A Christmas Long-Gone

I would have liked to have done a Christmas post from the ‘Good old days’, but I never took any photos at Christmas and neither did the family. All photographs at that time, needed good light and none were ever taken indoors without ‘flash’. The early box-cameras that we all owned had no settings, like ‘shutter speed ’ or ’aperture’. Although I do remember once seeing a box camera with a slider that could be pulled out to provide two different sized holes (apertures) behind the lens.

None of these early cameras would work in poor light, which is why we all had to traipse outside into the garden to get our pictures taken. It wasn’t until Dad bought his Zeiss that he had the capability of plugging in a flash. Of course in those days we could only use (expensive) flash bulbs and not the electronic flash of today. I first started using flash with bulbs, around 1964 for all the indoor party photos at the Youth club.

The only Christmassy bit we have is a cinefilm my Mother took on her 8mm movie camera. My brother has had it converted to a VHS tape and I am planning to convert it yet again, this time to a DVD.

Over Christmas much of the blogs and online news feeds seemed to close down for two days, so I found myself watching old films on YouTube. There is a very good channel - BFI Films, which always come up with some real gems. I found this one of Christmas 1941 filmed during the War and it was of course a very special one for me. It was over the Christmas holiday that I was conceived, as Dad was home on leave and I was to be born the following September. 

Some of the filming must have been done down here in Buckinghamshire, as I recognise several of the churches shown.

I spotted the church at Turville because of the windmill on the hill, and the church at Fingest is one of only two churches with the unusual ‘twin’ gabled roof on the tower.

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The church at Fingest, Buckinghamshire. 

The Church of St Bartholomew, Fingest.

This famous church sits at the centre of a historic village.

The massive western Norman tower was built early in the 12th century 

and has unusual twin gables - 

it is believed that only one other similar construction exists in the country.

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The church at Turville, Buckinghamshire.

The Church of St Mary, Turville.

The first known church building dates from the 12th century, 

the oldest part being the nave. Rebuilding of the church in 1340 included the present tower and an enlargement of the chancel.  The tower is squat in comparison to its massive proportions and is topped with brick. 

(Note the famous windmill on the skyline.)

All Dressed Up.

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Do you remember when ‘Fancy dress’ parties were all the rage? 

They don’t seem to be quite as popular these days - but perhaps I’m not now ‘moving in the right circles’? 

We were always having them at our Youth club way back in Bournville around 1964 and they were extremely popular in my early days at Taplow (1968-74).  

I have quite a few pictures of the former, as I was taking all the photographs, but at Taplow, the pictures for the club magazine were always taken by the BTR photographer, Bob Wilson. Unfortunately, I haven’t kept copies of the old magazines, but during a recent web search, found out that they are all archived away up in Aylesbury reference Library. I guess one day I might make a pilgrimage up there, but I can’t say I like Aylesbury as a place to spend an afternoon.

However, this dressing up lark would appear to run in the family, as I discovered from digging deep into the boxes of Dad’s old negatives.  The oldest were from the summer of 1937, and were taken on the back lawn at Linden Road by, I guess, Nan. (as she never appeared in any of the pictures.)

The first one off, is of Dad and Stan (with a fox stole) 

looking a right pair of pansies! 

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Stan and Dad as
'Gert & Daisy'

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I can remember that old fox fur thingie of Nan’s, because as children, we used to play games with it! And I can remember it always had that smell of lavender and menthol about it, I expect from old moth-balls in her wardrobe.

I notice that both of them were sporting well stuffed brassieres!  I do hope they weren’t wearing ladies knickers as well - were they?

Here’s the answer.

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Ladies don’t sit like that Dad!

And now Mom has joined in wearing a pair of Dad’s trousers and Uncle Stans hat and blazer.

Here’s a better picture of my ‘mum & dad’ to be!

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Mr & Mrs Johns (to be)

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I like that Walking-cane that Mom is holding. I wonder what happened to that?

Enough of all this I think. Lets move on twelve years or so.

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This, believe it or not, is me! 

It was taken over at Manor Farm park during a boy-scout ‘do’ to celebrate the Festival of Britain in 1951.

We were divided up into four groups to represent England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Dressed up in silly costumes and required to do a country dance representing the respective country. 

Not really what I had in mind when I joined the scouts. I’d have been happier building a rope bridge across the Woodbrook stream.

Next from the box came picture of my younger brother Colin, dressed to ‘kill’.

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"Oh, they're tough, mighty tough in the West,

And your trigger must be quicker than the rest

When there's rootin' and a-tootin'

I'm the guy that does the shootin'

'Coz they're tough, mighty tough in the West"

This was taken in the back garden at Thackeray Road, around 1953 at a guess.

Playing at Cowboys was all the rage in those days and if I remember rightly the only problem we had, was that we could never find anyone who wanted to be an Red Indian!

It was around that time that we had our first telly. It was bought just in time for ‘grown-ups’ to watch the Coronation. We did, but it was cowboy films we enjoyed most. I remember on Saturdays, at around 5 o’clock there was a variety show called "Whirligig", and after we had cleaned our shoes and tidied our bedrooms,
we were allowed to enjoy this one hour of fun.

