For Seller

By: Greg Martin

Sub-titled "An Album of Photographs edited by Edward Talbot." This 48 page album is of photographs taken in April 1913 to commemorate a visit by royalty to see the men and machines of the locomotive works of the London & North Western Railway at Crewe.

What sets this album apart from other royal photographs is the heavy emphasis on what the royal party saw, rather than concentrating on the royal party itself. The photographs are of suitably high quality for such an official album, and have survived well during the intervening years.

A team of cameramen recorded the steam locomotives and passenger carriages on display at the works. Of great historical significance are the photographs of busy scenes in the locomotive erecting shop, the casting floor, the boiler fabrication shop, a rolling mill, the steam hammers and the lathe shops.

Most importantly the photographs show the employees at work using their machines, often working in situations that would be judged as unacceptably dangerous today.

Aspects of this album will be of relevance to different people. Students of costume may take interest in the specific clothes worn by the royal party, the local dignitaries and the workmen. Industrial historians will appreciate the wealth of photographic information regarding the working practices of the time, and railway historians will be drawn to the photographs of steam locomotives and passenger carriages.

The book presents an opportunity for social historians to see the working conditions of the people in a great engineering establishment almost 100 years ago, when the traumatic upheavals of the First World War were yet to happen.

People interested in royalty will find in this book photographs showing King George V and his wife Queen Mary, whose floral hat may seem somewhat strange to modern eyes.

Above all the album is a fascinating glimpse into a bygone era.

Greg Martin is co-founder of Saxon Court Books, specialist suppliers of books and DVDs on railways, aircraft, ships and road vehicles.