May Day

Photo credit

First things first: I have seen another picture of the suspected Adams shop, taken in 1939, and it is indeed Adams on the newer sign. Alas, this picture is on a commercial postcard site, so I cannot put it on this blog. Although, I suppose if I were to order a copy of it, then I could do what I like with it, as I believe there are no copyrights on old postcards (? - will check into that). In the mean time, if you go here:  http://www.francisfrith.com/cranborne/photos/   you can enlarge the thumbnails and see for yourself.

On the same site, you can look at the "Memories" page for Cranborne, and one of the ancestors of the Adams that owned the shop when the picture was taken has written a note.  He must be a third cousin 4 times removed, or some such thing.  I'll have a look for the people he mentions and see where they come in.  So far, I haven't gone forward with any of George's uncles and aunts and their offspring.  It will be one of Thomas's brothers that was the shoe and boot maker, and his son(s) that took over from him.


Another interesting thing on this website is a note from a person who writes that he remembers seeing the Hindenburg (!) fly over Cranborne. I looked it up and found out that the Luftwaffe used the Hindenburg to do some reconnaissance photography while it was touring over southern England in 1936, and it is known that it flew over Portsmouth and Plymouth (the two main British naval bases), so it's entirely possible that the airship was spotted from Cranborne.  I expect Portland Harbour would have been of great interest to the Germans too.

As it turns out, it is the 75th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster in 5 days.

To the garden with me now.  It has warmed up sufficiently to start on phase II of the fish pond relocation project. 

Picture credits: http://www.avpu52.dsl.pipex.com/Coronation%20maypole%20dance%201911.jpg , http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/world/1936.cfm