Quay Street Whitehaven

[alyson123]

Jeffbubble,
Would you have any of the following locations in your collection?
St Peters Court, Peter Street
Ribton Lane or should this be Ripton?
Collage Row, Queen Street
Bardy Lane
Little Scotland Chapel Street.
Perhaps too much to ask, but you do seem to pull them out the bag!!!
Thanks for sharing
Alyson123

[MandieP]

Oooo ! What have you got? I have a fascination with old photos of Whitehaven, so anything you would like to share would be brilliant   

[jeffbubble]

How about this for now?

[Geoff-E]

That's nice jeffbubble

Bransty Arch was demolished in 1927, it's before that.

Here's the modern view as close as I can get http://tinyurl.com/35jm8p7

[alyson123]

This is wonderful Geffbubble!
My Grandmother worked at The Grand Hotel when she first went into
service, I have alot of pics of the Grand, but I have not seen this view
before........so brilliant!
Alyson123
p.s. There is a story in my family that my Grndmother was sacked
because she was smoking in one of the rooms and the linen caught
fire. Thankfully this was a couple of years before the actual burning
down, so sad.

[MandieP]

Thank you very much Jeffbubble , you can see the house where I lived when I was little up on the top of the hill  larger terrace on the left.

I also had two aunts who worked at the Grand and were evacuated the night it burned down, I remember the family story of them turning up at my grandmothers house in the middle of the freezing night in just their night clothes.

I have a picture of them taken a couple of years earlier at the Grand Hotel, with an unidentified third woman........it would be a very small world if it were your Grandma Alison123 

[alyson123]

OH MY GOODNESS!
I looked at this photo, thinking how the girl on the right looked like
my Grandma, .......... I was wondering if you knew which of the ladies
were your Aunt's,......... and then I scrolled down and my heart nearly
stopped when I realised that I had potentially recognized my Grandmother
after reading the note saying 'unknown'.
Mandie P, Do you know when this photo was taken?
I just cannot believe this?!?!?
Off to find an early photo of my Grandmother to compare.
Alyson123

[alyson123]

This is really making me wonder!
The hotel burnt down in 1940 as  I am sure you know, my Grandmother
was probably 14 or 15 at the time she was there, circa 1931- 1932.
Interested in your thoughts as to any resemblance?
Alyson123

[MandieP]

I've been looking at these two pics on and off all day! And the more I look the more I am convincing myself that it could be the same woman!!
The eyes and brow are a very similar shape, and her parting is in the same place! Although the fact that one is smiling and the other isn't is what is making it harder to be sure!

As for a date, I can narrow it down, as I know that both Doris and Ellen started at the Grand straight from school and were there until it's demise. Doris (in the middle) is the older of the 2 by just short of 2 years, so she would have already been there when Ellen started. School leaving age at the time was 14.

Now, I seem to remember my Dad (Doris and Ellens younger brother) saying that the picture was taken when Ellen had just started, (possibly her first day??) and looking at how relaxed Doris in the middle looks compared with the more nervous looking younger girls either side of her, I am now wondering if it was the first day for both Ellen and the unknown girl??

Doris was born in 1919 so if she was 15/16 in this photo then I am approximating that it was taken in 1934/5? Is this too late for the unknown girl to be your Grandmother? Ellen was born in December 1920, so I can't imagine it being any sooner than 1934/5 as that would have been when she left school.

Although we do not know for a fact how old this unknown girl is, I am just assuming she is a new starter, that may be entirely wrong, so she could well be older than 14. It is sooo very hard to tell ages in some of these old pictures.

Another fact I can give you is that Doris was not very tall, I think she was about 5"1', so that would make the other girl perhaps 5"3' or 4'? Does that help in any way?

We could do with that face recognition software that they use on CSI