Jump to content
 

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium

They have very strange floor planks. Is that an aberration on the part of K's?

 

Those planked floors look like they are the timber road surface from the Dapol (Airfix) Level-Crossing kit.

 

post-5825-0-97994800-1454604457.jpg

 

 

Brilliant project Mr.Edwardian, I shall be following with interest.

 

Cheers, Dave.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Wagons - The floors are of thin plastic, I have no idea whether they were supplied with the kit or added by the builder. 

 

Figures - Simon, please see the comparison shot below of:

 

Edwardian Chap with Boater on the left is in the Mike Pett range.  He appears to me to be 25.5mm to the crown of his head and I suppose he is very slightly stooped in greeting.

 

Edwardian Chap in Boater on the right is one of the Andrew Stadden figures.

 

post-25673-0-44567200-1454611768.jpg

post-25673-0-44567200-1454611768.jpg

Edited by Edwardian
  • Like 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

6ft 4½in seems rather tall. My Uncle Ted must have been about that height, and was old enough to fight in WW1, but his siblings were all a lot shorter than me, and I'm 6ft 2½in. So he must have been quite a rarity. The other one seems to be about 5ft 6in, so maybe a bit short? I don't thing I've ever seen a picture of Uncle Ted with the rest of the family to make a comparison, as Auntie Sis was pretty anti-social, and didn't let him out on his own!

Edited by BG John
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Cheers for the painting advice. I sat up last night and watched a few videos on You-Tube to help me understand the importance of prepping the figures, the 3 colour system and highlighting. Looking forward to seeing what I can achieve. I guess if I make a mess up, a soak in some thinners and I can start again!

Question is now - Enamel or Acrylic or a mixture? I have enamel flesh colour, but most of my other paints are acrylics.

Link to post
Share on other sites

ChrisN has made some very characterful conversions, involving some back-dating to the 1890s.  His layout thread is a wealth of information on the period.  And, of course, Cambrian Railways is a great subject.

 

Simon - I don't know whether you are familiar with this site - www.warflag.com/shadow/cast/figuresize/figures.htm - as it might prove useful.  Some of the older 25mm figure ranges might be suitable, as '25mm' is supposed to be the distance from sole of feet to eyes.  Some of the colonial ranges might feature civilians or other adaptable figures for S.  I cannot say that they will, because I haven't investigated, but it might be worth a look at some of the ranges mentioned if you have not already done so. 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Apropos the dress of country folk, the photographs below were all taken within a 10-year period.  My question would be, what 10 year period do they look as if they are from?

post-25673-0-77424800-1454702193_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-62143800-1454702213_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-37791300-1454702236_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-26107600-1454702247_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-12072500-1454702258_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-19848500-1454702269_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-84492800-1454702280_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-48469300-1454702300_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-43690400-1454702324_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-30416200-1454702393_thumb.jpgpost-25673-0-33408200-1454702203.jpgpost-25673-0-24023400-1454702226.jpgpost-25673-0-29524900-1454702314.jpg

post-25673-0-77424800-1454702193_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-33408200-1454702203.jpg

post-25673-0-62143800-1454702213_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-24023400-1454702226.jpg

post-25673-0-37791300-1454702236_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-26107600-1454702247_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-12072500-1454702258_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-19848500-1454702269_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-84492800-1454702280_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-48469300-1454702300_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-29524900-1454702314.jpg

post-25673-0-43690400-1454702324_thumb.jpg

post-25673-0-30416200-1454702393_thumb.jpg

Edited by Edwardian
  • Like 15
Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, monied women are the best clue, because they tend to follow fashion pretty closely, so Mrs Comfortably-Off and the two Little Comfrortably-Offs, riding in a dog-cart are a starting point, and I will go with 1908 for them.

 

Assuming you are trying to pull as fast one, that then takes us through to 1918, which I think fits with the women in the doorway with a mid-calf-length skirt.

 

But, it might be as late as 1918-28.

 

All they ole mettys ent n'use fer tellin the yurs, cos they'm ad them ther soots since methuselah was a young 'un.

 

Kevin

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

When I moved from Hereford, some 6 years ago now, my weekly visit to a local auctioneers was full of 'locals' looking pretty much like the photos!

 

I agree about the dog-cart, though I think, being rural, it could easily stretch from the 1890's to 1920's.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

The smart lady in the straw boater causes me to go for pre 1914 - around 1910-12 I reckon as some of the pictures have a very 'early 1920s' look about them. 

 

Rather amusingly I could throw in similar views of some of my past family and in some respects many folk involved in agriculture didn't look over different in the 1950s from the chaps at top left with a pair of lambs and the other with a pitchfork while the bloke 4th from the right in the second pic down from the top on the right is dressed very similarly to a picture of one of my great grandfathers taken prior to the Great War

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, monied women are the best clue, because they tend to follow fashion pretty closely, so Mrs Comfortably-Off and the two Little Comfortably-Offs, riding in a dog-cart are a starting point, and I will go with 1908 for them.

Assuming you are trying to pull as fast one, that then takes us through to 1918, which I think fits with the women in the doorway with a mid-calf-length skirt.

But, it might be as late as 1918-28.

 

Kevin

Not that it affects Kevin's cogent argument, but I think Mrs Comfortably-Off is actually Miss Nanny to the Comfortably-Offs. While she is smartly dressed and hatted, a la Norlands perhaps, she is upstaged sartorially by her young charges, and she does look a little too young to be their mother.

