Ford's Hospital

This is a Herbert Cox of the back of Ford's. There is a slightly more perky copy in the collection at the Council House. Painted about 1917. Alternative version.

Great collection, Helen, thanks for the 'viewing'.

Zoom in and look at the people. There was a style of book when I was a kid where you could transfer people and objects to a scene by scribbling on the back over a transparent sheet of characters. It looks like the people in the photo have been stuck on in a similar way. But Ford's looks a bit the same. What's going on?

And the sky, weird?

It is a photograph with at least one paradox. The gentleman closest to the camera is well wrapped up against cold weather (coat and scarf), yet his shadow is very short. The short shadow suggests the sun is high in the sky (as it is during the summer), if it is summer why the need for the cost and scarf? I'm also not too convinced the figure with the bicycle is quite right. Why is the figure so dark, is the figure and bicycle at the correct scale (proportion) given the apparent distance from the camera and why is the back wheel of the bicycle so high?

I would suggest that it's a merger of multiple photos. The background is in decent focus (which pleases me) and I suspect that on the original the foreground wasn't in focus. So another, better photo was stuck on. The street was possibly empty and again I think the people are stuck on. The 'scratching' might be part of that - glue or white paint to obscure the original image or some sort of touch up. I've seen quite a few photos where details have been crudely sketched on because they were lost by distance or smog.

CliffB has this better version of the image I posted in #45 of the Cheylesmore Inn and Fords Hospital but wider - with an interesting capture of the buildings to the side -

How rural does this one look of Fords from Historic England and their unidentified Flickr page. Needless to say I've let them know...........

Well spotted! I snaffled a painting labelled Warwickshire cottages which was actually the back of Fords.