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Old Photographs of Derby, England
This page features old pictures supplied by Maurice Woodmansee.

I would like to thank Maurice Woodmansee for allowing the world to see these rare images.

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To view large versions of any of the photographs below, simply click on a thumbnail.

The first shows a view of Bold Lane where my father had a photgraphic studio and shop. Its name is on the wall above the shop window. Above the shop two windows can be seen to have been blacked out. One of them for darkroom photgraphic processing and the other for studio work. Lighting in the studio was all artificial. On the other side of the road I believe was the Derby Bus Station. My father said that the location of the shop in relation to the bus station was important. On rainy days, or just waiting for a bus, people would come to shelter in his doorway or just to look at the display in the window. He would invite them into the shop and promote his business.
When the bus station moved to the Morledge, my father’s business at the shop and studio declined so much that he closed it down.
I don’t know the date of closure, but I do remember having my photograph taken in his studio when I was a very young boy.
I was born in 1929.
The second photograph is a view taken from the rear window of the shop. It shows flooding which, I was told was due to the under road channel which carried the Markeaton Brook through Derby, being blocked by a tree.

DP-OLDMWC-01 - A view of Bold Lane in about 1930 where my father had a photgraphic studio and shop. Its name is mounted in big letters on the wall above the shop window. Above the shop two windows can be seen to have been blacked out. One of them for darkroom photgraphic processing and the other for studio work. Lighting in the studio was all artificial.

My father said that Bold Lane was the terminus for several bus routes in Derby and that the location of his shop and studio in relation to the bus terminus was important. On rainy days, or just waiting for a bus, people would come to shelter in his doorway or just to look at the display in the window. He would invite them into the shop and promote his business. When the bus station moved to another part of Derby, my father’s business at the shop and studio declined so much that he closed it down. I don’t know the date of closure, but I do remember having my photograph taken in his studio when I was a very young boy. It must have been in the early 1930’s. I was born in 1929.

DP-OLDMWC-02 - A view taken from the rear window of the shop and studio in Bold Lane. It shows flooding which, I was told was due to the under road channel which carried the Markeaton Brook through Derby, being blocked by a tree.

DP-OLDMWC-03 - About 1937. A photo of 8 Mount Street, Derby, taken by my father. It is my sister who is standing in the front garden. She was Betty Woodmansee born in 1920, subsequently married Ron Tolley, lived in Rugby and died in 2005.

The family lived in this house at 8 Mount Street, until early 1938 when we moved next door to number 6, part of which can be seen on the left hand side on the photograph.

Number 6 was at the end of the terrace of houses. On the left hand side of number 6 was a large municipal building which I remember was used as a boys home or orphanage. Most boys were quite young, the eldest were probably no more than early teen age. They all dressed in a dark, almost navy blue uniform, black boots and knee length socks to match the rest of the uniform. They seemed to be highly disciplined. When the orphanage moved out, the building was used for night classes; I remember seeing chemical balances at the windows of one of the rooms at the back.

I could see all this by climbing up and looking over the wall in the back garden and by looking down at the yard from one of the back bedroom windows. The houses shown in the photograph were much bigger than the other houses in Mount Street, some local people called them the ‘big houses’. It is many years ago since I visited Derby and out of curiosity went to see the old houses; the row of ‘big houses’ and the municipal building next door to number 6 had been demolished.

I have no idea why the buildings were demolished; the remaining houses in the street had been left in tact. The municipal building at the end of the street practically joined the Burton Road and perhaps there had been some long term plan to widen the roads or build an island, I have no idea, it is pure speculation.

Maurice Woodmansee.

DP-OLDMWC-01

DP-OLDMWC-02

DP-OLDMWC-03

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