It's rather uncanny to discover that a reader's old photograph includes one's own late father as a baby, plus two of one's uncles, as in this group of children on an outing to Newsholme Dean in 1908.
It was supplied by Susan Whitford, of Bingley, whose aunt, Doris Umpleby, sits on the left and remembered it being taken by Keighley newsagent Amos Dewhirst, my grandfather, whose three sons were also present. Standing on the left is James Dewhirst, born in 1897 and the subsequent photographer of a number of Down Memory Lane scenes. On the right sits Elvey Dewhirst, born in 1902 and sadly destined to be fatally injured on his motorcycle in 1925. In the middle is little Harold Dewhirst, born late in 1907.
This simple occasion says much about life a century ago. An outing meant wearing one's best clothes.
As Amos Dewhirst's shop was in Oakworth Road, Newsholme Dean represented his local beauty spot, yet these children will have walked at least five miles by the time they got home. Six-year-old Elvey has a child's walking stick, popular in those days.
James has found himself a good staff and the other two boys have been picking flowers, while the girls are being attentive to baby Harold.
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