PICTURES FROM THE HENSON COLLECTION
John and Muriel Henson have, over many years of living on the beach at Braystones, collected numerous photographs showing both their own bungalow and others. These, with the similar collection amassed by their near-neighbour Malcolm Irving, enable us to see what almost every bungalow along the beach looked like in the "good old days". Here I have used details from the Hensons' photos as short panoramas, marked where appropriate with what I hope are contemporary names for the individual bungalows:
First, here's the bungalow where they now live (number 36 on my modern pictures page) as it was around 1920 (when it was still one dwelling, 'Summerville', not divided into two as it is today), with its immediate neighbour, 'Latona'. The curious sun-catching veranda design seen on 'Latona' was very popular in the early days of the bungalows, but I suspect many people found out the hard way that it was also wind-catching, and likely to sail away over the railway line in a heavy storm.
From the same c1920 original photo, here are (L-R) 'Seacote' and 'Plas Isa'.
And again from the same c1920 photo, definitely rather receding into the distance, but still showing some interesting details, these are the next few bungalows to the north (again, to help you navigate, 'Lyndhurst' is number 41 in my modern photos- and just to confuse you, the fuzzy bungalow at far left was known in the early 1920s as "Number 15"- later more familiar as Spray Garth).
Here, from an old postcard of which both the Hensons and Malcolm have copies, are the bungalows to the south of 'Summerville', probably taken in the mid-1920s (for reference, 'Barbary Bell' is number 32 in my modern pictures).
Next, here's another photo from about 1920, again slightly further south (you can just see the gable end of 'Summerfield' in the distance at far left). Click here for an enlargement of the left part of this view, with some extra bungalows in the far, far distance.
This photo definitely wasn't taken in the 1920s, but if I'd showed it in black-and-white you might not have realised. The little bungalow called Braeside, second north from the station ramp, belonged for many years before the Second World War to two nurses from Egremont, Miss Tansley and Miss Webster.
This black-and-white picture is not much older than the last one- perhaps as late as 1960. Here we see the bungalow 'Belmont' and the ramp up to Braystones station.
Apologies for the fuzziness of this one, looking at the station from the opposite direction and showing the beach shop (at left by the caravan) plus the bungalow 'Pebble Cove', probably in the late 1950s.