Sometimes strange but interesting extra bits and bobs

Frequently it’s the bits and bobs, the odds & ends, the mingle-mangle mishmash that bring a place to life.

Old photos are, perhaps, the most evocative. We are very visual. Seeing a house or church as it used to be, or a street, perhaps with a horse and cart or children dressed in the fashions of yore can bring back some strong memories. Images give us a clue of how things have changed in a way no other medium can do.

RSPCA sign at the end of The Avenue
RSPCA sign at the end of The Avenue

Maps can be both interesting and beautiful.. A time series of maps shows the development of a place clearly. Which houses and streets came first, when did we lose that green space?, when did that infill happen?

The pubs that a town or village had and those that have been lost also tell a story as, these days, they are converted into housing or knocked down.

Advertisements and directories show us what people were buying and who lived where as well as what businesses, shops and services existed and exist no more.

The past is a foreign country, but a journey and visit in the mind can be made via the bits and bobs.

Bradford Road 1950
Bradford Road 1950

Combe Down, Monkton Combe and Prior Park photos
Combe Down, Monkton Combe and Prior Park photos, drawings, paintings, engravings etc., especially good quality old images are not easy to find compared with…

Maps of Combe Down
There are a number of excellent online sources for old maps, many with overlay capabilities on to modern maps. For the Combe Down area try…

Pubs of Combe Down and Monkton Combe
The pub has long been one of the great institutions of British society and a centre for community life. Tabernae (originally shops and not just shops selling alcohol) were introduced by the Romans and the word eventually…

G Mannings & Sons - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Saturday 2 July 1938
Mannings & Sons – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 2 July 1938

Adverts mentioning Combe Down or Monkton Combe
Newspapers were the major advertising medium during the first half of the 19th century, a position unchallenged until the emergence of television in the 20th century. Early adverts were used to…

Street furniture
Street furniture is objects placed or fixed in the street for public use, such as post boxes, phone boxes, benches, fountains, watering troughs, memorials and everything else. Although it’s now something with which we…

Combe Down and Monkton Combe directories
Below are extracts, from Combe Down and Monkton Combe directories.They’re from the Bath Post Office Directory and Kelly’s directories for a range of years from 1864 – 1939…