Just a random info/heads up Tom, on the Scottish National library website there’s a side by side maps feature that allows you to cross reference Google maps with some older maps from around the 1800’s, shows existing buildings etc. 👍
WHAT THE WHAT??? i am over 100 years old and still making youtub videos? oh yeah baby. why? because i am the ultimate youtuber. woo woo woo you know it dear key
Tom, for the next episode, you should actually go to the location once you've found it, would be cool to see you find those exact bricks for example. Love the series!
I have just shown this video and my screenshot of the woman in the Polka dot dress to my brother who was born in 1949. He is sure this is our mother’s sister. So, that is me (the little girl) and my brother in the background the photo and the photo would have been taken in 1961. He had remembered the trip as being Bournemouth, but on seeing the entire segment now realizes it was Weston-super-mare all along. Sorry for the delay in confirming this, we live far apart and are now together for the first time in ages. The subject of being able to recognize people from old photos came up which reminded me of these photos from the box brownie. I have emailed Tom, so we’ll see what he has to say.
Hey tom - film photographer here. I find old cameras in antique shops all the time that still have film in them. But usually, having been sitting in shops with careless people opening the backs etc, the film will have been ruined a million times over with so much repeated light exposure. Finding old cameras with film still inside where images still come out in development, THAT's the more rare part. This is a very cool video.
Sometimes the films also have degraded quite badly. I once had some properly old C41 colour film processed and it was almost only shades of yellow. A roll of Kodachrome 40 Super 8 film came back entirely blank as if it had been pulled out of the cassette and exposed to light. The good thing for me was that Kodak sent me a brand new film, which was a nice thing to have right at the end of the Kodachrome era. The oldest undeveloped film I've ever found was a roll of AGFA 120 roll film in a box with a 1945 expiration date and next to it a never-used roll expired 1946. I never developed the film because the same place had hundreds of properly boring out-of-focus random holiday shots and I didn't expect that one roll to be any better so I thought having the roll in its original wrapper would be more interesting.
Actually that happened with my brother. He found a 1940s camera of my grandparents and it still had film in it. It was very poor quality though and partly molded or so. He digitalised the photo and - if I remember correctly - used Photoshop to improve the photos' quality.
Hello, I am completely new to your channel. My son called to tell me about the video. Seeing those photos was quite intriguing to us. I was born 1957 and my mother’s family are from the West Country. The little girl looks a lot like me! The lady in the Polka dot dress looks amazingly like my mother’s sister and I seem to remember her having a similar dress in photos I have seen. But the older lady is unfamiliar but could have been a relative who lived locally. The only thing that is a puzzle is that my aunt went grey/white at a very young age due to some problem. Could she have dyed it in the early 60’s? I seem to remember my Mum grumbling about her sister doing this. We are now looking into the history of hair dye! I am sending the link to my brother who is quite a bit older and might remember more.
This episode was a trip for me. I grew up in Weston and almost immediately recognised the pier in the background, then spent the next ten minutes convincing myself it must be somewhere else, surely there are plenty of piers and stone walls that look like that... but nope! Crazy small world.
I live in Bristol, currently studying in Weston (Winter Gardens as seen in the video!) and felt exactly the same way when I saw it. Small world indeed!
Okay, but what are the odds that I instantly recognized the flag in the second sandcastle from the left? I still don't understand why they have an Arizona (USA) state flag there on the wrong side of the pond, but having lived there for 35 years, there was no missing it.
@@Nevir202 i noticed the AZ flag too…im wondering if this was in the mid 60’s when the London Bridge was moved to AZ? If so, maybe there was some sort of interest in AZ?
This popped up on my sidebar and is just up my street. You said that 70 year olds might not spend much time on UA-cam but I am 71 and spend many hours. i love searching for places and other things and this was just up my street. Fantastic!
4:08 Looking at the flags on the sandcastle, that's definitely the Arizona flag, and the Irish coat of arms. Which seems incredibly weird to have laying around as a sandcastle ornamental piece. The other flag on the left looks like the Royal arms of England emblem with the three lions. Seems like a shop were selling interesting and quirky flags to take to the beach. The choice of which is a whole other interesting mystery in itself
Yay, you got the email! Just to gove credit where credit is due, the images of Littlehampton Westworks were provided by Julia Edge, a curator at the Littlehampton Museum. Btw Tom, perfect pronunciation on the "Tomasz" and you were right, I am not British, but an avid viewer nonetheless.
