This series of photos shows Clare Farm over the years taken from approximately the same position at the end of Church Lane. The dates some of these were taken isn't known so any suggestions or clues would be gratefully received.
1. This photo - taken in 2021 - is displayed first purely to give some modern day context. The bushes to the right of the picture hide the fact that the buildings shown in the subsequent older pictures no longer exist. Historians and car buffs might observe the contrast between the modern day EV transport in the middle of this picture and the evidence of an earlier form of travel in the foreground.
2. This is believed to be the earliest picture in the collection. Of particular note is the brook which runs across the road. In later years this was buried in a pipe under the road. On the right children are playing on a bridge dressed in white pinafores. At the end of Church Lane sits a 'traffic' island.
3. This picture appears to have been taken with the brook behind the photographer. On the left there is a well in front of Brook Cottage. The pollarded tree in front of Clare Farm shows that this photo wasn't taken at the same time as the previous one.
4. Taken ca.1950 the cottage in the centre has lost its dormer windows. Brook cottage to the left is relatively unchanged.
4. Another undated photo shows the pollard tree is now full of branch and leaf. Had the brook been buried under the road at this time?
1982 and colour was invented. Brook Cottage - with an extra couple of dormer windows - and Clare Farm now sit in front of a road with a white line down the middle. However did people manage to drive before this?
Source
- Kevin McDonnell Collection
