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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Heb66 on Friday 13 February 09 17:16 GMT (UK)
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Please could our clever rootschatters hazard a guess to where this photgraph was taken and maybe the year.....
Many thanks in anticipation for any time spent,
Helen.
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Could it be Brighton (or Hove)? The shingle on the beach, rather than sand, and the style of the buildings look rather like it. It's certainly a resort that was established quite early from the architecture.
The women's dresses recall the 1940s.
Is there some sort of tower on the skyline in the gap between the buildings in the middle of the picture? That couldn't be part of the Brighton Pavilion, could it? Not sure where that is in relationship to the beach and promenade.
Gillg
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I'm wondering whether it could be Llandudno in North Wales .. something about the far right of the picture reminds me of the hill leading to the Great Orme for some reason .. ?
I may be way out .. but the architecture of the buildings is very similar .. ?
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,360625.0.html
Just for reference this photo has also been posted on the Restoration Board.
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Looks like some photos I have of the late 1940's early 1950's
Crystal :D
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I think it might be Llandudno as well - I remember the pebbly beach and the curvature of the walkway - have a photo of me sitting on it somewhere.
The Great Orme proper would be out of the picture I think but the land behind did continue back as a ridge for some way.
here's one piccie that I've found to compare the Architecture:
http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:TRoH59YJX6vCXM:http://www.greatorme.btinternet.co.uk/P5230082A.JPG
Gadget
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Only two beaches I have been to in UK are Brighton and Llandudno !! I will see if I can find some photos - it was pre digital days (for me) unfortunately so harder to find
Trish
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Thank you Trish......will await your findings.
Many thanks,
Helen.
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I don't think my findings are very good. Himself wasn't with me in Wales or at Brighton & he takes the best photos. I found this one for North Wales - now I am worried that it was west of llandudno - memory is not good - but see what Pels or Gadget think
The railings and the buildings look vaguely similar ???
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My Brighton pics look much too modern to compare, but it doesn't look very similar - and they are my usual bad pics - all sea & sky!! Fortunately no heads to chop off
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Hi Trish and everyone .. :)
I suddenly had an instinct the minute I saw this picture that I'd been there and 'knew' it quite well .. ?
Here is another image taken from the direction of where I assumed Helen's photo was leading to, if that makes sense?
http://www.greatorme.org.uk/
Post amended .. I don't know how to include the image in a link like Gadget .. so here is the link from where I found the picture which I've just removed .. ! :D
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That's a good site, Pels :)
That photo of Llandudno that Trish has put up - those buildings in the distance do look very like the ones in Helen's piccie.
I've been to both places but I'm still voting for Llandudno - like Pels, a gut feeling.
I know that MaryA goes to Llandudno at least once a year. it might be a good idea to PM her and alert her to this thread* (just done)
(I can't find the piccie of me there - think it is still in Scotland - and you wouldn't want to see me at 13, would you ;D )
Gadget
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I've just been having another look at some photos. here's quite a good one:
http://www.llandudno.com/llan/l19.jpg
Also this site:
http://www.llandudno.com/photos.html
Click on the individual images to enlarge :)
Gadget
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In this link from pels
http://www.greatorme.org.uk/
I don't know how to link to a specific picture - but the one to the right of the heading The Town Trail looks like the right place to me.
And now I'm happy that I think it's Llandudno - or at least North Wales - look at how they are dressed on the beach :D Tis cold!
Trish
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I can't believe that I used to paddle and swim around in that cold sea as a young un :o
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I must admit that I was tempted by their formal clothes to think that they were on a day trip from London, one reason for choosing Brighton.
Wish we could see the pier, as this would settle it one way or the other. ;D
Gillg
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My first thought was Llandudno as well. Used to go quite a lot when a young child. Not sure it would have been a day's outing though. Lots of people in the 1940s wore "best clothes" on the beach. Remember it wasn't particularly warm, not like the Med.
