Thursday 11 November 2010

Coach trip at Saltash Passage in the early 1900s


This lovely old photo was taken in Saltash Passage in the early 1900s. The area is instantly recognisable today and the buildings in the background remain the same. On the left is the old ferry waiting rooms and behind the horses is the Ferry House Inn. It's interesting to see the old cobbles and tramlines now long buried under modern tarmac.
It's obviously a very wet day and the people in the photo don't look too happy, maybe because of this. I recognise the people near the horse as being members of the Donne family and their descendants still live in the Passage today. I wonder how many other local families appear in this picture.
I've no information about the photo so it's impossible to know what the
event or trip was or where it was going. The poor horses are all skin and bone and it's easy to count their ribs. The obviously didn't get fed as well as they should have. Perhaps this photo was taken during wartime.
There's a banner on the side of the coach and the man at the top is carrying a large flag but I haven't been able to read much on it. One of the words on the banner looks like 'play'.
This is certainly a very interesting photo and one that I'd never seen before until I was kindly sent it by Saltash historian, Bruce Hunt.

No comments:

Post a Comment