Old Photograph of Grindleford - A Village Maypole (1911)

This delightful photograph of a Village Maypole is believed to have been taken no earlier than 1908. The original was badly damaged but it has been digitally repaired using PaintShop Pro v8.10 (JASC Software © 1991-2003).

The little girl on the left of the group of three in the centre of the photograph was my auntie Florence Emily REEVES, b.1898. She is wearing a tartan kilt, and the group of three girls are holding a Union Jack flag between them. This image, and the original photograph are not clear enough to be able to see this in detail; however I was told it was so by my mother. The flag suggests the occasion wasn't just the Village Wakes, or Carnival, so perhaps it may have been a national celebration. Perhaps it was the Coronation of George V in 1911? I'd thought originally my auntie looked to be about aged 10, but possibly she's as old as 13! Hmm... on reflection, I think it must have been the Coronation (22 June 1911)!

The setting for the photograph is the old centre of the village, the Village Green, where the road from Hathersage to the right meets the road which can be seen on the left of the photograph coming down from the summit of Sir William Hill. The Village War Memorial now occupies this site. Unfortunately it is not known who any of the others on the photograph might have been; however if anyone would like to try to identify any of them here is an enlarged version (288K).

Note: if you think the above photo-quality is poor, you should see the original of this photo, which was very badly damaged - as shown in the thumbnail below. It looks like someone had upset their tea on it! The restoration does (I think) recapture the essence, if not the detail.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)

This is one of the postcards in ‘The Reeves Collection’.
In other words, it belonged to my mother.