Lizzie
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I'm bowing to public pressure and accepting Llandudno. ;D I do remember going on holiday there around 1950. My older brother set off to check out the town, wearing his new shorts and cricket sweater and came back disgusted. "It's no good, theyr'e all dressed up and wearing their school uniforms!", he reported. Don't know whether we ever ventured into the chilly water, but I did have my fortune told on the pier.
Gillg :)
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Thank you so much for all your help and interest as the picture. The story is sad and have yet to get fully to bottom of it.
In the picture there is a father and son. The small boy was my grandfathers nephew, his mother was found taking an overdose of asparins in a churchyard in 1940. The father in the picture deserted both mother and son around 1938. The mother never really came out of hospital and died in 1950. The son was then collected from my side of the family by the father and the family never saw him again. A couple of years ago I traced the then small boy, to a nursing home and exchanged correspondance with his wife, who sent the photographs, but then all contact stopped, due to i think she was taken ill and i have since found her husbands death in late 2006.
So i haven't be able to fill in the gaps from 1940>>>>early 1960 when the nephew got married. The surname is so common it's like a needle in a haystack to find any children they had.
My mum died in May and would have liked to made some contact as really no family left on my mums side, and the other sadness my son was the image of the nephew in the photograph and would have been nice to share the likeness with his family. Many thanks for everything you all have contributed.....Helen.
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Trish, I'm reasonably sure your picture is of Aberystwyth - you can see the cliff railway in the distance.
http://www.aberystwythguide.org.uk/aberpix.shtml
:)
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Hello again Helen,
I hope you don't mind but I've attempted to make the right hand side look slightly more clear .. I'm so sorry this is such a sad story. It would be nice if you could get to the bottom of it.
(http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3205/13022009locationda6.jpg)
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It is such a sad story.
This photo looks as if it could be some of the distant houses going up the hill on the piece that Pels has enlarged:
http://www.llandudno.com/llandudno/llandudno05.jpg
Helen - where did they live?
Gadget
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Here's my picture I took last year, just a little bit off to other side of what gadget just posted.
Karen
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Hi Gadget,
When the boy was small lived in Stroud, Gloucestershire with his mother, my great uncle, who is 93 remembers going finding the father working in a hotel in London.
I traced the nephew living in Croydon Surrey, and in the photographs sent to me was taken late 1990's the then husband and wife visiting Llandudno as it was written on the back of the piccies and he looked clearly ill then.
So maybe there is a connection with fathers side of the family in Llandudno if it is there, bit of a longshot i know.....their surname was Davies.
Big thanks again Helen x
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I don't think it's Llandudno.
To not have the Great Orme visible, you would need to be towards the east end of the beach at Llandudno ... at that point, the beach faces north. The visible shadows on people's left shoulders would then require the sun to be in the east. That's where you will find it at about 6am. The sun appears to be too high for that and there seem to be rather too many people around before breakfast time.
A beach facing south east seems more likely to me.
There appears to be a hotel with a name on it (at roof level) a third of the way across the pic. Can it be enlarged?
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Sorry it's taken me a while to jump in this post, what a sad story, I hope you find out more about them.
It feels like Llandudno to me, mainly for the reasons you've all said, the curve at the end of the road, and comparing the windows and that sticky out square building but I'm not 100% sure.
Much of the beach doesn't have the same sort of wall, but then that could have changed over the years.
The chimneys/dormer windows look wrong and if the square building is the same as the one in Gadget's link, then the roof just slightly to the left of centre isn't there at all, in fact there seems to be a street about where it would be.
I can't imagine what that tower is ... it looks similar to a GPO tower but so small - optical illusion maybe?
A couple more pictures http://www.greatorme.org.uk/Trail6.html
And a bigger one of the St George's Hotel which is about the right place IF it were Llandudno.
http://www.greatorme.org.uk/llandudno.html (I think this would be the one GeoffE is thinking of, IF it were the same place)
The more I look at the chimneys the more I don't think it is.
Mary
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Is there someone out there who's clever with photo's?
There appears to be a hotel name above where the two deckchairs are.
