Anyone like to help try and solve a local history mystery? Very little to go on but we've had some success before!

[YeOldeTrot]

Hello

I'm back and calling on the Mumsnet history sleuths

I posted last month with a little jewellery box and we made some fascinating discoveries but this one is TOUGH

So, we have a photo. This photo was clearly once in a newspaper - possibly North Wilts Herald.

The couple in this photo are receiving bunches of flowers and it's believed that it was their Golden Wedding Anniversary and they were having their pic taken for the paper.

As for the year ... hard to say but clearly late 60s - early ish 70s?

So we've not got much.

Any pointers appreciated

Are you sure it’s a 50th anniversary photo? Maybe 60th even.
It’s a rather unusual composition with the flowers growing in the front of them in the picture. And the man also holding a bouquet is a little odd, and with the wife holding so many herself, Could they be a couple who ran a florist, or used their own garden flowers in bouquets for charity?
A retirement photo? Or the mayor and is wife standing down?

Have you put ‘golden / diamond wedding anniversary ’ and Wantage into Find my Past’s newspaper archive?

sorry nothing really to add, but I’d like to know who they are too now!

There's no way that man is 50! I think they both look around 70

I'm d say this couple are 70+ - look at his neck for example.

I know people tended to look older back then but this isn't a couple in their 50s, I'd put money on that

Competition winners?

@foreverbasil do you know where I can find the dress photo? Would love to see it - thanks!

I suspect it’s a bungalow not a house with a double front.

@BIWI possibly. But would they be presented with so many bouquets? I can count 5 - possibly 6.

That's a lot isn't it by anyone's standards

Newspaper photos were taken in black and white up to (at least) the early 2000s, based on our family photo archive! So I don't think you can date it based on it being black and white.
My great gran had very similar hairstyle and glasses on my parents wedding photos in the early 70s.

Why do you think it’s Wantage? Not sure why North Wilts paper would cover here.

Definitely Chrysanthemums looking at the leaves,
roses out still.
Hot day as window open.
House looks brick built , similar to that of my parents house built in 1967 .
Maybe check out local Chrysanthemum societies or gardening clubs
They may have old records and engraved shields/ cups with winners from that era.
Usually winners and runners ups were in local papers.
Good luck 🍀

I'm just looking on FMP and the records for the North Wiltshire Herald don't seem to go beyond 1949, which raises 2 questions

• did it cease publication?
• or did it become something different?

@SomethingUniqueThisTime it's definitely wantage and that's without any doubt. The photo was part of a bundle donated by a local man (now died) and the others in the bundle all identified bar this one.

I think @foreverbasil could be on to something with the dress pattern - the dress is from 1963. So is it a new dress? Or had this lady owned the dress for a few years? That could help narrow it down so can search the newspaper archives

I live in north Wilts very near Oxfordshire and we don’t really see news from as far away as wantage. Is it possible the location isn’t where they were known (eg at a family event in wantage but known and worked somewhere in north wilts. Hence Facebook groups drew a blank?)

Although maybe that’s a clue on timing - Swindon grew massively from mid 70s so maybe prior to that Wantage events would have been news in north wilts !

I’m not sure I’m going to be any use on this one, but I have one thought. The lapels on the man’s jacket are quite narrow for the 70s, which would suggest earlier. However, as an older gentleman, he may have preferred a less trendy style/had the suit for ages. So that may not be relevant!

It’s got a late 1960s, early 70s feel to me, both my parents wore very similar glasses, although they were a lot younger than this pair. I suspect the woman would have put on her best dress for the newspaper photograph so likely to be fairly new.
You can see wallpaper on the edge of the LH window. And the window handle on the RH side is quite an unusual shape, not seen one like that before.

I’d say mid 1960s. The style of dress, hair and specs is very similar to the photos of my grandparents when I was born. Things had changed somewhat by the very early 70s when my brother was born.

Ages, I’d guess 70 (him) and late 60s (her). People looked a lot older at younger ages from our 21st century perspective. So most likely Golden wedding I would think.

Ooh this is interesting!

I've just run the photos through a couple of colourising websites. Uploaded the results below. I used 2 separate websites and the colours are coming out similar in both. Brick work is pale, not red brick. This might help you narrow down the area.

Big caveat - I am not an expert on how these colourising websites work so apologies if I'm sending you duff info!

I would say 1970s. There's wired glass in the door behind them . We had an extension built in 76 and it was a planning requirement. There's also cellophane on the bouquets which seems more post 60s.

Is there no write up attached the photo from the newspaper ?

@SomethingUniqueThisTime @TeabySea @Jeffjefftyjeff

I was also sceptical about North Wilts papers covering somewhere as far away as Wantage but see this article. It looks as though they did.
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11566836.community-stalwart-prolific-letter-writer/

The North Wilts Herald did cease publication and became part of Swindon Advertiser by the looks of things: https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/aboutus

I wondered what that white bit was below the window.

It's a kind of fairing. You can see houses with it around Stockham Park, for example OX12 9HG.

It could probably date the house accurately as it is a very distinct style.

However my guess is a lot of houses will have had them removed. It may not allow you to locate the house, but at least date it and from that point find its location.

@MrsMoastyToasty im not sure that is wired glass i think its just got a pattern made of bubbly glass.

Have you checked the classified notices in the paper? I spent a summer writing similar stories when I was a student and all the retirement, wedding anniversary stories etc came from notices placed in the classified notices section. We always wrote more than were needed as they were handy fillers if it was a slow news week but they would get bumped if the space was needed for a news story or advertising. If it was never published, you might find the notice in the classifieds.

Most local papers used black and white film until the 2000s so that clue doesn’t help much. B&W is quick and easy to develop by hand without specialist equipment. Full colour newspaper printing was expensive. The first colour national newspaper launched in the 80s.

The flowers in the garden are chrysanthemums. It looks like a dahlia on the windowsill inside but it could be fake! You can see the side of a house reflected in the window (so not a straight street, the house is maybe on a corner). There is also a tree in full leaf reflected in the window, maybe a park or a small green on a housing estate.