Old Photographs: Bowls
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
.
Bradford Rowing Club laid out a two-rink bowling green next to their boathouse for non-rowing members in 1912. The green was enlarged to three, then to four rinks. In 1957 the Rowing Club Bowls Section became Bradford on Avon Bowling Club and in 1966 moved to the new green that was provided on the other side of...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Cricket
.
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
.
Group photographs of cricket teams seem to be less common than those of football teams.
On 26th June 1880 The Wiltshire Times reported a meeting was held at the Swan Hotel for the purpose of forming a town cricket club.
Museum Collection: Neolithic Flint Implements
Bradford on Avon Museum, Wiltshire
.
The Neolithic Period (New Stone Age, roughly from 4000 to 2500 BC) was marked by the first introduction of farming, both in growing crops and keeping domesticated animals. Large areas of the country were cleared of ancient woodland to make fields, but hunting and gathering still went on. Metal tools...
Read MoreOld Photographs: The Rubber Works
.
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
.
.
Views of the works of the Spencer Moulton rubber company’s Kingston Mills, mostly from just after the First World War.
Click on the thumbnail...
Read MoreMuseum Publication: The Christopher Pharmacy
The first of Bradford on Avon Museum’s booklets has now been published, in conjunction with publishers Bed and Bolster.
The all-colour booklet details the history of the chemist shop that now forms the centrepiece of the Museum and gives an idea of how its business was carried out.
The booklet sells at £2 and is available in the Museum and from the Tourist Information...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Outings
Photographs of groups of Bradford people on day trips. Usually these were held annually and the destination was dictated by the range of the transportation at the time. Stamper’s charabancs in the 1920s had solid tyres and a speed limit of 12 mph, so Salisbury or Wilton were within comfortable reach with time to wander around and visit a few pubs...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Tailors and Outfitters
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view.
Read MoreGlass bottles: Tincture Rounds
.
The Christopher Pharmacy at Bradford on Avon Museum, Wiltshire
.
Tincture rounds are cylindrical glass bottles that are designed to hold the liquid tinctures the chemist extracted from plant material. They have narrow necks with ground glass stoppers. Tinctures were chemical extracted by...
Read MoreGlass bottles: Ether Rounds
.
The Christopher Pharmacy at Bradford on Avon Museum, Wiltshire
.
Ether rounds are cylindrical bottles that are designed to hold volatile liquids that are likely to blow their stoppers out. They may have a cover of glass, like this one, or of metal to make sure the...
Read MoreCosmetics and Perfumes
Richard Christopher spent some time in Singapore after he qualified as a pharmacist, returning via Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India. When he came to Bradford on Avon in 1908 to work the shop he immediately started to develop a range of perfumes, soaps and cosmetics based on the scents and flavours he discovered in the East.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: the woollen cloth industry
.
Al the toun of Bradeford stondith by clooth-making -John Leland c1540
Much of Bradford’s past prosperity and many of the fine buildings in the town and vicinity were due to the woollen cloth industry. Visitors who have heard...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Carpentry
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
.
There were many people working in wood in the town of Bradford on Avon and in the villages too. There was a hierarchy of trades that was based on the fineness and skill of the work. Carpenters took on the big jobs, including houses, for which they would be classed as builders today; at the other end of the scale...
Read MoreMedicine Bottles
.
Richard Christopher supplied the liquid medicines to his customers in glass bottles, often with dose graduations, usually in teaspoons, on the side. He had drawers full of printed labels for all sorts of medicines and bearing his name.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Gas fittings
.
In the 19th century the gas-fitter’s work was mainly concerned with lighting, with cooking and heating coming on eventually much later. Bradford’s Gas & Coke Works in Frome Road opened in 1834 and initially supplied street lighting, but slowly the network expanded.
Read More
Branded Medicines
.
The Christopher chemist shop
Bradford on Avon Museum, Wiltshire
.
The chemist shop, specially late in its life, always sold medicines made by others. Often in the early days these proprietary medicines were of the cure-all sort or tonics. By the late 20th century increasing...
Read MoreNon-medical stock
Chemist shops, as the name implies, dealt in all sorts of chemicals and products that had a origin relating to chemical processes- hence photography, household cleaners, soap, insecticides and even alcoholic drinks.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view.
Many dry products came in cardboard cylinders with tinned steel tops and bases like this...
Read MoreVeterinary medicines and equipment
As well as supplying medicines for people, the chemist made and sold medicines for domestic and farm animals.
.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view.
.
R.T. Christopher sold medicines to the public for their pets. These...
Read MorePoison Bottles
Bottles for containing poisonous chemical were usually distinguished from others by colour, usually blue or green, and by touch -with ridges and different shapes.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view.
.
A poison round bottle with both colour and touch differences. It has...
Read MoreWeights and Measures
The pharmacist spent a good deal of time in measuring quantities of chemicals by weight and by volume. Until the late 20th century pharmacists were very conservative in their use of old-fashioned systems of measurement. As well as familiar pounds and ounces, pints and fluid ounces they used less familiar units, passed on from the old days of apothecaries, for measuring...
Read More