A charabanc excursion in the early 1920s

This large format photograph - it measures 153 x 108 mm - is another from my own family collection.


My grandparents Dirk Smit (1895-1985) and Hendrika Louisa Schipper (1894-1981), otherwise known, at least to me, as Opa and Oma, were married in Amsterdam in December 1920. She is standing at the right, facing the driver, while he is sitting in the front seat, next to her, wearing a flat cap and with his face partly obscured by the steering wheel and horn. I assume that this photograph was taken some time between then and the birth of their first child in March 1926.

I have no idea what kind of group this was, but presumably they are on an outing somewhere. Charabanc outings were particularly popular in the period between the wars. As the vehicle appears to have solid rubber tyres, I can't believe that the ride would have been particularly comfortable, even on the smoothest of roads.

The Surrey Vintage Vehicle Society web site shows similar vehicles from the post-Great War period, and there are many images of similar charabancs on the net but I have found none that appears identical to this one. Bozi Mohacek, webmaster and vehicle registrar for the SVVS, very promptly responded to my enquiry with an informative analysis of the photo:

We note your comments about Holland but our experts in Holland tell us that the registration could not be Dutch because they only used one letter during this period. Suggestions on the plate included Denmark but they did not start registration until 1924; but even then the registration plate was not of the pattern shown. We can therefore relatively safely assume the registration is British. The registration refers to the Isle of Wight. Unfortunately the year records for the DL plate seem to no longer be available. Details are only available after 1929 by which time DL 6039 had been reached. On the assumption of even distribution of numbers over this period (very unlikely), DL 2362 would have been reached by about 1914/15. The vehicle shown is a Daimler Charabanc and is very much of the WW1 period with solid tyres. Getting the model number may be a little more difficult. Dating the vehicle does not of course help in dating the photo. Vehicles made in 1914/15 would have been put away or lightly used during WW1 and would still be 'as new' and fully usable in the 20s. An item concerning your enquiry will shortly be put up on our website on the Help Page. Hope this proves of interest.

Dik T. Winter's web page describes the system used for number plates in the Netherlands at this time:

In 1905 a new system was introduced. The new registrations consisted of a single letter followed by up to five digits. The letter indicated the province of issue. When this got exhausted a second letter was added, first Z and X next, still with up to five digits. These additional letters were only needed in the provinces of Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland and in Noord-Holland only very few GX registrations have been issued (the highest GX I know is 140, but there must have been more).

This appears to agree with the SVVS sources that the vehicle could not have been registered in the Netherlands. My own research on the net discovered that the format is very similar to that used in Great Britain at the time. The plates had silver letters on black until the 1960s, when black leters on yellow (rear) and white (front) became optional, and later compulsory. They had two letters followed by three, and later four, numbers. The two letters signify the issuing office, and DL would have been from Portsmouth or the Isle of Wight (Source: UK Registration Letters).


The charabanc in this image, from the Wickham Parish Council's web site is not the same make or model (actually, it's a little bigger, six doors down each side, instead of five) but it has very similar styling, and the number plate HO 2880 indicates that it was registered in Hampshire, possibly only a short ferry ride away from the Isle of Wight. The Francis Frith collection of old photos includes at least one of a charabanc outing dated 1918 in Seaview on the Isle of Wight.


This postcard image shows another charabanc outing, dated 1930, by an Isle of Wight photographer ...


... while this multi-view postcard illustrates that it was a popular way to visit the island's tourist attractions.

If the identification of the location is correct, then it is likely that my grandparents would have taken a train from Amsterdam to the Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland), where they would have caught a ferry to Harwich on the English coast, then a train to London, and another to Portsmouth ... not a brief excursion! Presumably their luggage was back at the hotel. I knew that my maternal grandparents were adventurous; I have seen photographs that they took all over Holland, and in Belgium, France, Andorra and Norway, but wasn't aware that they had visited England prior to a trip made in July 1962 to stay with their daughter's parents-in-law, i.e. my paternal grandparents, in Chellaston, Derbyshire.


That later trip is documented by at least two snapshots, the first of which is in my mother's collection, and shows Oma Smit with Grandma and Grandpa Payne in a churchyard, presumably somewhere in Derbyshire. I have a feeling that it was at Bakewell, but don't know where I got that idea from.


The second was scanned from my paternal aunt Bunnie's photographic collection last year. The inscription on the reverse reads, "July 1962" in my grandmother's handwriting, and then in my aunt's writing below that, "Mum & Dad with Mr. & Mrs. Smit on a Trent Bus outing to Scotland. Mum wearing hat. Mrs. Smit to her left. Dad top left in front of tree. Mr. Smit - taking photo?


The charabancs, and presumably much else, had changed considerably since their previous visit to England some four decades earlier!

Many thanks to Nigel for his input on this one.

A large group, possibly on a church outing - Frederick J. Boyes

Jane Porter recently sent me this image of a mounted print by Derbyshire photographer Frederick J. Boyes.


