Old Whitby pictures from 100 years ago

I bought some old class negatives on eBay, which showed a family having a day out in Whitby which turned out to be in the year 1913 have since found out.

All the information about the year was given to me by members of the Facebook group called Whitby Memories which is a fantastic place to go if you like seeing real photographs of people in Whitby and read the stories the end of photographs from the past. At the time of writing it’s a closed group with almost 1500 members so its doing amazingly well.

The way we manage to find a date when this particular family which was just 11 years outside of the Victorian era which ended in 1901 when Queen Victoria died, and these pictures were taken in 1913.

I have never really known what year the photographs have been taken with I noticed that in the background of one of the beach shots you could see the pier extension is being constructed, and there was a view of the crane which was called the Ironman. It is well documented that this took place in 1913 and thats how we’ve managed to date photographs. There were suggestions that these photographs probably have been posed for to help promote local businesses but I am most of the other members dont think that is the case. When you look at the actual photographs they are not professionally  and look more realistic to just a family outing but obviously journeys pay the time very few people could afford to buy a camera it was a real luxury.

In one of the photographs the lady that features in many of the shots are looking into a shop window with two boys in a street called Haggersgate . I assumed the shop was what is now a cafeteria but some of the  knowledgeable members of pointed out that the various reasons this is not the case and that Street 100 years the Street itself had more buildings and was much longer.
So after much debate one member in particular a lady called Valerie checked out the census details of 1911 and so came up with the addresses on what the buildings were so we could work out exactly which building she was looking into 100 years ago.

After much deliberating and studying of photographs along with records it has now been almost certainly concluded that the shop the lady and boys were looking into was a general store at 2 Haggersgate, which had the sweet shop to the left 3 Haggersgate. Then just beyond these two buildings was 4 Haggersgate Star Inn, which is still there today.

The slightly funny thing is that a while back I went into the cafeteria at number 2 and the owners said we know about this old photograph of mine they had seen it on my website and they also thought that the lady had been photographed looking through their shop window but unfortunately turns out that this is not the case after all. They asked me if I could print a picture for them and so fa I have never gotten around to doing yet but if I do maybe I shouldnt tell them the truth it might disappoint them.

Telephone Alan on (01947) 603746
Mobile (07813) 779273
E-mail alan@endeavourcottage.co.uk

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