Photo : St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford

This Saxon tower is the oldest building in Oxford. I have just visited the historic university city, you can see all of my photos here!

Photo : Tomb of King John

The tomb of King John of England in Worcester Cathedral. More photos from the cathedral plus Worcester itself can be seen here.

Photo : Hatton Locks

Hatton Locks heritage workshops and offices on the Grand Union Canal. More photos at Hatton Locks can be seen here.

Photo : Shakespeare's tomb

The Bard's tomb in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon.

I took a number of photographs in historic Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday, you can see them all here.

Vintage Paris: Sensuality, fantasy and haute couture

From the Indy

"Vintage photographs of a collaboration between Paco Rabanne and photographer Jean Clemmer go on show in the UK for the first time next week - exploring themes of sensuality, fantasy and haute couture.

The suggestive images of models wearing Rabanne's 'unwearable' fashions provide a glimpse of the radical ethos and sexual freedom of 1960s Paris."

BBC film unearths Beatles photos

From the BBC

"Unpublished photos of The Beatles taken in 1963 when they spent a week at the seaside in Somerset have surfaced during the making of a BBC film.

Just before Beatlemania broke out, the band played twice-nightly for six days at Weston-super-Mare's Odeon Cinema."

More unseen photographs from the First World War

From The Indy

"A treasure trove of pictures showing the unknown soldiers of the Somme caused a sensation when it was published here last May. But that was only the beginning of the story..."

Hong Kong and Macau in the Fifties

From Flickr Blog

"philroeder is currently publishing some wonderful photos from Hong Kong and Macau that his father took in the 1950s. He says:

"These photos were taken while my Dad served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. They were taken with a Zeiss Ikon Contessa, a rangefinder with a folding Tessar f2.8/45mm lens, and were shot on 35mm Kodachrome transparency film."

The unseen photographs that throw new light on the First World War

From The Indy

"A treasure trove of First World War photographs was discovered recently in France. Published here for the first time, they show British soldiers on their way to the Somme. But who took them? And who were these Tommies marching off to die?"

World War One official British photographs from the National Library of Scotland

"These photographs form part of the papers of Field Marshal (Earl) Haig (1861-1928), held by the National Library of Scotland. More information is available from the Library's Digital Archive.

Like many World War I generals, Haig remains a controversial figure. The collection contains diaries, papers and photographs from every part of Haig’s career, the Great War diaries being of special importance to historians..."

30 odd years of changes... or not as the case may be

Whilst looking through some old photographs i found one of the first house i ever lived in in the early 1970s (though i was too young at the time to remember anything about it!) Thanks to Google Street View i was able to have a look and see what the house looks like today and to be honest there have not been a great deal of changes over the last 35 or so years.

Apart from the doors, windows and maybe the odd bit of paint the house itself is not that different though the garden has changed dramatically.

The photograph that defined the class divide

In 1937, five boys were famously snapped standing outside Lord's. But who were they, what were they doing there – and what happened to them? The answer is surprising...

Fürer-Haimendorf Collection

From the School of Oriental & African Studies : "The SOAS archive of Professor Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1909-1995) includes photographs, cine film and written materials. It reflects his fifty years of scholarship and is widely recognised as the world's most comprehensive study of tribal cultures in South Asia and the Himalayas. It is especially valuable because it documents these cultures before many changed rapidly with the advent of external civil administration after the mid-twentieth century. In 1995, Nicholas Haimendorf donated his father's archive to SOAS, where it was deposited in the Special Collections department of the Library."

Shopfront at 73 Mason Road, Erdington, Birmingham, 30 May 1955

Shopfront at 73 Mason Road, Erdington, Birmingham, 30 May 1955
Originally uploaded by allhails

90 years of RAF military pilot training

Some nice photos celebrating the 90th anniversary of RAF military pilot training. A number of events were held to celebrate this at RAF Linton-on-Ouse.

Photographs of the 1800s

A nice photo essay on the Daily Telegraph website showing early photography. The British Library is holding an exhibition of 19th century photography later in the year. Looks like it could be well worth a visit.


Nelson's Column under construction in 1844

The ghost of Dr Edward Jenner?

This photograph purports to be of the ghost of Dr Edward Jenner, the pioneer of smallpox vaccination. It was taken in his former home and appears to show a mysterious figure sitting in a chair.



Of especial interest to me because my Nan always said she was related to Dr Jenner, i have found though that her ancestors were called Genner but they do appear to have been from Gloucestershire (like Dr Jenner) and its of course possible there was a relationship somewhere in the mists of time, name spellings did vary until fairly recently.

German national photographic archive to be posted to Wikipedia

The German government (who should be greatly applauded) has donated it's national photographic archive to the world and is in the process of putting them on Wikipedia (or rather to Wikimedia Commons) as this was judged the best way for the material to reach the public. 100,000 photographs have been made available, eventually it is hoped 11 million others will join them.

A trio of samples.


Frigate SMS Thetis


Otto Von Bismark


Berlin, Unter den Linden, Neubauten

World's oldest animal discovered after analysis of 1900 photograph

Jonathan, a tortoise on St. Helena, has been named the world's oldest living animal after he was identified in a photograph taken in 1900. He came to the island in 1882 and was mature already and so already at least 50 years old. Therefore it has been calculated that he is at least 178 years old.

He was discovered when a collection of photographs taken in the Boer War came to light. Experts have confirmed that the tortoise in the photograph is Jonathan (one assumes he has some unique distinguishing marks). Despite his age he still regularly mates with 3 much younger females, and so is an inspiration to all of us.

Relatives i never knew

Some photos have come into my possession (along with some copies of certificates and documents) of a relative of mine (well that is not 100% certain but it is fairly safe to guess that they are as the photos were together with one of my great-grand mother). The problem is, no one knows who they are. Well no one i can ask know anyway. The photos are pre-WW2 i would have said and i suspect could be taken in the 1920s perhaps or even earlier. Of course if you can identify the people let me know.