At one point, I was genuinely expecting you to put the picture of the lady who took the 360 Google Earth picture next to the picture of the girl and start comparing their facial structures. "Could this be the same woman?!?”
After working in various charity shops over a 10 year period I can confirm that this kinda thing happens a few times a year. There is people who go into charity shops looking to buy only old cameras. They were always happiest when they had film in them
@@renerpho most likely not, people still shoot film and go to thrift stores and op shops looking on deals on cameras. they find undeveloped rolls pretty regularly
Yup, I found an old Sony camera and low and behold there was a tape inside. I watched the tape (a little bit nervously too) but come to find out it was very wholesome family recording their daughter learning to play piano.
This is low-key the best series you are doing Tom, across the missions and all Geogussr videos. The pay-off at the end of these videos is THE BEST. Kudos!
Apart from the real life missions, this is the best series by far, I enjoy it so much! There's something about the investigation and the mystery that's extremely satisfying to watch.
I think the historical aspect adds a layer of connection to the human experience. The rate of change of the geography is so different than our human/generational rate of change.
The grandmother in the photo looks exactly like my great grandmother but I know she was only about the mother’s age at the time. The little girl also looks almost identical to my grandmother, my mum as a child and 2 of my cousins (same face). All these similarities could mean it was my family and with how the dates line up the grandmother would be my great great grandmother, the mother would be my great grandmother and the little girl my grandmother. They also all lived around that area of England until the 80s so it is very possible, I would be interested to know where the camera was found as it could easily of been donated to the charity shop when my great nan died as we donated a lot of her old things.
@@Arcycesarz @yehwtf I don't have any proof to actually email him I just found it interesting to speculate. I might look into it further soon though but it's still very unlikely
I study photography and photographic history in Dublin and have collected a few 'orphaned' family photo albums from vintage shops around Europe over the years if some scans of these for detective work would be interesting to you then please let me know !
@@julius-horsthuis it’s weird to think about, but when the light 70 years ago hit the film it allowed grains of silver salt in the film to break apart within the gelatin they were sitting in, and leave behind metallic silver. Those silver salts and metallic silver stayed suspended in the dried out gelatin for as long as they had too, until all of the unexposed silver salts were washed away in development process, leaving the original image behind as metallic silver (which blocks light and forms the black and grey parts of the negative). Had the film never been exposed to light in the 50s, it would have become dramatically less sensitive to light over the years, but since the original photograph was taken when it WAS sensitive, that image has existed in its entirety for decades, but only as a specific arrangement of silver salts and metallic silver, which were finally separated from each other when it was developed!
@@julius-horsthuis Yes, it is. The pictures degrade, depending on storage conditions (cool and dry is ideal) but it's far from unheard of to get at least something recognisable from films that have been sitting for half a century. Especially black & white films last a long time, colour films degrade more quickly. They might also be very difficult to develop because the processes changed and even if you're able to find the original recipes and instructions you might not be able to source the necessary chemicals. B&W is pretty much standardised and can be developed using the strangest household items (including coffee, search the web for "Caffenol" developer), colour is much more sensitive and complex. The only surviving colour negative process (C41) was invented in 1972, so any older films will be very difficult to develop, and some manufacturers might have used older, proprietary processes even longer. Reversal (slide) films are even worse. AGFA had their proprietary Agfachrome process into the early 1990s and Kodak produced K14 film until 2006 if I remember correctly. Colour negative films can be developed as B&W though.
I work in Weston. For the Town Council. Obviously they have close ties with the tourist trade. I could put the feelers out. Although I would suggest however the little girl/family aren’t local. Traditionally Weston has been a popular holiday destination for people from Brum and the Welsh.
@@GeniusSloth That's definitely the Arizona flag, and the Irish coat of arms. Which seems incredibly weird to have laying around as a sandcastle ornamental piece. The other flag on the left looks like the Royal arms of England emblem with the three lions. Seems like a shop were selling interesting and quirky flags to take to the beach. The choice of which is a whole other interesting mystery in itself
Agree with the comments below. You need to go there and find those stone blocks! Love this series! I especially like the follow-ups that you do to the previous episode.
The end of Weston Super Mere Peir is new because the old one burnt down in 2008 (it also burnt down in 1930 as well and had a small fire in 2019), but the end closest to land is original and it was always at road level
@@pugsterjosh7925 because they are not on land they have lower safety standards than normal properties this means with the lack of regulation, they naturally cut corners. So are more likely to pretty much garentueed to set on fire at some point.