Edit:

Having looked through an early but excellent photo album by Penguin, A Country Camera by Gordon Winter, where there is an almost identical picture,I realise I should have called the lady in charge Miss Governess, which would account for the more formal uniform than might be expected of a rural nanny. Indeed, I suspect the horse drawn vehicle is a Governess Cart, with its entrance at the rear, giving her control of access.

Edited by Nick Holliday
Link to post
Share on other sites

Just checked again, and the pictures are the same. Location given as Sussex, but not dated, although the book's title says 1844-1914.

Also found a lovely painting by Joseph Crawhall of a very similar set up, on Wikipedia, under Governess Cart. As the artist died in 1913 that would suggest an earlier date, although the article suggests the Governess Cart design only appeared at the turn of the century - one for our Victorian modellers to beware of.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Do you have a larger picture of the photo of the shop front.

You can just make out the edge of two enamel(?) advertising signs.

"HU..." and "Chu... Co...". These maybe able to help date it.

Also, there's a sign in the window for " Talbot &.. Min...."?

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Looking at those photos, some of them have a snapshot feel, as if taken on a Kodak box, and others have a more dated glass plate camera look. Our family photos looked the same, and if tied down to a ten year spread, I would say the First World War must have been in the middle of it, so 1910 to 1920. Some look really Victorian, and others very strong twenties feel.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry to set such a quiz, and thanks for some very interesting and well-argued answers, but there was a point behind it.  I know the date range of the photographs, but, if I hadn't, would I have guessed correctly?  Almost certainly not.  A lot of comments correctly identified some of the shots as 1920s, though only Kevin seems to have gone as late as 1928.  If I were guessing, I would probably have plumped for a date around the Great War and into the early '20s.

 

The lady in the cart with the boater and the waisted dress pulls us too early.  Her appearance is anachronistic, in my view.  The lady at the door looks WW1/early '20s to me.  The people wearing the most obviously archaic Edwardian/late Victorian styles are mainly the older generation.  Most of the workers seem, to me, anywhere between the 1900s and the 1920s, as several are wearing old clothes as work clothes, coats and waistcoats with very high lapel, that look pre-WW1 to me. 

 

In fact, the 10-year date range is 1925-1935. I find this surprising.  The photographer, Leonard Titshall, was not born until the turn of the century and started the photography business with his brother only in 1924.

 

This collection of photographs is, for me, sound evidence of the longevity of clothing styles among rural folk.  It demonstrated that my sense of period was up to 10 years off, so a valuable education!

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow!

 

That Governess, as I think Nick probably rightly identifies her, and her charges, really threw me.

 

Maybe she only dug that outfit from the wardrobe for high days in high summer, thereby making it last a decade or more.

 

That the less well off looked "timeless" doesn't surprise me, having looked at a lot of firmly dated pictures of that kind with my father. In fact, one of the guys in a slop hat in your set looks exceedingly like a charcoal burner called Nimmy (Nimrod) Adams, who my father remembered from his boyhood in the 30s, and had photos of at work in the woods at that time.

 

K

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

"In fact, the 10-year date range is 1925-1935. I find this surprising.  The photographer, Leonard Titshall, was not born until the turn of the century and started the photography business with his brother only in 1924.

 

This collection of photographs is, for me, sound evidence of the longevity of clothing styles among rural folk.  It demonstrated that my sense of period was up to 10 years off, so a valuable education!"

 

 

In fact many 'early photos' turn out to be much later than modern eyes suppose them to be, but........... the rural poor, which was what most of these were, bought mostly clothes which were durable, and, in essence, timeless.  I remember high turnback collar waistcoats, and hobnailed undyed leather boots on sale in Hereford in 1985!   Even the vernacular architecture was often up to 35-50 years behind London.  My first house in Hereford, in the small village of Lyonshall, had its origins in 3 cottages built about 1490, rebuilt as a farmhouse in 1561, and then modified in 1891...........

Edited by Adams442T
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

The period of 1925 to 1935 was not noted for the affluence of folk it was the years of the national strike  followed by the depression people would have hung on to old clothing. My maternal grandfather was upset not to be able to join in the national strike as he was unemployed at the time. Through those years he struggled to find a reliable job and new clothes for the family would have been rare. In fact if the Luftwaff hadn't destroyed his wardrobe he would probably been wearing them when I was a boy.

An interesting project I am rather late to the party so most of the appropriate comments have already been made. I did get rather taken with Wells next the Sea on a trip to North Norfolk and the flint cottages. I would opt for some salt marshes and creeks in a coastal setting.

Don

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Ah, Don, the call of the saltmarshes!  

 

In the world of Castle Aching, the line runs north to the coast, via the little network's hub, Birchoverham Market, where it connects with the MGN, to the partially silted up minor port, Birchoverham Staithe.  More recently, a branch has been built to a developing genteel resort, Birchover by the Sea.  Both the GER, which partially owns the West Norfolk, and the MGN, vie for access to the resort, and both companies will in the future, no doubt, also run the odd excursion into Castle Aching, as the Edwardian tourist trade takes increasing note of this picturesque region.

 

John, that is a wonderful photograph, in every way.  What a change it would be to see an 'Ashburton' layout in Edwardian times, with a 517, a rake of 4-wheelers, and a turntable!

  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...