My immediate thoughts were Brighton because of the pebbly/shingly beach.
Carol
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Pels and I do a few restorations - see if we can come up with anything
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A quick enlargement and adjusting levels - it's not very clear. Maybe Helen could recan at 600 dpi.
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It's not Taj Mahal Hotel, is it :-\
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It's not Taj Mahal Hotel, is it :-\
I can see what you mean, but it's a trifle exotic for 1940s England dontcha think?
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That's why I put a little undecided/doubtful smiley up, Geoff.
It's a pebbly beach with some hills beyond so that rules out ..................................
I've just noticed that there are shadows which suggest the sun coming from slightly behind and to the left which might suggest the North Wales Coast or North Devon - but not the South East.
Gadget
Added - it might just be windows with curtains coming out at various angles. Think we need a bigger scan of that portion.
PS - Adelphi ???
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Hey, you are all so great......
I will get my techno expert to recan at 600dpi finding that hotel name may be the answer to all our problems.
I can't begin to say how grateful i am for all communications over this weekend, who would have thought sussing out a location from 1940 ish would be so hard, when we can go back at least a couple hundred years for family history.
Still onwards onwards......
Helen xx
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Hi Gadget ........Adelphi ???????
Helen xx
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That was my second thought, Helen.
I've just been trying to look for other places with shingles and having that particular aspect because of the shadows - can't think of any other than Llandudno on the N Wales coast and I don't know the North Devon ones - doesn't look like Ilfracombe.
What's Hastings/Margate like?
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This is hastings nowish:
http://www.hastingschoice.co.uk/HASTINGS-PHOTOS/Seafront/photos/Beach4.jpg
The square building towards the back is very similar but not sure what the beaches are like
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I've just noticed that there are shadows which suggest the sun coming from slightly behind and to the left which might suggest the North Wales Coast or North Devon - but not the South East.
Unless my hands have fallen off and I've put them on the wrong way round, the sun is coming over the right shoulder so this would eliminate anywhere facing west. N'est-ce pas?
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Yep Geoff but also from behind and it looks like very short shadows so around midday so I reckon that it's North or East facing
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Trish, I'm reasonably sure your picture is of Aberystwyth - you can see the cliff railway in the distance.
http://www.aberystwythguide.org.uk/aberpix.shtml
:)
I think you must be right - We did travel from Hay on Wye to the west and then North - I must have taken a photo along the way. How typical that I have no names on my photos!
I was bothered that it didn't seem as I remembered Llandudno - so thankyou osprey
I'd best leave the experts to decide & hide my "snaps" away :(
Trish
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Well guys.....it's been confirmed definatly not Llandudno, had an email from a lady from Llandudno family history society, they have never had a sea wall like that, so now will re read your several latest messages from this morning and do some more research.
Will keep in touch, and investigate hotel name also.
Eternal thanks again for all your interest and support still.
Helen xx
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I'm still inclined to think it's Brighton! It has a South Coast feel about it to me. Could someone perhaps enlarge the part of the picture that has that mysterious tower on the skyline in the middle, please?
Helen, thank you for sharing this sad story with us.
Gillg
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Hi Gill :)
The shadows suggest that it can't be a south facing resort as they come from slightly behind the group.
Whereabouts is the tower*? When enlarged, the part that I think you mean is just a mark on the photo.
It's very strange - I've started to think it could be somewhere near Dungeness but where :-\
Gadget
Added - *the other one is a street lamp
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if it is Brighton it would furtehr along the seafront towards Hove possibly in front of Hove Lawns, Brunswick Terrace area
http://www.needananswer.co.uk/pictures.html
http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8220_path__0p115p207p1540p.aspx
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Anyone fancy doing some searching onthe Francis Frith site:
http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/
I've done all 9 pages of Brighton
Gadget
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I'm aghast at my red herring picture of the wrong place - so I pass Gadget - I would probably find Blackpool or somewhere :-X :-X :( :( :-[ :-[
Trish
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Could it be Eastbourne?