Well done for getting the location, that’s definitely Weston Super Mare. I recognised it immediately as it was where I grew up! The building to the left is a Victorian seaside shelter and toilet block that was converted into tearooms a decade or two ago and is now a takeaway and shop. The pier was devastated by fire 14 years ago but was rebuilt which is why the Google street view pictures show it being different to the older photo. The building in the far distance with the pointy roof, shown under the arm of the boy standing behind the girl, is the Grand Atlantic Hotel
There is a long, dark history of the happy, colourful piers of Britain burning down. Always puts a bit of a damper on these stories. I used to love the pier at WSM as a kid. Admittedly, I didn’t know any better.
Hi Tom, from personal experience I know that the tide can change the sand situation on a beach drastically and practically over night. So the stone walk way you see there could have already been there but covered in sand at the time of the pictures, only to be revealed in time for the later satellite imagery. So here's my bonus story: In the west of Portugal we went to a beach, sadly I forgot the name of it, where we spent one day jumping over a ledge into the sand ~2m below and had a lot of fun. A few days later we went there again and that place was now a ~3m drop onto stones. It was a humbling experience to see the power of the sea like that. Anyways, just my two cents. Great video, I was really impressed with the speed!
These videos would also make great livestreams. I know Tom often spends multiple days on these hunts, but with the whole community helping simultaneously it would be great to see how many we can solve in one session.
You might get a fire hose of information though that could be very wrong. Maybe in a Discord or something where you could manage it better, send photos, and all that.
Lol, there is a comment from @makingitthrough190. Her first comment was a year ago but the last she made was in March 2024 confirming that she is the girl in the photo. (Its the 4th comment from the top when I look, but may be different for you or as time goes on)
Hello Tom. Doreen McManamon is my grandmother. It's remarkable that you identified the location, but also, somehow, her true and God-given name. Your talents are remarkable.
There is something in this photo that is at least an odd coincidence if not something that might help identify/verify the person in the picture. one of the flags on the sandcastle is if i am not mistaken the state flag of arizona (it being black and white makes it impossible to be sure) odd given the location of the first in the series was tucson az. not sure what the third flag is (the not three lion one).
That is the flag of Arizona. I spotted it as well. The three lions flag looks more like the coat of arms of Royal Arms of England (i googled it, since i genuinely though it is the coat of arms of Estonia, which is similar, but in that period, Estonia was part of USSR)
Looking at vintage sandcastle flags from UK, the third one is yellow angel harp on a blue background. Looks like it's some kind of set of flags you can buy.
@@UA-camShortsAreTheDevil I guess it's also used there. Royal standard of UK has both, the angel harp and three lions. EDIT: Definitely Irish, as Chris Bell said above. "the third quadrant represents the ancient Kingdom of Ireland and contains a version of the gold harp from the coat of arms of Ireland on a blue field." from wikipedia.
The Facebook comments at the end were really fun to read. It's so cool to get insights like these from locals with info that really only they can know cus they lived there when they were kids.
I've lived in Weston all my life. I knew it was Weston by first glance. I used to watch old videos on geoguessr and see you brush over Weston, hoping you'd visit here digitally. This is incredible, great work Tom
I'm only 9 minutes in but one of the flags on the sandcastle is the Arizona state flag. Basically all this means is that the photo was taken sometime after 1917 or so.
That is so weird. The English side of my family lived in Weston super mare and took me to the beach in the summer in the 1960s.... I can remember I used to get a new bucket and some small flags for the sand castles. Yes, the Arizona flag was one they sold! I like the idea that Arizona got the idea for it's flag from Weston beach!
Tom - now shown the still images to mum, and she said "definitely first half of the '50s" based on clothing. She won't mind me saying that she was around in those days, probably between 6 and 10 when these photos were taken, albeit in Norwich rather than Weston-Super-Mare.
Great content Tom! The tale of this undeveloped photos brought to my mind a similar case: the ill fated 1897 Andrée´s balloon expedition to the North Pole where the film, found three decades later, cast some light on the last days of its members. For those who like this sort of thing, there is a superb article on the English Wikipedia.
Stopped breathing for a second-my family vacationed in WSM, and my grandmother’s favourite ‘nice’ day dress way a turquoise polka-dotted number. She’s wearing it in almost every photo of her from the era. It’s not her, but for a second I had such a strangely hopeful feeling! Good luck to you find the person; I can’t imagine how they will feel to see this!
Nice episode. I was thrown off by the flags in the tops of the sandcastles in the picture with the three children. The one flag looks like it is from the US state of Arizona, and I was trying to figure out why a toddler in Britain would have had an obscure state flag. Ultimately, I think you got the right location - well done.
