What photographs can reveal

Hi Dreamtime. What was your dad's name, if you like I can look at the newspaper archive to see if he did anything famous.

But nearly everybody was clean and smartly dressed in those days (unlike today) even when they were poor. Perhaps he's been to the opticians!

Hi Anne and thank you. Dad's name William John Toseland born 11th Nov.1914. Married to Ivy May Prudence nee Blockley born 22nd Dec.1916. Married at Holy Trinity Coventry (1936). I am unaware of him being famous for anything other than both producing me!!!!!

Dreamtime, I believe you posted that picture before on a different topic. I didn't reply, but your daughter's reply was something on the same lines as I thought when seeing the photo the first time - many young men in 1934 had very strong views on the Spanish Civil War, there were many meetings in Coventry, it's near lunchtime with the photo, and it struck me he had been or was about to go to a political meeting. I could be way out on this and probably am, but Coventry like most cities was a bed of unrest in those days for young men. Yes, I too noticed the raincoat although the sun is shining, was he expecting a long stay wherever he was going? Certainly he was a very dapper young man, and meant to make his mark.

Hi Dreamtime, I have searched on the newspaper archive site and I cannot see anything about him, the only Toseland I could find was a footballer who played for Coventry City at that time.

Thank you Anne, I did know about the footballer but not a close relative. I believe the Toselands originated from Lancashire but my father born in Coventry. Thanks again.

Hi Dreamtime, it looks to me like your grandfather ran the Brewer & Baker from 1929 to 1932. Scroll down to licensees. F J Toseland (Frederick Jesse?)

Spot on, Heathite. He and my grandmother, at some stage, ran the Binley Working Men's club too, so it says on a clock on their mantlepiece, not sure of the dates though (or what happened to the clock)!

There's also shots of what photo's do not reveal. If we look at Helen/Rob's shot on Broadgate topic #649, we see Burtons Menswear. But had you sat inside that building before the blitz, and as near to the corner of Broadgate and Smithford Street as you could get, then you would likely to have been sipping coffee or eating Italian ice cream, more than buying a suit, so the photo is leading us wrong. We are only looking at the facade, not what the building is about.

I didn't expect to see this old chestnut/post show up again Kaga. You mentioned before about young men's strong political views during that era. As I grew older I remember dad always had strong political views and had a normal Coventry accent, however although he could hold his liquor - the more he had to drink and talked of politics his accent became more refined, always giving his own points of view. It became a family joke and we used to call him Alf (as in Alf Garnett). Having said that I could never envisage him as a spy.

As a slight aside to this, Steve and I are preparing a slideshow to show all the external decorative elements of the Council House in close-up. It's a project we are doing to entertain the elderly residents here. We had success with a slideshow of the Cathedral Quarter that we showed them over the Christmas period. This forum enables us to do these things because of the knowledge other members publish here. We just take the relevant pictures. When it is finished I will transfer it to my cloud storage to share with those interested - probably in late February. Robin

How do you get close to an angel? You use a long zoom lens.

Excellent, Pixrobin, now we see as we have never seen before. Amazing! Did you do the sandstone elephant on the side of the Council House in Hay Lane? It tends to blend in to the sandstone facia.

Thanks MR nice to see it again!