Different Times, Different People

Our Sepia Saturday image for this week features a lonely soul sat on the beach in Bridlington in 1922. My photograph moves forward nineteen years and switches coast from the East to the West coast of England. The print comes from one of the photograph albums of my Uncle, Frank Fieldhouse, and therefore we know … Continue reading Different Times, Different People

The Porthcawl Ventriloquist

This is a scan of a tiny print from an equally tiny album of photographs taken in Wales in the early 1930s. This particular print is captioned "The Ventriloquist, Porthcawl : Whit Monday 1932". "Tommy Porthcawl" - whose real name was Sydney Valentine - was famous for his sketches and ventriloquist act on Porthcawl beach … Continue reading The Porthcawl Ventriloquist

Sitting On A Boat

Two people sat on a boat (I don't know who they are) in a harbour (I don't know where it is), a long time ago (I don't know exactly when). Despite all the unknowns, the picture is a treat.

10 From The Seaside 10 : To The Next Wave

Like the sea itself,  closeness to the seaside comes in waves: childhood, parenthood and so on. That intimate knowledge of sand, plastic buckets and salty sea-spray can only be experienced through the eyes of the young. Here's to the next wave.

10 From The Seaside 9 : As Constant As Sea And Sand

Donkey On The Sand At St Annes (Photo By Frank Fieldhouse, 1941) The seaside has been a constant since the first day excursion train set out from the first industrial town on a bank holiday Monday. As constant as work and play, sea and sand. This photo features my auntie, Miriam Fieldhouse, during a wartime … Continue reading 10 From The Seaside 9 : As Constant As Sea And Sand

Ten From The Seaside 8 : Cleethorpes Palette

I didn't take all that many colour photographs back in the pre-digital days, but this is a rare one taken at Cleethorpes in the mid 1980s. Even with a colour film loaded, you didn't need an extensive palette in Cleethorpes.

Ten From The Seaside 7 : Donkeys On The Sands

Donkeys On The Sands, Skegness, c.1982 : It's as British as marmalade on toast and malt vinegar on chips: donkeys on the sands. How many times have foreign invaders been driven back from  the coast by a cornet-carrying child mounted on a dapple donkey?

10 From The Seaside : Paint Cleethorpes

Basic ingredients for a British seaside holiday : a pier, some sand, a bucket, and a palette full of grey paint. Any resort: paint the Humber estuary, paint Cleethorpes.

10 From The Seaside 5 : Bingo, Fruit And Ice Cream

The seaside is more than sea and sand and lobster pots. The seaside is rock and ice cream and games of bingo in neon-lit halls - all to the accompaniment of coin-dropping fruit machines. This was Bridlington back in the 1970s. It still is, fifty years later.