I can recall a few of the characters like Mr. Turnip, (see right-hand side), but the ones we remembered best were Hank the Cowboy,
Minnie Ha-Ha and zee bad bandit, Mexican Pete.

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"I'm Mexican Pete, zee bad bandit

Zee bad bandit I always 'ave bin

I tie Senor Hank to zee railroad

An' zat is zee end of 'im !" 

The creator of Hank was Francis Coudrill and believe it or not there is a connection here with Linden Road.

A few houses up on the same side as Nan’s, 

was the home of Mr. & Mrs. Coudrill, Francis’s parents.

Whether or not Francis ever lived there, I don’t know. He was certainly a science master at a school in Birmingham for a time, but he lived here in Bucks (Beaconsfield) when making his television programs.

Another popular cowboy at the time was Tex Ritter, and I have here in my collection, an LP of ‘Songs of the Golden West’.

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As I mentioned earlier, our youth club in Bournville was very keen on fancy dress parties and I have managed to keep all the pictures that I took back then. I’ll just put up one here to show that even in 1964, brother Colin went dressed as a cowboy.  

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Bournville Friends Youth Club - 1964

Given time, I can put a name to nearly all those.

Colin is hiding away at the back again!

Here’s a try at a close up.

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As far as I know Colin never managed to get his ‘leg-over’,

 - a horse that is!

Neither did he master the art of using a lasso or firing a ‘six-shooter’.

He did however manage to get ‘into the saddle’ of his vintage Triumph 

and he was never more at home, than when kitted out ‘in his leathers’.

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All dressed up and ready to go!

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The 1920's and 30's in Linden Road.

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I do realise that Family photos are mainly of interest to family members, so I am hoping to add a few other snippets to go with them. This post is about my Mother’s side of the family. I don’t have as much detail on this ‘branch of the tree’ as I do on my Father’s side. Dad outlived our Mom by twelve years, and it was during this time, when he stayed here with me, that I managed to get a lot of the family details. On the other hand, my Mom died quite unexpectedly and we hadn’t really dug into the history behind all the old photos.

This first large picture shows at least three generations.  

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The Simkins Family

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Luckily, someone has written all the names on the back. Although, when I say names, not full names, just things like Uncle Bert and Aunty Ada. Finding out who is married to who, and to whom the children belong, will be a task for the future.

I have not done any research into ancestry yet. I did look online but found it all too complicated. I expect it is not that bad once you get going. (?)

The two centrally seated family members are of course my Great-grandfather and Great-grandmother. (striped cardigan)

Now standing behind Great-gran, is my Grandma, or Nan as she was always called. To her left is Grandpa, better known to us boys as Pop. Their two children are seated on the floor. My mother, is second in on the right and my Uncle Stan is second in on the left.

At the time of writing (2012), only one in that photo is still with us today.

Apart from Nan and Pop and of course Mom and Stan, I cannot ever remember meeting any of the others.

This next picture is slice off the one above to show the three generations.

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Top - Nan & Pop S.
Centre - Great Granny S.
Seated - Dorothy S.

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My mother sitting at the feet of Great-grandma with Nan and Pop standing behind.

If we could only arrange a ‘reunion’, what tales there would be.

At least I am writing a few thing down now for the next three generations to read up on.

My mother would have been just a teenager there I guess. I can’t accurately date that photo. (perhaps around 1927).

I have a few photos of Mom as a baby but I have left those remaining in the family album. However here is a very early one of Pop holding her up with her brother Stanley. Looks like the back garden in Linden Road. (1920?)

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Pop holding Stan & Doss (Dorothy)

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And a much better one that was obviously taken in a studio.

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Dorothy & Stanley Simkins

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There are dozens of ‘snaps’ taken in Linden Road, nearly always by Nan on the family ‘Box Brownie’ camera. I get the impression that she didn’t like being in photos; she doesn’t appear in many and I certainly never managed to take her photograph. Having said that however, there is somewhere in the family a bit of cine-film of her! (now on video I believe). It will be fun to track this down and finally digitise it as I have done with all these other negatives and prints.

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Stan & Mom

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These were taken right down at the

bottom of the garden, because I remember

that fence as the one backing onto the allotments.

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Proud Pop with Stan & Doss

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It is a shame that they only had a

'Box camera' in those days.

Had the quality been better I would have

loved to enlarge this next one of Mom in the deck-chair.

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Mom, Pop and Uncle Stan.

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And one of Nan at last.

Messing around on stilts with Stan.

She looks as if hers has sunken into

the soft earth.

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Stan and Nan (pictured at last)

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Simple pleasures in those days.

Just knocked up from bits of wood.

Years later Dad made us some,

and we would walk around for hours

 looking over peoples fences and walls.

I remember one day walking all the way down

the road and into the local park just to

try them out in the stream!

Ah! At last one of Nan,

caught off guard!

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Nan as she will always be remembered.

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All taken in the 1920's and 30's.

All would change in 1939.

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