Today I have uploaded around 200 new images to the Archive
All images with a reference number higher than 2751 are new. New items can be found under the following categories:
Also added people with surnames starting with B C E F G H J M O P S & W
and lots of new Groups
I’m so fed up with all this ‘Black Friday’ business which is invading our screens at the moment. I thought I’d have a Black & White Friday instead. See what I did there?
So for the next week up to and including Sunday 2nd December 2018 I am offering a 50% discount on all black & white Old Walton photos from my Archive.
Go to the Old Walton Photo Archive and choose your photos from more than 3,000 available there. If you can’t find what you want send me an email and I’ll try to help.
Picture sizes and normal prices can be seen at http://www.putmans.co.uk/OldWaltonprices.htm
and details of how to order prints at http://www.putmans.co.uk/OldWalton_HowToOrder.htm
All orders must total at least £12 before discount (£6 after discount).
Make someone happy this Christmas (even if it’s only yourself).
As Armistice Day approaches and the media is overwhelmed with memories of the end of the First World War exactly 100 years ago, I thought I’d write a bit about Walton’s own War Memorial.
The Walton Parochial Church Council arranged in early 1918 for a stained glass window and a tablet in All Saints Church to be the town’s memorial. This was made and installed soon after the end of the war. However widespread feeling in the town was that any memorial should be placed where everyone, regardless of religious denomination, could appreciate it.
It was decided that the whole town should be canvassed and this letter was distributed in June/July of 1918
A public meeting was arranged in 1920 and ideas discussed.
The original idea of the memorial being within the church was confirmed.
But, there was opposition to the scheme, as some felt that it had been manipulated by the Anglican Church members.
The strength of this opposition eventually resulted in the official scheme being changed to a cenotaph to be erected on the Parade near to the Marine Hotel
The cenotaph was dedicated in November 1922 as can be seen in the photos below.
The exact location is better seen in the photo below taken some time later.
This was the cenotaph’s first location and first dedication.
In 1947 it was decided to move it to a new and possibly safer location in the gardens adjacent to the railway station. Here you can see its second dedication ceremony conducted by Rev. Owen.
Here it stayed until the 1970s when it made its next move to the newly landscaped gardens which had replaced the old cemetery.
The picture below, taken from the church tower, shows it in its third location in 1976.
It still stands here today.
Over the summer months I have received a number of photographs claiming to have a connection with Walton but I do not recognise either the people or the places.
This first scene is definitely not Walton although the lady who sent it to me says that ‘Walton’ is written on the reverse of the original. Could it be another Walton? It’s an interesting photo.
The property below is also claimed to be in Walton. Do you recognise it?
And finally three photographs of people from the past. Do you positively recognise any of them, please?
A while ago I received a piece of Walton history in the form of a photograph of a beer glass.
It was sent to me by Roger Wade (the gent in the photograph) asking if I could throw any light on the engraved greeting on the glass, which had been a Christmas gift to his grandfather in 1924.
You will see that it mentions P F Cole of The Albion Hotel, who I can only assume was the licensee or manager at that time (although he is not listed on the Pub History.com web site). 
Roger’s grandfather’s name was Matthew Roger Wade and he was a coastguard in the town at that time. No doubt The Albion was his ‘local’.
Does this mean anything to anyone?
It’s raining today and a post on the Clacton & District Local History Society Facebook site has inspired me to go down memory lane.
Mark Barrett (the son of one of Walton Primary School’s most appreciated 1950s teachers) posted a photo of a wallet in which customers’ photo prints were supplied by Putmans in the 1950s. It was similar to this one. This reminded me that I have a number of old print wallets stored away.
So here is a brief history of Putmans Print Wallets.
The earliest one I’ve ever seen was probably in use in the 1920s. This was when Frank Putman started in business working from his parents’ home at 12 Church Villas, where he developed and printed films in a shed in the back garden. He had a hut on the Albion Beach where he both took photos and also accepted holidaymakers’ films for processing. 
This was at a time when Kodak was the most popular name in photography.
It refers to “The Kodak Way” and “Velox” Gaslight printing paper which was sold in three different grades for the discriminating amateur to get the very best out of any negative contrast.
Also it advertises The “Kodak” Self-Timer which could be attached instead of a cable release to enable the owner to include themselves in the picture.
‘Selfies’ are not new
The ‘Kodak’ Magazine was available for two pence monthly.
Frank Putman then leased premises at 86/88, High Street where a simple, locally printed manila envelope was used to hand back the customer’s prints. This was probably during WWII when the business was carried on by his wife Jessie, whilst he was serving in the RAF.
In the 1950s the yellow Kodak wallet pictured at the top of this post were used and were then followed by a neat, smaller wallet, supplied by Ilford Films, with a variety of pictures on the covers. At this time most films were roll films (120, 620, 127, 116, 118 etc.) and they were contact printed. i.e. the prints were made the same size as the negatives. All of this was done manually – no automation. Larger prints were made using the conventional enlarger.
It was around this time that I came onto the scene. I started working as ‘the lad’ doing anything I was allowed to do, and at 11-years-old I thought I could do everything. My main task was to load the individual prints which came out of the darkroom having been washed, onto a moving canvas belt which took them around a highly polished and very hot stainless steel drum to both dry them and impart a glaze (shiny surface) to them. At this tender unenlightened age I relished this job as very occasionally there would be a topless female photo.
