Out and About in Northampton, 1977
Some pics from out and about in Northampton in 1977 - the Carnival, the Raft Race and the Borough Show.
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Northampton 1977
A few shots from around Northampton, including some from the top of the Grosvenor centre (which prove that I do indeed remember when all those bits were fields...) and of the Guildhall prior to the modern addition.
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Derngate
In 1977 my father took a series of photos for Northampton High School, a private school for girls that at the time was based in Derngate, as part of their centenary celebrations - a number of the images appeared in their centenary magazine. I'm not quite sure how he got the gig though - quite possibly an amateur dramatics contact.
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British GP 1977
This is the last of the motorsport - our trip to Silverstone for practice at the British Grand Prix in July 1977. Notable for a couple of things - the weird and wonderful 6-wheel Tyrell and also the debut of the Turbocharged Renault, the first turbo F1 car.
For the afficionados:
#1 James Hunt in a McLaren
#3 Ronnie Petersen in a Tyrell
#17 Alan Jones in a Shadow
#11 Niki Lauda in a Ferrari#5 Mario Andretti in a Lotus
#12 Carlos Reutemann in a Ferrari
#24 Rupert Keegan in a Williams
#4 Patrick Depailler in a Tyrell
#15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille in a Renault
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Black and White – done!
Feeling a bit emotional...
I have actually finished scanning all of the black and white negatives - 20,254 frames from 1954 to 2005, in a process that has taken a few days under 3 years.
This is the last image, taken in Lyon in 2005.
I'm only actually half way through the entire scanning job, but the rest of it is in colour - negative and slides.
Special credit to the Epson V700 scanner which is still going strong, but will now probably fail tomorrow as I've said that. I've had to buy a new negative holder as the existing one is starting to crack, but it's done very well!...
An experiment in surrealism
Inspired by Magritte's "Alter Ego"
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London 1976
The other part of the summer holiday was a stay with my dad's sister in London.
This involved meeting a new cousin (hello Mike!), a trip down the river to Greenwich and the Cutty Sark, London Zoo and a day trip to Brighton.
It has to be said that what the young lady from the beach at Brighton is wearing would probably raise eyebrows now - 36 years later. Well, maybe not in Brighton....
Bewdley 1976
Part of the summer holiday in 1976 was spent in a holiday cottage (actually a converted railway carriage) on the banks of the River Severn just outside Bewdley.
Trips to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, the Severn Valley Railway (which had a stop just up the road) and West Midlands Safari Park.
Mother had an interest in the Industrial Revolution for some reason, which probably led to the trip to Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale and Blists Hill.
I have a very vivid memory of being baking hot in the back of the car going round the safari park, sat in the boot - it wasn't a saloon I hasten to add!...
Abington Park 1976
Some shots from Abington Park in the summer of '76
The wonderful Gallone's ice cream vans, still there to this day. Is the ice cream as good as it was?
The council obviously had more money than it does now, and there were various entertainments put on in the park during the summer - these are some Belgian flag wavers and a Scottish band with a drum major (or perhaps minor judging by the size of her).
These are the Celebrated Ratliffe Stout Band - I know the name, but really don't know much about them apart from the fact that they came from Northampton, were a folk group and were named after a Northampton beer. Very hard to find out anything about them on t'interweb.
And one of me, probably eating a Gallone's. And yes, the top is home-knitted.
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