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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: deejayEn on Thursday 01 August 24 22:40 BST (UK)
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Here is a photo of my great grandmother Clara Sell on a beach, can anyone identify the location and date it.
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Had a look but... Not a sandy beach :-(
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Whereabouts did Clara Sell live? It might give a bit of a clue to where she could have visited.
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The Black and White edifice seen in the background is possibly the rear of a Guinness Clock originally at the Festival of Britain. The clocks were then displayed at various resorts and other places in the UK, Ireland and the USA.
http://www.bigginhill-history.co.uk/guinnesstime/history.htm
Tony
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Clara Sell lived in London, Camden Town. She often holidayed in Canvey Island and Southend but I couldn't identify the photo as either.
The Guiness clock is interesting, was there a list of where they were used?
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I may be wrong, but the shadows indicate that the sun is behind the camera, as is the sea. Therefore this is probably a South facing beach. Hopefully that narrows down or rules out some possibilities :)
Heather
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Possibly at the top of King Street, Deal, in Kent. The building on the left looks like Dola Dairies and the building on the corner was a Chemist. The white building on the opposite corner became an amusement arcade.
The black and white structures look temporary and I don't know what they are.
The clothes suggest 1940's.
Regards
AJ
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Possibly at the top of King Street, Deal, in Kent. The building on the left looks like Dola Dairies and the building on the corner was a Chemist. The white building on the opposite corner became an amusement arcade.
I think you're right. I haven't found any old photos to match this one, but on the current street view the buildings to the right look just the same. The ones to the left are almost the same - the dormer window above the dairy is different, but otherwise it seems to fit. Well done :)
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All about the Guiness clocks here
http://www.bigginhill-history.co.uk/guinnesstime/history.htm
There is a comment from someone who remembers seeing one in Deal in the early 1960s
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"The white building on the opposite corner became an amusement arcade."
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-uk-kent-deal-beach-street-seafront-amusement-arcade-14634855.html
Tony
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AJ100 - you're amazing, thank you. Cleverly worked out. I have just looked on Google earth and it matches up. I had no idea that Clara and husband Alf ever holidayed in Deal but he was an ex West Kent Regiment soldier so it sort of makes sense.
tonepad and janan - thanks for the link re the Guinness clocks, I remember the one in Hastings circa 1969. Very interesting.
Thanks to all who answered.
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Glad to be able to help Deejay. Regards the date, I thought 1940's but someone mentioned on the helpful website provided by janan that they had seen a Guinness clock at Deal in the early 60's, rather the worse for wear as if it had been there a long time. That might make the date estimate slightly later, say, 1950's.
During the war the beach at Deal (and everywhere else on the coast) was heavily defended against invasion - tank traps, barbed wire, mines, etc, which weren't cleared until some time after 1945, so the earliest the picture can be is very late 40's.
Kind Regards
AJ
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The 1950s would make sense as Clara was born in 1881 so that would make her in her 70s which looks about right.
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This is the the Guiness Clock as I remember it as a child in South Shields
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The Clock in South Shields is the Guinness Time Piece from 1959.
The Clock photographed in Deal is the original Guinness Festival Clock dating from 1951.
Refer to the history of the Guinness Clock again:
http://www.bigginhill-history.co.uk/guinnesstime/history.htm
Tony
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The one in Deal looks a bit different to the original clock or is it that it's photographed from a different angle?
The comment about the clock at Deal in 1960 on the clocks page leads me to wonder if the photo is later and dates from that date.
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The photo of the clock in Deal shows the back of the item. The clock face is on the opposite side of the construction, viewable from the seafront road.
Tony
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I tried looking for a newspaper report of the clock being in Deal. No direct success, but the local history/nostalgia column of the Morecambe Visitor evidently had a discussion about the one that was there. This led to someone producing a photo of the clock that they said had been taken in Deal in 1952. The photo is reproduced (not very clearly) in the issue of 21 Feb 1996.
Link goes to FindMyPast - item is probably also at British Newspaper Archive:
https://www.rootschat.com/links/01tch/
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arthurk - thanks, I just saw the newspaper piece from 1952, so my photo could date from that time. And tonepad thanks for the info on which clock, I can see now that we are seeing the back of the clock in the photo.
Does anyone know anything about the people who had to guard/maintain the clocks? Must have been quite a difficult job.