Fabulous photos from 1857 rural Britain

[oldtimer]

Hi Carol,

Thanks. They would look super coloured, being of such good quality.

I had forgotten about this post - it is well over a year old! Good to see that there is still some interest in these beautiful photos!

Judy

[Treetotal]

I'm pleased that it was raised as I hadn't seen it the first time round 
Carol

[Melbell]

Lovely!!  One thing that struck me was that nearly everyone, including the children, is wearing a hat of some description.

Thank you.

Melbell

[Greenvale]

What superb photographs. Although the original post is over a year old this is the first time I've come across them. Thank you very much for posting them, especially as he is a fellow "Brummie".

[Trishanne]

I have just seen these photos, missed them when first posted. These are fantastic Judy especially interesting for me because my family were all farming and living the rural life at this time
Pat.

[frostyknight]

What fabulous photos! I too somehow managed to miss them when they first appeared, so glad to have viewed them now.

[Katharine F]

Fascinating photos.
When we lived on a farm the stockmen wore what they called smocks. They were in fact similar to those worn by warehousemen, laboratory technicians, grocers etc.
It was a sand sort of colour for ordinary work and white for taking the cattle to shows.
I thought it interesting that the name smock had stuck.

[Greenvale]

I think you may be talking about the long linen/cotton coats that buttoned together down the front, when I worked on the Bull Ring market in Birmingham they were known as cow gowns. Again a rural or farm connection.

[Viktoria]

Sorry Katharine but what you describe are Shop coats.
My Dad wore them when he served in our shop.
He wore the beige/fawn ones.
Shops selling food like groceries ,bread etc wore white ones as did Dentists .They were buttoned up the front .Made from cotton twill.
Those in the photographs are very different.Made from unbleached linen
they were very full and that fullness was taken in at the yoke by smocking hence the name smock.
They had large collars and full sleeves.
Each county had its own smocking  patterns,a way of sewing which securely
 caught and gathered the fullness.
Smocks like those in the photographs were not worn much after about 1920’s I should think.
You see them in museums dedicated to Rural Life.
Perhaps the description of country folk” Yokels” comes from those smocks,
Viktoria