The Past in Pictures with Pickfords.

This photograph was sent into Pickfords by Joanne Cockram of Burnham on Sea.  Joanne is interested in family history and was trying to establish when it was taken and maybe identify the people.

Through discussions with Pickfords, and by a process of elimination, Joanne is pretty convinced that the little boy is her great grandfather, Tom Stevens.  Tom was born in 1890 so we reckon this photo was taken between 1903 and 1905 when he would have been around 14, just right for setting out into the world of work. Little would that innocent face have known what was just around the corner: although Tom, like most of his generation, fought in the Great War, unlike many he survived and had two children.  He died in 1976 and was recorded then to be a millwright.

The photo was taken, probably, in Birmingham as that was were Tom lived.  It’s interesting to note that even that far back, the moving industry was providing ‘free estimates’. It seems as though it was always thus.

The man is so far unidentified … as is the horse.



Photo: Thomas Stevens (centre) accompanied by one unidentified man and one unidentified horse.