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Description: Three generations of a family pose for a photograph in front of the family home and business c.1904. Behind them are various works in progress for these wheelwrights including an urban district council wheelbarrow. |
| Historical Note: Movement of rural populations to urban centres led to the decline of many small-scale village tradesmen. However larger villages could still support business such as wheelwrights and blacksmiths that were central to the local economy. |
| Location: Witham |
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Description: A view of South Street where the photographer has assembled passing villagers. The adults are dressed in their daily work clothes including a blacksmith who has been interrupted in his work with a horse. |
| Historical Note: By the turn of the century the great migration of rural dwellers to the towns and cities was over, leaving the countryside to begin a process of slow decay. The motor car had still not made an impression in such areas and the horse still provided the main form of transport. |
| Location: Southminster |
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Description: A panoramic photograph of a busy threshing machine surrounded by stacks. |
| Historical Note: Threshing machinery such as this represented the only real use of powered machinery in agriculture at this time. The expense of such machinery meant they were hired to farmers by travelling contract teams rather than being a permanent fixture on any one farm. |
| Location: Southminster |
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Description: Driver of a steam-driven engine watches on as another piece of harvesting equipment is pulled out of shot, possibly by a horse, c.1950s. |
| Historical Note: As steam-powered machinery began to be used more extensively in agricultural work it had a direct effect on employment rates. At harvest time a machine and one or two men could do the work once done by dozens of men, women and children. This pattern, once established, continued well into the twentieth century. |
| Location: Southminster |
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Description: Adults, children and animals pause for a photograph with working windmill behind them. |
| Historical Note: The rise of photography as both a leisure and commercial pursuit further helped redefine rural life. Photographs such as this signal the interest in the countryside not as a place of work but as one of pictorial and poetic beauty. A place where poaching is a romantic occupation rather than one driven by hunger. |
| Location: Southminster |
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Description: View of a field after harvesting and of the surrounding countryside. |
| Historical Note: Mechanisation only affected some parts of the agricultural production process. Machinery may have replaced hand-reaping but corn still needed to be sheafed and bound by hand. |
| Location: Little Stambridge |
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Description: Unmechanised harvesting team c.1940s. |
| Historical Note: It was common for farms still to make use of horse-drawn equipment well after the Edwardian period and into the mid-twentieth century. |
| Location: Latchingdon |
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Description: Livestock being surveyed at a rural cattle and sheep auction. |
| Historical Note: The Edwardian countryside divided in to two regions. In the South and East of England arable farming dominated. In the West and North pastoral farming was more common. |
| Location: Colchester |
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Description: The crowd at a rural cattle and sheep auction showing how such meetings served as social as well as business events. |
| Historical Note: Many of the big farm owners were conscious of their position within the community much like their urban counterparts. Through dress they showed their aspiration to be seen as part of the gentry. |
| Location: Colchester |
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Description: Marmalade Emma and Teddy Grimes pose for the camera. c.1910. |
| Historical Note: The spread of urbanisation and the migration of large sections of the population from the countryside to towns still left a place for local eccentrics and characters. Even so these were often seen as relics of a redundant past. |
| Location: Colchester |
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Description: An urban shop selling fresh and packaged produce to the local area. An unusually informal posed photograph of staff and family members. |
| Historical Note: Local shops such as this offered a one-to-one service with most goods such as sugar, tea and biscuits being weighed out and packaged by hand. This slower rate of service fitted in with the slower pace of life generally. |
| Location: South Shoebury |
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Description: A view down a virtually empty North Street. |
| Historical Note: Photographs like this show early examples of modern advertising and branding beginning to emerge; such as the large 'HOVIS' bakery sign and tin plate tobacco signs. |
| Location: Southminster |
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Description: Informal photograph taken outside Bicknacre post office. |
| Historical Note: The fragility of the rural economy increased after industrialisation as improvements in transportation meant more produce was imported from abroad rather than being produced internally. One response can be seen in this retail outlet which acts not only as a local post office but also draper, tea and tobacco merchant and general grocery shop. |
| Location: Bicknacre |
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Description: Children enjoy sheltered bathing in Absalom's Floating Bath. Rules of modesty mean all are clothed. The subjects can afford to wear proper bathing gear. |
| Historical Note: The Industrial Revolution formalised leisure time for the working classes just as it did with the working week. Formal coastal resorts began to develop around the country offering not only the natural pleasures of the seaside but attractions such as piers, funfairs and artificial bathing areas. |
| Location: Southend |
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Description: Family portrait of a husband and wife with their daughter and family pet, c.1890. |
| Historical Note: Popular sentimentality towards domestic pets by the English upper and middle classes was frequently noted by commentators and this characteristic was still present in the Edwardian era. However, contradictory attitudes could also be seen in the continuance of activities such as 'ratting' and 'dog fighting'. |
| Location: Little Wakering |
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Description: Posed photograph of hunter and dog, c.1890. |
| Historical Note: Field sports were a central defining activity of the Edwardian gentleman. Shooting in particular was selected as the sport of choice by the wealthiest. Those of lower classes who also aspired to be 'gentlemen' often took up the sport in imitation. |
| Location: Little Wakering |
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Description: Young girl gathers fruit with governess, c.1890. The overturned basket of apples betrays the photographer's wish for a 'picturesque' scene in creating the image. |
| Historical Note: Photography was a popular leisure pursuit and developed many genres such as the posed slum photograph. Another genre drew on ideas of the rustic, where the subject could be posed in front of a painted back-drop or within a real setting. |
| Location: Little Wakering |
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Description: Posed photograph of a family gardener in his working clothes, c1890. |
| Historical Note: Although Edwardian England was the most urban nation in the world many of the upper classes and the middle classes kept a link with the rural past by maintaining estates or gardens. These were used for leisure and were on such a scale as to require the employment of dedicated workers. |
| Location: Little Wakering |
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Description: Fancy Dress Party, c.1890. |
| Historical Note: For the middle classes leisure time was often domestic. This reflected the home comforts they were able to afford as well as their aspirations towards the lifestyles of the upper classes. |
| Location: Essex |
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Description: Cycle club members, c.1904. |
| Historical Note: Cycling and cycle clubs were a characteristic pastime of the Edwardians. This was based on the mass production of inexpensive good quality bicycles. In addition it offered greater freedom, in particular to women, and the chance to briefly escape the overcrowding of towns. |
| Location: Braintree |
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Description: Photograph of members of West Essex Militia in and out of uniform from the Victorian era. |
| Historical Note: The civic life of the Edwardians was dominated by voluntary and self improvement societies of which the militia was just one example. |
| Location: Chelmsford |
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Description: A formal photograph of the ten man crew of Chelmsford Fire Brigade, 1907. |
| Historical Note: Although there was no national fire service until 1941 it had been a legal requirement for towns and villages to provide a fire service since 1835. The Towns Police Clauses Act of 1847 allowed the purchase of fire appliances, fire stations and the payment for firemen to crew them. During the Edwardian era such stations became a focus of civic pride. |
| Location: Chelmsford |
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Description: Crowds gather for Coronation celebrations, Tindal Square, 1911. |
| Historical Note: Changes in transportation during the Edwardian era reflected not only in technology but also social status. The civic dignitaries at the coronation parade travel in horse-drawn carriages accompanied by mounted police, whilst a larger group of revellers are in a motorised omnibus. In addition bicycles, a further technological innovation and revolutionary mode of transport, are present in the crowd. |
| Location: Chelmsford |
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