Demolition of the late Hilda Copes cottage and shop.

Look for one thing and find another, odd how often it seems to happen to me. I MUST start to get my JPG's properly titled and organised. After my hard drive failed and I lost so many of my pix I was told of an Australian firm that had a preogramme that could recover files even although the drive had been re-formatted. Only problem was I saved aeound 12,000 JPG's but all of them were titled Lostfile #### with a serial number. Full size pix and thumbnails ones as well. The scanning my negatives over, a job that should have been done years ago I just numbered them instead of titleing as I went.

When I looked for Hilda Copes cottage demolition a couple of months back I could not find it. Now looking for pix of family it turns up. 

I have just passed the 100 mark and with some of the pix I am trying hard to get some of the negatives scanned, Unfortunately it seems that either old film was used on the 126 negatives or there was camera malfunction. This example of Alexandra Court being built is typical of some of the difficult ones.  I lean towards Old Film because some of the later dated negatives were quite OK with no colour blotches like this one.

However blotches or no the pictures are records of occurrences in Clevedon in the 1980's. Probably no-one else had taken. 

Have a nice job now, after finishing John's negatives.
Jane passed me over Phil Ellis' negatives to scan. He was the Traffic Warden for Clevedon for some years and carried a small camera with him when he was on duty. Anything of interest to be seen and he took pix.
I have started with the 126 film, probably taken with a Pen auto exposure camera like the one I have. The negatives strip are in 4's and will just fit into the 35mm carrier of my 4870 scanner although it trims the top by about 6.5%.
I think maybe the film was old because it requires quite a lot of twiddling - Contrast and Colour Saturation-wise when editing. Results are not too bad though 

Demolition of the old Police Station in Old Church Road Clevedon, approx 1985-6 pix by Phil Ellis

The old Barn at the head of Decoy Pool lane, The sky was cloudless and very pale so I edited and added a suitable set.

The Rushy Ground

The same with this one taken on the same morning.


Taken later on using my Sony A350 converted to take infra-red shots without using a filter. Sky shows dark because there is no infra-red heat out in space.

Odd how folk don't realise that things change so fast. The older generation dies out and their vocabulary dies with them. Names of places change, slang or idiom alters. Words get forgotten.

Mrs Hurley's shop for 'as new' wardrobes

I posted this picture on Everything Clevedon; a group on Facebook. There was almost an instant clamour of members saying they had never heard of the place. Also some who said their older relatives could remember it well. Yet the name dates only from about 150 years ago and the picture from early 1900's. Pre 39-45 war it was quite common to refer to a short section of Parnell Road as 'The Barton'. Many of the terraces built in the town had names given to them by the builders, the memories of this too is gradually dying out.  Unless it is recorded Clevedon will lose a lot of its early history. 

Spring Tide

Well the wind was from the right angle and the tide fairly high although 2 days on from its highest. So I went down the Beach to get some shots. I took advantage of my blue card and parked above the sailing club in the shelter of the privet hedge there. I saw to my astonishment that some drivers were parked along the beach section. What the salt will do to their cars is amazing. 

The someone carrying a camera came along the Alcove esplanade, knowing full well what the tide can do there it is the last place I would want to carry my SLT A7. I didn't work part time until I was 83 years old so that I could buy camera stuff, just to get it covered with salt spray.

Sure enough up came a splash, they had to turn their back and got soaked. I expect the camera got some too. I can remember back a few years now when a photographer with a Rollieflex 6x6 stood there and had to do the same thing. What it did to his camera Lord only knows.

I would have taken my shots from the Pier Copse but parking would have been more of a problem, walking any distance now can be tiring. It is easier to get shots from there that cover the Alcove Esplanade and the beach road near Spray Point.

Taken from the Pier Copse viewpoint several years back. 

The Herring Bridge over the Land Yeo.

The Herring Bridge, probably the oldest bridge in Clevedon. Nothing to do with fish though. The name is a corruption of Hurn Bridge, (Heron Bridge) named after the shape of the river dog-leg there being compared to the leg of a heron as it stands looking for prey at the waterside.

I have been a member of Facebook for some time now but posted very little because I did not like the way they permitted “Grooming” on the site.

However I have – this week – joined the Everything Clevedon group. A very active number of people who post things concerning, and only concerning Clevedon, where they live or lived. Many of those that post are genuine Clevedonians but there are plenty who have come to live in our town that appreciate what we have and try to keep.

Many are interested in things long gone, or ancient bits of the town. 

Place de la Concorde Paris Autumn 1945

Came across some negatives taken when we travelled from Schleswig in north Germany down to Istres in the south of France. We were sent down to rebuild the communications on the airfield there that was being used to re-patriate ex-prisoners of war from the far east. I had a very cheap roll film camera and took some pix as we drove through Paris. 

 Stopped for a mid-day break and meal. There was not many of 20 Construction Section, Most were from 135 Line. Some faces I can still recognise but most names not.

Pic of myself taken when we pulled off the road and stopped outside of a POW Camp in the Rhone Valley. 

I was suffering from a sore throat at the time and could eat very little. When we got to Istres I was in the RAF hospital for a week with a double Quinsy in the throat.

Nothing to eat for three days and only thin chicken soup. 

On the fourth day I was allowed some solids. Chicken soup with several pieces of cut up chicken in it. Also a real treat - rice pudding and also custard as a sweet afterwards. 10th Air Formation Signals were in Italy, so why were we sent all the way down there from the 11th and then all the way back?