Wednesday 23 January 2013

Sepia Saturday 161


 
For the main part, I've gone with shop fronts for this week's posting.  For someone who is not much of a shopper, I find shopfronts quite fascinating.  They , or should I say used to, add character and interest to our towns and cities.  Unfortunately all too often towns contain the same shopping centres with the same shops, selling the same, or they consist of Estate Agents, fast food joints and charity shops. 
 
 
 South Parade, Matlock Bath in Derbyshire, C1900. It is when I would liked to go there.  Unfortunately, I can only go now
 
 
North Parade, Matlock Bath,taken a few years ago.  Whilst, it is more attractive than many towns, it is still over-run with cars 
 
 
This is included, not because of any charm, but almost for the opposite reason.  I think they are probably celebrating the end of the Great War - hence the garish display.  The reason for it's inclusion is that a distant cousin was living in Paradise Row when the 1891 Census was taken
 
  
 
As I've done the Yorkshire part of the family, I better do the Hampshire bit as a matter of balance.  The above are two Victorian images of Winchester where my Isle of White ancestors settled after leaving the Island  a few decades earlier.  They lived in a street just behind these shops where genteel folk would hesitate to go.  In the mid 1800s, small terraced houses were often occupied by two or more families living poverty and squalor. Today, the remaining properties now go for £350,000.00 or more
 
So much for family connection, the rest have been gleaned from searching the Web and are included because....
 
 
If it hadn't been for Charlie's middle initial he would have missed out on his appearance in SS.  Chas.  Foote, is not quite the same as Chase Foote (sounds like a racing game) when I was a youngster I seem to recall that people often spoke a a foot chase - the expression doesn't seem to be used today.
 
This is entitled country store - it strikes me as being a bit Hill-Billy (no offence meant to our American Country Cousins) or somewhere in the Appalcian Mountains.
  
Not only does this deserve to be included because it scores on several of the suggested themes, it's location. in Snohomish, demands an appearance.
 
The Corner Book Shop
 
 
Silver Surfers?
 
And, inside for the sweet-toothed
 
 
All Front
 
I went away from the Introduction to this week's piece, with the Idea that Alan's curved legs were bowed and thought of doing something along those lines.  After looking at a few images, I decided it would be just too cruel.
 
I did include this from a collection of Glasgow cuttings held by parkheadhistory.com.
 
And, finally for the poetic and mathematical minded amongst us;
 
As I was walking by St. Cleggs,
I met a man who had Bow Legs,
Forsooth what kind of man is this
who wears his balls in Parenthesis
 
 

28 comments:

  1. Jonathan Winters used to tell a story about a bow-legged man and his knock-kneed wife - when they walked down the street, they spelled "OX."

    I enjoyed your storefronts. Over at someone else's SS post, I expressed a sentiment similar to your opening.

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  2. South Parade, Matlock Bath is an oft published view - there are scores of versions just from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

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    1. So I since discovered. I'd picked up some discs for a few shillings and amongst them was one with various Derbyshire scenes including the Matlock view. When looking for a more recent views, the South parade appeared a number of times. All taken from various points at that end of the parade. I would still like to be able to go there then and take my own version.

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  3. Wow, Mike, what a grand selection of shopfronts! That first one is a beautiful picture, it looks modern day in it's colors.

    Thank you!

    Kathy M.

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  4. I love the pictures of the storefronts, but then I like shopping!

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  5. Great photos. I especially like the corner bookshop and the beautifully peaceful picture of South Parade!

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  6. I do so agree about cars being the great despoilers of modern street scenes. It is almost impossible to get store front pictures these days because of all the Fords, Toyotas and Vauxhalls in-between. I must admit, I do like the original Matlock photo - so much to explore.

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  7. I couldn't agree more to your statement about all today's shopping streets being the same. Everywhere you see the same chains. The more interesting shops seem to be unable to pay the rent in Main Street. Pity, it takes away the fun of shopping.
    There is evidence of a lot of horse traffic in the first picture :)

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    1. I bet people had lovely roses in those days.

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  8. I've been to Matlock many times but it never looked as inviting as in that first card. We could do with more Corner Book Shops and penny candy stores these days.

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  9. From Matlock to Appalcian Mountains! A Lovely Journey,Thanks Mike!

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  10. Those are some great photos of store fronts. I especially like the one with the bookstore - but that building housed so much more. What wasn't included? The men standing around look so nattily dressed. Looks like a prosperous bunch.

    Loved the bow legged poem. too funny.
    Nancy

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  11. I so much enjoyed your series of photographs - wonderful.

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  12. It isn't as much fun shopping now, since there aren't many independent shops left.

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    1. I'm beginning to wonder if such things has horse and pig DNA in burgers, is a means by which Tesco tries to differentiate itself from the rest

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  13. A great mix on the theme. As a resident of one region of Appalachia, I can say that the old dilapidated country stores are gone and replaced with either run-down mini marts w/gas or garishly lit gas stations w/doughnuts. In Britain, the equivalent might be the demise of the village Co-Op stores.

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    1. I think demise is the operative word. All too often, small village have neither store, post office or pub, they're largely made up of the retired, second homes and holiday lets. Far too expensive for ordinary folk to live.

      Bigger vilages and smaller towns will have a number of fast food joints and takeaways, estate agents and charity shops. For clothes, shoes and other services it is the supermarkets or purpose built shopping centres, that look and feel like each other. If your wants and need don't slot into the norm, and you cannot find it on the net, you'll need to make it yourselve or go without.

      The process is make us conform and become uniform, without cloning.

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  14. Beautiful! just beautiful that South Parade photo is! I enjoyed strolling around the place during a tour stop in 2006 (oh, I miss England) Love the poem. '...balls in Parenthesis' funny and intelligent.

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    1. Glad you liked the ditty, I first heard when I was a schoolboy. I'm sure I heard where it came from but I cannot find it's author or period.

      When I put the first line in Google I get "when I was walking to St Ives" or "As I was walking past St Paul's"

      Perhaps someone in Bloggersland knows.

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  15. I haven't met a man yet that was a true shopper like well, like women! Unless you put them in their kind of store! I enjoyed everyone you posted here, and if I could visit them all I would! Great post!

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  16. I lived in the centre of Winchester for over 10 years, and nearby for many more. The buildings really haven't changed much, even as far as the big clock over what I think is now Lloyds Bank.

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    1. I used to stay with an Aunt in the fifties, and the Centre was much the same as shown in the Pictures and now. My family lived, in the mid-Victorian period, in Colebrook Street - I think a car park now stands on the spot where they lived.

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  17. Haven't seen the word forsooth in a dog's age. And what a great poem!

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  18. I would love to stroll down the street in the first photo. Lovely journey with a giggle at the end.

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    1. I glad to please you, a little stroll down the street and a giggle sounds nice.

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  19. And I bet Chas. E. Foote suffered froma lot of ribbing when he was a schoolboy too! I hope he had a sense of humour, like us. If so he'd have enjoyed your naughty ditty too.

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  20. When I first heard it, I laughed because it sounded funny - it was sometime later before I discovered what parenthesis meant.

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  21. A fine collection here, even those hillbilly shops...
    Some would nowadays be questionable for the visual pollution they imposed.
    But I guess one could get away with something ike that back then...
    :)~
    HUGZ

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