil_sutters

Having raided Dad's archives once more - here are a couple of postcards and a blurry photo - all much earlier than you need, but the conversation seems to have widened a bit.

I know it's not my turn, but somewhere I had a nice photo of one of Seaford's boards, on a wall on the far side of the track, almost invisible behind foliage, but can I find it? No!

I am sure I have an even closer and better view of a Reading board, but this one will do until I find it. This has two and, I think, a half boards. The half is at the right-hand edge, although you can't see the words!

A couple of photos of old coaches or charabancs - the first is really of my grandmother at Brighton in 1922, but it has a couple of period charas in the background. The other is a postcard that I acquired, I know not when, but it is a south London subject near where I spent my working life, in a later part of the 20th century.

This, I think, is the last of the family's old cars - new to them - old to us! The next photo is of Marjory in the pits at Brooklands racing circuit. I have had it confirmed by Andrew Lewis, Curator of the Brooklands Museum & Archive, that this is indeed Brooklands. He says of the figures on the right 'A second look at the photo leads me to recognise Sammy Davis, the noted Bentley driver next to Seagrave.' Henry Seagrave is in driver's overalls on the right.

What's wrong with 'L' - there are plenty about?.

There seems to be lots of material out there. I tried 'Vauxhall milk depot' in Google and came up with this http://www.svsfilm.com/nineelms/torr.htm

It is in the Wye valley. I did try to pin down the community on another website and thought it might be Fownhope, Herefordshire. The Wye has so many twists and turns that it may well be somewhere else though.

Thanks - I didn't check properly. I just hadn't noticed a bike thread in recent 'View new content' listings. I have now added my initial batch of old bikes to the thread you mentioned and have suggested that the other initial contributors follow suit.

I started another thread for old motorcycles, without checking that there wasn't one already. I have started to pull the plug on the new one and suggested that the few initial contributors move their photos over here. Apologies to anyone who had shown their interest over on the other thread. Here are my initial really old ones. Muriel is my mother, Elsie my grandmother, Lizzie her mother and the others Elsie's brother and sisters.

That is a very useful resource with thousands of images of London and its life. Thanks for pointing out the source of my little image, Jim. I have just had a great half hour looking through the railway photos. Search 'railway' and go to image 430 (of over 900) and you should find a fascinating collection of Selsey railway photos, including the unloading of the Ford railcars from a Lowmac-type wagon. Brilliant stuff! I'm not quite sure why that is in the Metropolitan Archives, but who cares.!

Guildford -The board is visible in the bottom right shot (Edit - but only just - so perhaps I had better pass) (Edit 2 - or perhaps not as someone has accepted it and gone on to H)

That seems a sensible idea. I think we should restrict it to pre-1980, perhaps.

and if like me you like the 20's-30's cars how about this Vauxhall 14/40 1926 Vauxhall 14-40 1926.JPG Muriel is my late mother. The car is a 19 litre Mercedes Maybach tourer, which Percy Pritchard owned in earlier years and which formed part of his funeral cortege. The noisy aero-engined car needed special permission from the Hereford Cathedral authorities before it could enter the cathedral precincts. The rest of these photos come from Mum's Aunts' and Uncle's family albums. There are even better ones of the family motor bikes - but I don't see a thread for those. I don't know the makes of most of the cars, although I am fairly sure that Walter's is an Oldsmobile - having taken photos of some in the London to Brighton runs. I know the last two are the same image, but I cropped it down to show the cars better, although the Herefordshire countryside also deserves to be admired!

I rather fancy a change - as someone else commented - it is too predictable what the next challenge will be and there is a temptation, which I have succumbed too, to line up images in advance. However we have had some interested and quite varied photos come though.

Another S&D example - Highbridge S&D goods shed was the other side of the GWR mainline close to what became the A38 and the Wharf, which acted as their goods yard, was still further down the line, beyond the road. Come to think of it, the GWR goods shed and yard was separated from the station by an overbridge carrying the road to Glastonbury and the S&D line crossing on the level! Edit - somewhat belatedly. This is slightly confusing as it shows an ex-GWR loco hauling a S&D line goods train from their goods shed and/or Highbridge Wharf, across the Bristol & Exeter mainline with the former GWR goods shed & yard in the background. This was taken from the bridge mentioned above, the other side of which are the former GWR & S&D stations.

A few photos taken over a number of visits to the Amberley Museum in West Sussex, where they have a small fire fighting display.

Good old Dad again - I also had a similar 186, but missed that slot.

This sign is from 2015, so it may have reached your sightlines already, but I don't think I have uploaded it before. It's not really whacky, just someone trying to get a message across in a less officious way.

If anyone is interested in model ships, there is an extensive collection at Beale Park wildlife attraction near Reading. I have just uploaded an album of photos taken there. Most are as shot, without any tidying up or attempts to deal with reflections or uneven lighting etc. You can see them at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/4321-beale-park-model-ship-gallery/ Incidentally there is another interesting collection in the Newhaven Museum, along with a whole range of maritime and railway archives. Unfortunately photography is not permitted so I can't show you examples. You can find its website at http://www.newhavenhistoricalsociety.org.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/5361?opendocument&part=3 A couple of shots that have been tidied up are these -

The last time I saw one was parked at Eastbourne at the end of May this year.

The S&D used push-pull on the Wells branch and there are some nice photos in the Middleton 'Burnham to Evercreech Junction' book. These include a push-pull mixed train, albeit with only the goods brake on the one shown - push-pull coach - 0-4-4T then the goods brake. So there's another combination for you!

Using the same 'first three 3bed house rentals seen' bench-mark - in Stafford they are typically £650 pcm. So a worse deal than Seaford when the fares are compared. I am surprised how far people are prepared/forced to commute. We were fortunate to be able to work in London within cycling distance* of home. That was before house prices got silly. We were looking at houses, when we got married in the early 70s, in the £6-£10K range. Those houses now go for £850K - £1M. *Mind you a colleague used to live in Ealing and work in Southwark and he cycled each way - with the sun in his eyes both ways!

Please note that those Telegraph prices are two years old. The current Brighton to Victoria annual is £4,184 or London terminals £4538. I chose to look at rentals as so many people are being priced out of buying in the south east. I did a very quick calculation just to give an idea of the difference in rentals, without comparing other costs of living in London or outside its immediate suburbs.

When we retired we moved out of south London to Seaford, East Sussex. A very quick and unscientific search - the first three monthly rents I saw of fairly ordinary 3 bedroom houses in Seaford were - £1,050, £1,400 & £1,150.(Av £1,227) In East Dulwich, roughly comparable houses were £4,000, £2,300 & £2,000 pcm. (Av £2,766) The current annual standard class season ticket from Seaford to Victoria is shown as £4,588. The difference between the average pcms is £1,539 or £18,468 p.a. and the air is fresher! Very crude calculations but you can see why more families are moving out and paying the fares.