The photograph is 105 x 60mm with a large mount measuring 205 x 150 mm, the full extent of which is not shown in the image. Jane says, "I found this photo in an old box. My gg-grandfather Walter Baker (born 1859, Heckworthy, Devonshire & died 1950, Derby, Derbyshire) is seated in the front row, third in from the right, with his black hat on his knee." However, she knows nothing more about it.

I estimated that it was possibly taken between 1910 and 1920, and that it could have been a church outing, but I don't have any more bright ideas at the moment. If any reader thinks they can tell us more, please Email me.

P.S. Nigel Aspdin suggests that the building just visible in the background might be a "tin tabernacle."

A ladies' day excursion, location unknown

I've posted this carte de visite as a comparison with the cabinet card of a mens' excursion near West Hartlepool that I used a few days ago. Unfortunately this one has no photographer's name or location on the card mount, so I have no idea where it was taken.


There are fifteen people in the photo, all female, ranging in age from two children about eight years old to a couple of middle-aged women, perhaps in their fifties. Because of the variety in ages, it is difficult to know whether it is some type of extended family group, e.g. grandmothers, mothers and grandchildren, or whether they are unrelated. There are no clear family resemblances evident.

As with the previous photograph of a excursion, little attempt has been made to arrange the members of the group in a formal pattern, and it would have been difficult anyway, considering the irregular jumble of rocks on which they are sitting. I estimate from their clothing, hairstyles and hats that the photograph was taken in the late 1870s or early 1880s, perhaps between 1878 and 1884.

A gentlemen's day excursion near West Hartlepool, c.1890

The groups for which the cabinet card portrait was ideally suited did not have to be family groups, of course. I have come across many other types of groups, and hope to present some of these here in the coming weeks.


This group of twenty-three men are on an excursion somewhere, presumably somewhere near West Hartlepool (Durham), as that is where the photographer is from. Roughly half of them are bearded, and most of the remainder have moustaches and sideburns or Dundreary whiskers - only one young man, possibly in his mid-twenties clearly has neither. Many have bowler or homburg hats, although they have taken them off for the portrait. One has an umbrella and at least a couple have walking sticks.

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with Durham and the area around West Hartlepool at all, so I can't begin to suggest where it might be located. However, it may be that the cliff backdrop to the photograph immediately suggests a spot to someone with local knowledge - if so, I'd be pleased to hear from you (Email). I think it was taken in the late 1880s or early 1890s but, as I'm not particularly adept at dating men's clothing fashions, I'm quite likely to be out by a few years either way.


The photographer Robert Leithead was primarily a chemist, druggist and proprietor of a hairdresser's salon, who appears to have carried on the photography as a sideline, perhaps only briefly, styling himself as "Lew." An 1890 trade directory (Kelly's Directory of Durham, courtesy of the University of Leicester's Historical Directories) shows him with a chemist's shop at 58 Milton Street, and a hairdressing shop in Murray Street, both in West Hartlepool. The 1891 Census suggests that he was also a wine merchant and photographer, and that his fifteen year-old daughter Isabella was working in the hairdresser's as a "shop woman."

Post Script
Photo-Sleuth reader and contributer Nigel Aspdin has come up with a possible location for this photograph.

Maybe it could be High Force Waterfalls, which is further inland up the Tees, but it would be a day out trip from West Hartlepool. The Tees goes through Co Durham and exits into the North Sea at Hartlepool. We were there a few years ago but for some reason I have no photos of the falls, just [a photo outside the pub] at the top of the long path back up to the car park! If it was High Force, and I do think it quite likely, then I am sure your men had a pint or two at the same pub.

According to a Wikipedia article High Force is a waterfall on the River Tees, near Middleton-in-Teesdale, and was formed where the river crosses the Whin Sill: "The waterfall itself consists of two different types of rock. The upper band is made up of whinstone, a hard rock which the waterfall takes a lot of time to erode. The lower section is made up of carboniferous limestone, a softer rock which is more easily worn away by the waterfall. The wearing away of rock means that the waterfall is slowly moving upstream, leaving a narrow, deep gorge in front of it."


High Force waterfall, near Middleton-in-Teesdale, Tees Valley
Image courtesy of Wikipedia & Adrian Barnett/StoatBringer
Modern photos of High Force, such as this collection from Pictures of England, do show rock faces which are very similar to that in the background of Leithead's group portrait. It may even have been taken close to the lower right of this recent photo by Ben Gamble.


The spot is also shown on this satellite image from GoogleMaps:


View Larger Map
Ian West shows that the site is of some interest to geologists on his web site devoted to the Geology of Great Britain, hosted by the University of Southampton. It occurred to me that the group might be engaged on a geological excursion, but I think this is unlikely, as none are carrying hammers of any sort. A geological map of Durham on the same site shows that magnesian limestones outcrop for some distance to the north, west and south-west of West Hartlepool. Nigel and I are both of the opinion that the rocky outcrop in the background of the Leithead photo is probably composed of some kind of limestone. If this is the case, then it is still possible for the location to be closer to West Hartlepool than High Force, which has a dolerite sill overlying limestones and indurated shales, as shown in the portion of the geological map below.