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05ld/
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05lc/
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The building is certainly very similar to the one in Hastings, although the sea wall wasn't curved in 1901:
http://www.hastingschoice.co.uk/HASTINGS-PHOTOS/days-gone-by/html/hastings-beach.htm
Richard
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http://www.seaford.eu/index.php?showimage=46
(Eastbourne & surrounding areas)
try typing
seaford promenade
in google images
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Hi guys, i'm truely staggered at all your support, just been playingaround with the hotel name and maybe it say's Bristol Hotel.................
Now am going to check all the seaside towns you mentioned.
You are all brilliant ;D
Helen xx
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The building is certainly very similar to the one in Hastings, although the sea wall wasn't curved in 1901:
http://www.hastingschoice.co.uk/HASTINGS-PHOTOS/days-gone-by/html/hastings-beach.htm
Richard
Carlisle Parade looks a possibility. Google maps show the shape well; the left hand end wasn't there when your photograph was taken.
Here's a close up of the building:
http://tinyurl.com/cv8lpb
The sea wall was re-built in 1934-8 which would explain why the 1901 photo is different. The top of the seawall is curved today (see link below) but the beach is much higher, and the wall may have been rebuilt since your photo:
http://tinyurl.com/buycac
Added: the links don't seem to be working but there is now a photo in one of the replies below.
Richard
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I would also go with Hastings. It looks like the area just along from Denmark Place.
Lesley
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Look at the style of the roofs/chimneys and compare them to your picture, definitely similar. That's what bothered me about Llandudno, the style was different.
http://www.hastingschoice.co.uk/HASTINGS-PHOTOS/francis-frith/html/25353.htm
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This is hastings nowish:
http://www.hastingschoice.co.uk/HASTINGS-PHOTOS/Seafront/photos/Beach4.jpg
The square building towards the back is very similar but not sure what the beaches are like
I did mention it yesterday but wasn't sure about the beach :-\
I've not been to Hastings since Autumn 1963 and it was pretty cold!
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I have emailed Hastings history society to see if they can confirm location.
Funny enough, I went with my granny on a train mystery tour and we ended up in Hastings, but I remember it being all sand but that was in the mid 1970's.
Maybe I will have to visit all seaside towns in u.k on my quest and sit and view from the beach...lol !!!
You are all wonderful.....ta....
Helen x
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Wheyhey.............!!!!!!!!!
Hi everybody I think i've cracked it......BRIGHTON it is i'm fairly certain.
The hotel name i think is the Bristol, and have googled The Bristol Hotel Brighton @ 1940 and lo and behold there is a piccie with the hotel standing on the corner of a road, matching my piccie.
Please gang can you try and have a re lookie at my pic and then at the site.
What do you all think, all answers welcome good or bad ????
Helen x
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The hotel in your piccie is not the same as this one, Helen:
http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__5485_img__7428_path__0p115p193p831p.aspx
This one has 4 curves on the front whereas yours only has them at each end - unless it's a different angle :-\
Gadget
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Hi all
I think this the same hotel as the one on the right of Helen's picture. It's in Hastings.
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Well done hiraeth!
It's here http://tinyurl.com/bryykg and here http://tinyurl.com/d5trp9
The "blank" window is a help in identifying the place.
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:D
Now where was Chris in 1066Land when we needed him ;D ;D ;D
Gadget
PS - that wasn't where I stayed in 1963!
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Hi Hiraeth.............THANK YOU SO MUCH........location solved.
Also, to everyone else you have been so kind and considerate to keep your interest in this.
I will keep you informed if i gather info on the missing years to this sad story.
Helen xx
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Hi Hiraeth.............THANK YOU SO MUCH........location solved.
Helen xx
You are very welcome Helen but I can't take the credit. It was Richard & Lesley who ID'd Hastings. MODIFIED TO add Gadget and anyone else who thought it was Hastings! All I did was find a pic for comparison ;)
Hope you find some answers to your puzzles eventually.
Heather