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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Primrose11 on Saturday 03 September 16 15:14 BST (UK)
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This mystery photo in my family photograph collection shows a building which seems to be a hotel.
The delivery dray on the left has the name Rider Wilson's Table Waters Ltd on it. This was apparently a Sheffield firm.
Is it a hotel? Can anyone place it?
Thanks
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There looks to be a sign on the roof.Is it possible to get a better/enhanced scan?(How did you manage to read the name on the dray?
Regards
Roger
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There looks to be a sign on the roof.Is it possible to get a better/enhanced scan?(How did you manage to read the name on the dray?
Regards
Roger
I was going to ask that ;D
I'm tempted to think it could be a hotel but could well be wrong, is that some kind of sign in the window just the other side of the door? :-\ also the building looks to have a porch with an open door (not that that means anything ::) )
Frank.
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Scrap the sign in the window idea, it could be a set of blinds, however, looking again, the carriages on the drive may well have been kept in the building at this end with the large open doors.
Frank.
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I thought perhaps that was a sign on the roof but I think it could also be a snowboard - to stop snow falling off the roof on to the door below.
And I think the horses and carts may have come on the road past the property rather than from the property itself.
This is very possibly a Country Home/Lodge rather than an Inn or Hotel.
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Thank you for those responses.
The name on the cart can be read by enlarging the scan but it is then too large to post on here (my sister could read it on the original photo without her glasses on, but I'm not so lucky!).
The snowboard is something I hadn't thought of. Partly why I thought it was a hotel was because of that sign, which however doesn't appear to have writing on it. Also the light over the door looks hotelly. And the carts posed there.
There are three horse drawn vehicles - the Rider Wilson one and two others, one probably a delivery cart driven by one man and the other with two smartly dressed men and possibly also a woman in it, a gig or some such. The last two carts have certainly come from the building. The open large door suggests that and the fact that the road doesn't seem to go beyond the building
The photo is a postcard, a fact which I forgot to mention in the original post.
The family album is mainly from Shropshire but if a hotel it could have been anywhere from Midlands to North of England I would guess. Rider Wilsons being from Sheffiled.
Have you spotted the outline of a building high up to the left of the hotel? It looks as if it might be a castle.
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Things keep occurring to me... The building and the wall by the road
are stone, so Yorkshire or Derbyshire?
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Thank you for reposting this today. The photograph is very faded I'm afraid. It is still a mystery.
P
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Could it be a nursing home in North Wales?
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Rider Wilson apparently did door to door deliveries, so this may show them doing just that in Sheffield. There are plenty of houses of this style and age in the city, for example in the Nether Edge or Botanical Gardens areas. Sheffield being a hilly place, the topography would also fit.
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What sort of distance would a horse-drawn dray be able to cover in a day?
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Could it be a nursing home in North Wales?
;D ;D ;D
Carol
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bit clearer?
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cleaned up a bit
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Lots of interesting pictures here: http://www.picturesheffield.com
Though when I searched I couldn't find anything which looked exactly like yours.
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If you are able to get a clearer scan which is too big to post in full, are you able to post sections in a higher resolution? I think that castle might be the key to solving this*, so maybe start with that? :)
Yes, I was thinking the same - it could very well be a nursing home in North Wales. ;D
*or maybe not. ;D
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I can't help but here's some wee bits of history which may help...
https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/366808-rider-wilson-mineral-water-co/
Annie
Add, my thought was a Coaching House
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Could Attercliffe be a possibility? I looked at the wall around the property. Is that a "Northern" wall if such a wall exists?
https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/366808-rider-wilson-mineral-water-co/
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I must be missing something obvious barryd - is there a specific image you are referring to in that link? :)
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Attercliffe is pretty flat, on the whole. The Ecclesall/nether edge areas are more likely, if this pic is indeed of Sheffield.
If anyone wants an idea of what I'm on about, take a street view stroll along Thornsett Rd or Rustlings Rd in Sheffield; just two of many roads in the area with architecture like this. Many of them had coach houses. Stone walls were the norm.
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Is there some sort of lettering above the window on the smaller building (i.e. the one on the right as you look at the picture?)
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The dry stone walling is typical of the Peak District and Yorkshire. Could the castle in the distance be Peveril Castle at Castleton. It looks the same shape and not too far from Sheffield
Chris
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The dry stone walling is typical of the Peak District and Yorkshire. Could the castle in the distance be Peveril Castle at Castleton. It looks the same shape and not too far from Sheffield
Chris
Funny you should suggest that Chris. It was my first thought too, hence my request for a better scan of the castle. :)
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The dry stone walling is typical of the Peak District and Yorkshire.
Chris I was about to say that the stone used in the building is typical York stone available right across the north pennines area. The dry stone wall is typical Yorkshire, Derbyshire dales type.
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Funny you should suggest that Chris. It was my first thought too, hence my request for a better scan of the castle. :)
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Have tried enhancing the photo, but the original is too low resolution to see anything definitive. But it does look like a stone lintel above the window.
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I've trawled through photos on Sheffield City Council website www.picturesheffield.com and think it could be be Norfolk Arms Hotel, Manchester Road Hollow Meadows.
i'm not sure about copyright so have put the picture reference numbers s07021 and s21793 for you to search
Julie
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I've trawled through photos on Sheffield City Council website www.picturesheffield.com and think it could be be Norfolk Arms Hotel, Manchester Road Hollow Meadows.
i'm not sure about copyright so have put the picture reference numbers s07021 and s21793 for you to search
Julie
;D I think you are right! Well found!
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I've trawled through photos on Sheffield City Council website www.picturesheffield.com and think it could be be Norfolk Arms Hotel, Manchester Road Hollow Meadows.
i'm not sure about copyright so have put the picture reference numbers s07021 and s21793 for you to search
Julie
No doubt about it - well done!
Now converted into "up-market housing". http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/yorkshire/sheffield_s10_norfolkarms2.html (http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/yorkshire/sheffield_s10_norfolkarms2.html)
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It is still lovely today. It is called “Norfolk House” if the sign on the driveway on the left of the house relates to the house.
Looking at the front of it on street view I thought it was now a single dwelling but there are a lot of car parking areas at the rear so probably still a business.
It appears that the “castle” was not a castle ....
Good to see it survives and is well cared for. ;)
Added: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/norfolk-house/hollow-meadows/sheffield/s6-6gh/29613605 (somewhat stripped of character internally I feel) :(
Seems it is not a business ...
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I must have passed it loads of times when visiting my daughter when she lived in Sheffield years ago!
Chris
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Good suggestion by Annie leading to Julie's great find. Well Done both of you 8)
Carol
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Well done Julie
even the same gig and horse out the front
Edited to include photo from G maps
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Well done, Julie - an excellent find!
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Good evening,
Could it be a nursing home in North Wales?
No, wrong windows.
Wonder what happened to SB.
John915
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I think he was advised to take early retirement to save our sanity John ;) ;D
Carol
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I think he was advised to take early retirement to save our sanity John ;) ;D
Carol
Appears to have popped in during May this year ;D
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In a funny sort of way I quite miss him. ;)
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The mystery is solved. Thanks, everyone. I only just spotted these replies. There is still one mystery however, which is why it is in my photograph album, but that's one I think will never be solved.
P
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In a funny sort of way I quite miss him. ;)
You say that now..
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I've added Completed to the title... But it doesn't show on the forum. Can anyone remind me how to do that?
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"In a funny sort of way I quite miss him"
Ruskie, I find that hard to believe :-[