Superb content mate, I could watch these forever. The personal stories attached to the photos and the quest for answers to decade long questions is equally fascinating and heartwarming. I know you probably have a life to live, but can’t you just make these all day?
This is the best thing that’s happened so far today. I’ll spare the details but it’s been a hell of a day for me. Thank you Thomas for all the amazingly wholesome and intriguing content.
Looking at old photos is like time travel. This exciting journey to another time, seeing how places have changed, or not, standing in the exact same places where horses used to ride instead of cars, thinking about all those people who were there at some point in time, going about their ordinary lives just like we are now, and are now long gone, just like we will in a few decades... Yet occasionally, things like this happen where the lives of complete strangers touch together for just a moment, in a way that neither of them would've ever expected. And reading the wholesome comments from locals who recognize the places, reminiscing on old memories, the irreplacable unique human memory. It makes me indescribably sad and happy at the same time. This is why we need to keep passing down stories. Thank you for bringing this little bit of magic into my world.
Tom, You are by and large my favorite content creator on YT. Having a great deal of interest in geography, I’m so happy that I stumbled upon your channel a couple of years back. I very much enjoy this series, as well as many others! Keep up the great content. Looking forward to when you come to the US here soon.
I clicked on the video and instantly recognised this as Weston-Super-Mare, the pier in Weston burned down when I was younger (some time in the 00s if I had to guess) and it was fully rebuilt. I've spent a lot of time in Weston in my life and I'm impressed you managed to find this so quick, nicely done, Tom!
I'm from Weston, I didn't expect to see this! You should consider doing a mission down here mate. Sand Point to Brean Down without roads would be quality lol. Have a look into it if you get the chance! A good mix of woodland, urban areas and fields!
This is really incredible what you're doing. You are literally giving people and their family's a slice of their history back to them that was presumably lost.
@GeoWizard, just had a thought that you might really enjoy a BBC drama miniseries called 'Shooting the Past' (1999). Doesn't seem to be on any of the streaming services, but is available on DVD at Amazon, or findable as unofficial uploads on UA-cam. It's a really inspiring, moving and emotional series about photo museum curators tracking people's lives throughout history using their extensive historical collection 😀
weston is a lovely place. I live in the west midlands and the main reason we go there a lot is because its the nearest beach, its as simple as that, and the fact it's just a pleasant place
You know, Destin from SmarterEveryDay regularly buys old slides and negatives from thrift stores or garage sales, and no one knows anything about them. From what he's said in podcasts, he has a ton of them. could be interesting to see if you can locate some of them
i love this series so much. I think getting help from locals is totaly legit. Thats what a real detective would do ! I want to to see you in person at one of these places !
Right after him doing that, moving to the present day image, I was thinking: what if that lady walking her dog is the same person!? Now that would be a longshot if anything!
I've got a set of post cards someone sent back and forth with family in the UK in like the 1920's, really fkn cool. Roads in the area they're addressed to have been completely remodeled and street names have suffered the same. Really cool to see a small piece of someone's reality in the past. Love these videos!
Hi Tom. Have been a fan for some time and have just now caught up to date with the GeoDetective playlist. Far aside from all the neat little tips and tricks I've learned from watching your channel, I am always inspired by your perseverance!
HAH I knew it was Weston-Super-Mare before the video had even began. That wall is too distinctive having lived there for 3 years. I used to walk down that promenade all the time during my Uni years. I've let the Weston-Super-Mare photography group know! :)
I grew up in Weston and the second I saw the first photo and also the brick wall in the second photo, I knew it was Weston! Funny that it must be ingrained in my memories. Great Vid Tom keep it up ❤️
Weston Super Mare. I used to live there! There’s a building like that still on the promenade and that pier is the old one that caught fire a few years ago and got rebuilt. Normally these would be either local folk or tourists from the midlands. That used to be quite a common beach resort at the time.
This kind of content, and the comments here, which just expand the content even more in a wholesome and constructive way, is what makes the internet great. You're doing god's work, Tom :)
Tom, what could be useful are AIs who color black-and-white photos. That way it's a bit easier to look at the picture even though the colors might be not true.
