Identify bottle / sign and offer a date?

[Treetotal]

Hi Neil,
I can't make a connection between his occupation and the photo...My Father was a "Bobber" on St. Andrew's Dock in the 50s...he was in Gang 10 and I regularly visited the office on Goulton Street on Bankside to get the "Bobber's Orders which were hung on a chalk board in the window of the office...It would often show which gang was required and and the time of landing...for example...a pair of hands displayed with the number 2 on the board would mean "All Hands at 2" which meant all Bobbers to report to the docks at 2 a.m.
He wore clogs, spats and always carried a "Bobber's Hook" to catch the baskets of fish as they were swung off the the deck of the trawler during discharge.

http://www.mylearning.org/jpage.asp?jpageid=2630&journeyid=549


Back to the photo...I agree that it was some kind of launch for a product and the lady appears dressed for a promotion of some sort.


The presence of the lady in what appears to be a waitress outfit and the guy at the back wearing a white coat could be significant in the production or sales of whatever is in the bottle...I know the there was a lemonade factory called Murden's that was down Manchester Street off Hessle Road...I think it was a depot for empty lemonade bottles.

Carol

[Rena]

I noticed the road too and think it's a "hard standing" for parked vehicles and not  an actual public road because of the closeness of the joints.   There were quite a few white premises like this one in and around the Hull area.  I've surfed trying to find a suitable building on the roads which ran alongside the seven miles of docks, plus the city centre, without any luck.   The only website I could not gain access to was Hull's own official photographic street archives.

[Essenchill]

Thanks Carol, that's a great insight into a 'bobber' - and I didn't know any of it!  I agree the link probably isn't his occupation, but outside interest or something he became involved with via a group of either work colleagues or friends.  It definitely looks like a launch or celebration of some kind of product.  I didn't know about the lemonade factory, do you think it was a 30's style white building??!!

Rena - much appreciated trawl along the seven miles of docks!  Thank you very much for looking into that.  I will have to see about a visit to the History Centre in Hull to see if I can get a look at those photographic street archives!

[Nick29]

There's another couple of things that have struck me about this picture.  One is that many of the men seem to be halfway through a cigarette.  If this was a formal pre-arranged posed photo, they would have been ready for it, and maybe would not have been smoking.  The other thing I noticed is that many of the men seem to be holding one (and sometimes two) small objects.  This could have been cigarettes, but why carry cigarettes, when you are wearing a jacket ? 

I still think that this is a works outing - the reflection in the window could have been the bus.  I don't think the woman would have gone along (she wasn't dressed for it), but may have been called out to pose for the photo.

[ScouseBoy]

Who was the little guy on the end?

His tie was outside his cardigan, which suggests that he had only put it on for the photo to be taken.

Was he from the stores or was he the bus driver?

[Essenchill]

Who was the little guy on the end?...Was he from the stores or was he the bus driver?

From the stores?  I'm not sure I follow?

[ScouseBoy]

He isnt dressed in the same style of clothes as the other guys, and he is not close up to his neighbours, there is space between him and the person next to him, while most of the other people are touching each other.  He just looks like the odd man out  and I wonder whether we can deduce anything from that  observation.

[Treetotal]

Hi Neil....Here is a link to help you to resize the larger files for posting the rescans:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,372537.0.html


Carol

[Essenchill]

Thanks Carol, I will have a look through that guide, however I don't think the larger files offer much more unfortunately due to the original being small and perhaps slightly blurred.