For anyone interested in the fascinating visual history of the Breamish Valley contained in the Breamish Valley Photographic Collection, you’ll probably be intrigued to know that another vintage photo of Peggy Bell’s Bridge has been added to the growing collection.
There will be a free talk today about the discovery, preservation and publication of the photographic glass slides of the Breamish Valley postman George Blyth. The event is organised by Hedgeley WI and visitors are welcome!
The local amateur photographer GEORGE BLYTH (b. 27 May 1875) is informally known as the ‘postman photographer’. This is for good reason, having worked as a rural postman for around 43 years.
GEORGE BLYTH was the first child of Charles Blyth(e) and Elizabeth English, who were married sometime during the 2nd quarter (April-June) of 1875. According to the 1939 Register of England and Wales, he was born on 27 May 1875. Assuming this is accurate, this entails that Elizabeth was pregnant at the time of her marriage. George was subsequently baptised on 25July 1875 at Belford, Northumberland. At that time, his father Charles was a farm labourer living at Twizels Village.
A colourised postcard of the West Hedgeley Cottages has been added to the Breamish Valley Photographic Collection.
It was kindly donated by Sally Tait (personal collection, 2022) as part of the ongoing Breamish Hall Heritage Project.
With the recent republication of A History of Shawdon Hall, this prompted me to search for a vintage image of the Hall, as the ones we’ve had access to are relatively recent images. I eventually found and purchased a postcard from Berlin. Yes! Berlin in Germany. Who’d have thought that you’d have to go back to the EU to obtain old images of your local area?
Thanks once more to May Wilson sharing her personal collection of vintage photographs of Powburn and the Breamish Valley, we have been able to add another image of the Old Powburn Shop to the Breamish Valley Photographic Collection (BVPC).
Thanks to May Wilson for letting us have a copy of an old (possibly 1950s-1960s) photograph of some properties in Powburn from her personal collection.
If you read the recent post entitled Wholesale Rabbit and Game Dealer about Andrew Thompson and The Old Powburn Shop, you will likely have noticed that May Wilson (who kindly provided a copy of the postcard featured in the post) also recently came into possession of two other postcards – both of which give views of Powburn prior to 1913. They are:
Thanks to Jean Givens of Brandon, a new photo has been added to the Breamish Valley Photographic Collection – a photograph of 30 soldiers in the local Home Guard during World War II.
The British Library is preserving this site for the future in the UK Web Archive at www.webarchive.org.uk