I joined the business when I left school at 16 and by then the term ‘Enprint’ was the preferred size of print. These were a bit larger than the old contact prints and the darkroom had been equipped with an Enprint printing machine and automatic roll paper processor.
Putmans processed and printed films for all the Walton, Frinton and Kirby chemists and other outlets where film was sold during the summer months.
It was down to me to cycle to all of these shops twice a day to collect the films and then deliver the finished prints.
In the peak summer time this amounted to hundreds of films each day.
Winter time was quite a different matter and this was when we serviced the machines and spent hours printing the name on the wallets as you can see in the above picture. This was done by an amazing little machine called a “Rollboy” which printed four different colour inks each time it was rolled across a wallet. 
The final style wallet used was this one which was commercially printed and supplied to us at great expense in the tens of thousands.
If you have a Putman photo wallet tucked away somewhere – and there must be thousands of them still in boxes and lofts – I would be pleased to see it if it is different from any I’ve illustrated here.
A few wet days after a splendid sunny summer has returned me to my desk and to pass the time I have been looking at and scanning a few more negatives from the Putman Archive.
This photograph taken on 23rd October 1947 in Walton cemetery intrigued me. The negative was catalogued under the name Polzelbauer which I discovered was probably an Austrian surname and I can only assume that this was the name of the lady in the photo.
Reading the names on the grave markers it was obvious that these were the resting places of German airmen and sailors killed during WWII.
I immediately turned to Geoff Rayner’s excellent book “Seaside Front Line” which lists all events and incidents at Frinton, Walton, Kirby and Great Holland from 1939 to 1945. Sadly I could not find anything relevant around the dates on the grave markers.
My next move was to send a copy of the photograph to Geoff for his opinion. True to form I soon received a reply which I copy below:
“I see an interesting challenge in that photo! The dates are probably unlikely to tie-up with dates in my book as I imagine these are bodies washed up on the beach or collected by the lifeboat and they could have been in the water for weeks or months. One name that I would have expected to have seen there was Fritz Kessler, the pilot of the Fw190 brought down just off Frinton on 30 May 43. His body was brought to the pier by the lifeboat the same day. Perhaps he was on a different grave marker just out of shot.”
The next day this truly comprehensive follow-up from Geoff landed on my desk:
“All except Seaman R Kurschnet were relocated to the German Military Cemetery at Cannock. Maybe that’s the link with the lady – a visit prior to transferring him back to Germany/Austria? She might be a sister, an aunt or maybe his mother (hard to tell her age) who had re-married.
The remaining three in that left hand grave are in adjacent graves at Cannock: all in plot 5 row 7, nos 147, 148 & 149.
From the right hand grave, Thomaschewski is also in plot 5 row 7, and in grave 145. Maybe the ‘unknown’ person is in 146? Unfortunately Baumann is a common name and no first name is listed on the grave marker. At Cannock there is a Walter Baumann (died 4 Feb 43, aged 22) in plot 5, row 5, grave 120. So, close to the others but not with them. The date might be significant though – see below.
I imagine there might be another grave marker just out of shot to the right containing the Fritz Kessler (30.5.43) I mentioned earlier. I wonder why he wasn’t popped in the same grave as Baumann as that has only three in it but there are four in the other grave.
Individuals:
Hornatschek 29 Oct 40. (Heinrich) An Me109 fighter pilot shot down by RAF fighters in the Thames Estuary on 30 Sep 40 during the Battle of Britain.
Kuhn 30 Oct 40. (Alfred) One of the crew of a Ju88 bomber targeting London and shot down by RAF fighters on 27 Sep 40 during the Battle of Britain. The other three crew members are listed as ‘missing’.
Salomo 31 Oct 40. (Alfred August) One of the crew of a Do17 bomber which failed to return from a raid on 30 Sep 40 during the Battle of Britain. The rest of his crew are reported as ‘missing’.
Kurschnet 16 Mar 42. No information found, but see comments above about possible repatriation.
Thomaschewski 30 Apr 42. (Johann) German Navy. At Cannock date of death is given as 25 Jan 42.
Baumann (4 Mar 43). Possibly ‘Walter’ whose date of death at Cannock is recorded as 4 Feb 43 (age 22). This may tie in to an incident in my book for the evening of 4 Feb where an aircraft was seen to come down in the sea between Frinton and Holland. The following morning the Coastguards reported the same location for an aircraft and a German dinghy was found off Frinton. I think it unlikely that the date on the grave marker would be incorrect, although of course it is possible, so it means he was in the water for some time – maybe trapped in the wreckage then popped free four weeks later. Things should be clearer when/if I identify the aircraft involved in the 4 Feb incident and check the crew names.
Unknown. (18 Mar 43). No information, but maybe from the same aircraft as Baumann.”
I was not even aware that there was a German Cemetery at Cannock Chase, but soon found a lot of details online. This is a photo of the site
I am recording the names of the fallen Germans here as with today’s Internet and the ability to search the Web so easily, maybe one day a relative will discover the photos and find comfort in knowing that the Brits at that time gave the dead men a decent burial.
