Unloading in Bruges in 1912

[GUMPY]

 

[Derek R.]

Interesting image. Is BabelColour a process, a corporation, or an individual?

What are they unloading - beets? The produce can be seen in the truck on the right. Not coal, not wood (as far as can be determined).

[Chris Lowe]

Nice image, I didn't realise colour photography was that old, the autochrome process makes interesting reading https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/autochromes-the-dawn-of-colour-photography/

[GUMPY]

He is an individual Stuart Humphreys  that does the restoration as a hobby / sideline.

Has done some very interesting images this is the first one I have seen that is canal related.

 

https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art/babelcolour-meet-the-man-breathing-new-life-into-early-colour-photographs-from-the-gulf-region-and-beyond-1.1097807

[Pluto]

One of the earliest experimenters with colour photography was John Mercer, a completely self-taught chemist from Great Harwood. He is best remembered for the mercerisation process for cotton cloth, but he also experimented with colour photography. https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/john-mercer-the-local-unsung

[Bee]

Yuck, what a job. I bet the wages were rubbish too. There are 3 or 4 beautiful old preserved wind mills on the embankment around Bruge, presumably for milling flour originally, I guess that beet processing would have gone on there as well as coal  and every other industry under the sun. There are still great big commercials going around Brugge and looking both ways as you creep out of the Coupar mooring is a good idea, we met 'Big Molly' there, emerging from the canal leading to the sea a few weeks ago, she's a big girl, Molly and much as Bee (12 tons or so) fancied her I don't think any kind of affair is on the cards. Big Molly is about 750 tons I guess.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

A Kitchener style 'tache, or a beard on all the adult men. Proto-Hipsters!

[Tam & Di]

One of the Twitter respondents comments on the clogs worn by the workers, but the Jollys worn by modern batelliers are not so different of course. .  and very practical they are too, as you just kick them off when you step from the muddy bank onto the boat.

 

Tam

 

[Dav and Pen]

1 hour ago, Tam & Di said:

One of the Twitter respondents comments on the clogs worn by the workers, but the Jollys worn by modern batelliers are not so different of course. .  and very practical they are too, as you just kick them off when you step from the muddy bank onto the boat.

 

Tam

 

I’ve still got a pair I brought in Belgium about 10 years ago. Wear them every day .

If that the place where the big park is in Bruges think the cobbles are still there.

[Steilsteven]

I had a pair but I eventually threw them away because they hurt my feet.

 

Keith

[Athy]

Though I shudder now at the recollection, in the mid-1970s I, along with many other young men, wore clogs because they were fashionable, probably with a tie-die vest too, and certainly with billowingly flared jeans.

 

No wonder the '70s are sometimes referred to as "The decade that taste forgot".

[GUMPY]

4 minutes ago, Athy said:

Though I shudder now at the recollection, in the mid-1970s I, along with many other young men, wore clogs because they were fashionable, probably with a tie-die vest too, and certainly with billowingly flared jeans.

 

No wonder the '70s are sometimes referred to as "The decade that taste forgot".

I only stopped wearing clogs when the HSE mandated steel toe capped boots for my work, must have been early 90's 🤔

[Stilllearning]

 

[Athy]

Fascinating. I didn't know that clogs originated in the Landes.

I didn't quite get the reason for putting your clogs on over your slippers.

[Stilllearning]

6 minutes ago, Athy said:

Fascinating. I didn't know that clogs originated in the Landes.

I didn't quite get the reason for putting your clogs on over your slippers.

To ease the pain and minimise splinters?

[Derek R.]

Commonplace footwear in many places around the World at one time.

https://www.clogs.co.uk/index.htm#xl_xr_page_index

 

Blown up from a bigger image, therefore unclear, but taken in 1966/67 outside the Garage in Rue de Fauberg, Montrichard.

The mechanic attendant the Renault's engine is wearing clogs.

 

[Captain Pegg]

On 01/08/2022 at 09:42, Bee said:

Yuck, what a job. I bet the wages were rubbish too. There are 3 or 4 beautiful old preserved wind mills on the embankment around Bruge, presumably for milling flour originally, I guess that beet processing would have gone on there as well as coal  and every other industry under the sun. There are still great big commercials going around Brugge and looking both ways as you creep out of the Coupar mooring is a good idea, we met 'Big Molly' there, emerging from the canal leading to the sea a few weeks ago, she's a big girl, Molly and much as Bee (12 tons or so) fancied her I don't think any kind of affair is on the cards. Big Molly is about 750 tons I guess.

If they are on the embankment above the canals that (broadly) circle Brugge city centre are they possibly pumps rather than mills?

 

Many of things we refer to as windmills in the Netherlands are in fact pumps but I think the Dutch language is like English in that in general usage they are all referred to as mills (molen).

 

[IanM]

29 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

If they are on the embankment above the canals that (broadly) circle Brugge city centre are they possibly pumps rather than mills?

 

Many of things we refer to as windmills in the Netherlands are in fact pumps but I think the Dutch language is like English in that in general usage they are all referred to as mills (molen).

 

 

The mills that can be seen in Bruges today are a mix of grinding mills and only one is original.

 

https://www.visitbruges.be/en/windmills-of-bruges

 

 

[Pluto]

These don't give details of those at Bruges, but are pretty comprehensive for the Netherlands:

https://www.molendatabase.net/kaart.php

https://www.molendatabase.nl/nederland/zoeknl.php

[Stilllearning]

23 hours ago, Athy said:

Fascinating. I didn't know that clogs originated in the Landes.

I didn't quite get the reason for putting your clogs on over your slippers.

And made from alder ( aulne, or around here, vergne). The use of alder was perhaps very widespread, as I learned of it’s use first when visiting a gf in Herefordshire years and years ago.