Puddles 2013:
Phil’s History:
A ‘work in progress’ family history website starting from an Archer family of South Oxford, who were freemen, brewers, haulage contractors, and first ‘Archer & Co’ then ‘Archer Cowley & Co’ furniture removers in the 19th and 20th Centuries, inter alia, to whom are linked by marriage the Penfolds and Wells of Southwark and Surrey, the Reeds of Devon, the Gilders of Oxford and Hinckley, the Morgans of Petworth, Sussex, the Garners of Middleton, Lancs and many others. There are connections via Phil and the present generation (born 1930s/40s) with a patent law firm known as "UD&L" with motor-racing and Scottish antecedents.
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Gray’s Elegy:
For who to dull forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind.
Phil’s maternal great-grandfather.
William Wells, Chrysanthemum-culturist, exhibitor, and writer, of Merstham, Surrey.
William Wells (1848-1916)
Phil’s paternal great-great uncle, James Archer (1836-1922): founder of Archer Cowley & Co. (click on the image for full-size view).
WGRA with Ernie and Bert
PBA with Michael and Edward and Gwen on 7.7.2009:
Caption:
So, this is the nearest photo for comparison with the above one of WGRA and Ernie and Bert, that I can find. Three grandson’s of WGRA and their centenariian mother, on her 100th birthday.(20.3.17). A lawyer, a sportsman, and a theologian, (to contrast with a Transport Contractor, an Automotive Industry importer/exporter, and a Thames Consevancy Officer); born in the late 1930s, early 1940s, and late 1940s respectively, about two generations after WGRA and his brothers of course. Living in Rutland, London, and Oxford, respectively - to contrast with William, Ernest and Herbert, who lived in Oxford, Netherlands, and The Thames Valley (Tilehurst), respectively.
(Click-on the above thumbnail for full-size image of) Post-war steam heyday: Stanier Black 5 at Oxford MPD, just over the canal from Jericho, in the 1950s. Both locos seen here in one of Phil’s teenage-years photo-collection show unmistakably the Swindon influence of Churchward’s taper boiler and Belpair firebox. (pba.Ensign Selfix.16.on.120:Ilford FP3 developed in ID11).
Below (click on the thumbnail) High Street, Oxford, early on the morning of 1st January, 2000. Captured by my brother Edward. No traffic. No buses. No people. Unbelievable. It’s as it must have been almost 100 years before when WGR Archer photographed St Aldates. Click here to compare.
...Dreaming of days gone by...
The Kerry Dances:
Oh, the days of the Kerry dancing
Oh, the ring of the piper's tune
Oh, for one of those hours of gladness
Gone, alas, like our youth, too soon!
When the boys began to gather
In the glen of a summer's night
And the Kerry piper's tuning
Made us long with wild delight!
Oh, to think of it
Oh, to dream of it
Fills my heart with tears!
Was there ever a sweeter Colleen
In the dance than Eily More
Or a prouder lad than Thady
As he boldly took the floor.
Lads and lasses to your places
Up the middle and down again
Ah, the merry hearted laughter
Ringing through the happy glen!
Oh, to think of it
Oh, to dream of it
Fills my heart with tears!
Time goes on, and the happy years are dead
And one by one the merry hearts are fled
Silent now is the wild and lonely glen
Where the bright glad laugh will echo ne'er again
Only dreaming of days gone by in my heart I hear.
Loving voices of old companions
Stealing out of the past once more
And the sound of the dear old music
Soft and sweet as in days of yore.
When the boys began to gather
In the glen of a summer's night
And the Kerry piper's tuning
Made us long with wild delight!
Oh, to think of it
Oh, to dream of it
Fills my heart with tears!
(Added 11.7.18):
There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill-behoves any of us to find fault with the rest of us. (James Truslow Adams).
qaa© Philip B Archer 2014