The Frith Blog

Articles, news and opinions from The Francis Frith Collection.

We are always looking at old photographs and quite often we come across fascinating stories, facts and scenes and we want to share these with you. This is why we created the Frith Blog - it could be a set of photographs connected with the current season, upcoming events or a theme. We hope you enjoy browsing what we've found and if you have any ideas of articles we could create in the future, please let us know.

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Archive photographs tracing the life of Robert Burns, Scotland's "national poet" as we celebrate his birthday on the 25th January. Happy Burns Night!

Continue reading 'Robert Burns'...

Celebrate St Andrew’s Day and the spectacular scenery of Scotland and some of its most iconic landmarks. Some of these are historical images in their original black and white version, others have been colour-tinted by hand in the old-fashioned style, and some are modern colour photographs showing the magnificent Scottish scenery in all its technicolour glory which have been added to the Collection in more recent times. Enjoy the view!

Continue reading 'Scenic Scotland'...

A selection of favourite photographs from The Francis Frith Collection of wonderful Victorian bandstands, the elegant setting for concerts and popular entertainment for over a century.

Continue reading 'Victorian Bandstands'...

Dip into this seasonal selection of nostalgic photographs from The Francis Frith Collection of people in the past having fun in the sun, as we celebrate the onset of summer this weekend when British Summer Time begins!

Continue reading 'Here Comes Summer!'...

A highlight of the BBC TV series ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ is the episode that takes place at the Tower Ballroom at Blackpool, considered to be the spiritual home of ballroom dancing. To celebrate the return of the Tower Ballroom episode (after a two year break, due to Covid) we’re shining our spotlight on Blackpool with this selection of nostalgic images from The Francis Frith Collection.

Continue reading 'Strictly Blackpool'...

To celebrate the summer holiday season, here is a selection of nostalgic seaside photographs from The Francis Frith Collection showing that most iconic feature of beach scenes from the 19th and early 20th centuries – the bathing machine.

Continue reading 'Bathing Machines'...

We celebrate St David's Day - 1st March - with some of our staff's favourite photographs of Wales and the Welsh people from The Francis Frith Collection.

Continue reading 'St David's Day'...

The 1921 UK Census information will be published online on 6th January 2022. This will be the first time that this information will be available for anyone to search it, either online or in an archive, and is an event eagerly awaited by genealogists, historians and everyone compiling their own family history.

Continue reading 'Life in 1921'...

Here are some nostalgic photos of these early supermarkets in the past – some names are now long gone, like Fine Fare and the International Stores, but others are still with us, like Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s.

Continue reading 'Early Supermarkets'...

Celebrating Salisbury - our nearest city - with a selection of lovely vintage views of this delightful place.

Continue reading 'Celebrating Salisbury'...

Celebrating the summer solstice with photographs of the famous prehistoric sites of Stonehenge and Avebury, and Glastonbury Tor.

Continue reading 'Ancient Stones'...

Curious old buildings known as Buttermarkets or Buttercrosses can be seen in a number of town centres around Britain. In the days when most farmers sold their produce locally, these were specially built structures to provide shelter for the vendors, usually the farmers’ wives, where commodities such as butter and cheese could be sold under cover on market days in the town.

Continue reading 'Buttercrosses'...