This video came up in my feed today, not sure why, but it reminded me of something similar that happened to me about 8 years ago. I bought a 1951 Voigtlander Perkeo for £14 on eBay, opened it up to find a roll of exposed 120 film. It was Kodacolor-X which required C-22 processing back in the day (and that was phased out around 1973). There are very few specialist labs around that will still process them, and they charge a fortune to do it. So with that in mind I decided to process it as a black and white at home (I do my own film regularly). About 30 minutes later I had some negatives with all 12 images on! One of the photos was a lady enjoying a glass of stout is in the garden of the George Hotel adjacent to Yarmouth Pier in the Isle of Wight. My wife and I had holidayed in the area and had walked down the pier a few years before I found the film. Kodacolor-X was only made between 1963 and 1974 so that helped narrow down the date of the images. What helped even more was a photo of the ferry (the MV Lymington) which was taken out of service in 1972, so the photos were definitely before then. I scanned them and sent them to the bloke that sold me the camera (and sent him back the negatives), he was chuffed to bits and had no idea there was a film in it, the camera had belonged to his Aunt. Being the first person to see the images maybe 40-50 years after they were taken felt like a great honour. I can understand why there's a big hobby of processing found film, it's quite a thrill. I also collect glass plate negatives and I while I’m keen to know the locations, I prefer to find the dates. One set had a photo of a lady on a beach and at the side of her was a copy of The Strand magazine. I tracked down that issue to be April 1921. My earliest plates are from the Great exhibition in Paris in 1900, but I do have an Ambrotype from Saturday 16th February 1856 (there is a handwritten note inside the case), that’s my earliest piece. And this is the longest comment I’ve ever written on UA-cam.
There’s something about these old photographs that have a Je ne sais quoi about them, like who where these people? Why didn’t they get round to developing the film? Just a few moments caught on camera that have laid dormant for the last 70 years, only to resurface to a wide audience. This is the only place to get this kind of content, brilliant stuff
Should come to New Zealand and do a straight line challenge 😭😭 its coming on winter here so that's the environment you like to do them in, I gana miss those series when summer actually hits in your country 😭😭😭😭, generally the 2nd I seen the wall and that main building and then the smaller ones in the background, i knew that was the place 😂, insane, imagine if that lady who took the picture is the girl in the pic, she looks about 70🤯🤯🤯🤯
I honesly called it as Weston when I saw the photo, im from Dudley and cant belive you havent been to Weston! We call it Birmingham by the sea as we all go there all the time. Nice video man.
I don't think this helps the search, but Those flags on the sandcastle: An English And Irish Flag are there, but so is the flag of Arizona. I doubt that'd be the sort of flag you could buy for a sandcastle, so maybe there are American?
God, I love this series! Would appreciate it if you'd zoom out more after putting the marker down so we could get a better last overview in which part of the country it's located. 🙂
I thought from the first moment I saw the first photo that it was Weston Super Mare. I'm not sure if that is the same little rectangular building though, as I want to say from my own memory that these were dotted along the front in multiple places, and just because one survives (albeit in refurbished form) doesn't automatically make it the same one. The promenade from the pier down past that point was massively reworked in the last decade or two (you can see some of the work happening in the oldest (2009) Google Streetview image for the road on the other side of that building. Currently it's a fish and chip shop, but I think they were originally public toilets spaced equally all down the front.
I'll add that if this is the same little rectangular building, then somewhere between the girl and the pier should be a small boating lake, according to detailed maps of the era available at the nls website, and I'm not sure we can see anything like that in the photo.
Looking at the photosphere right now. This has been uploaded by a guy with the name Tim Limbim. Looking at his other uploads, he seems to be a local guy. One of his uploads is actually a photosphere at a military terminal in Colorado Springs. And in another one he was in San Francisco. Might he be visiting relatives aka is that the connection to the mysterious Arizona flag?
The funny thing is that you immediately go on a "hunt for the pier" and I would think that of all the things that might have changed between then and now it's the wooden structure in the salt water. It seems ripe for "let's tear down the old one and build a super-pier that has a building on it." I'd have started with the stone buildings in the background that are likely still there.
If the little girl was born in 1950 she would be 72 this year. She looks about 4 years old, so if the photo was taken in 1954 it would add up. If we had more information about that exact model of camera we could probably pin down the year. A fashion expert could probably date the dresses too!
Hey Tom, how about trying to put the photo in some local FB group? Seems like it helped with the one before. Maybe someone will recognize it. Theres a lot of older people on FB now.
Hi tom I’m the one who scanned these images and I’ve been scouring the uk trying to find this location, good luck, feels mad to know that I was the very first person to ever see these photos! (It’s like 99% western btw)
Knowing whereabouts you bought the camera might be a clue to the people in the photos. If, for example, you bought it in Bristol that would indicate that the original owner/photographer might have been a Bristolian and not a Liverpudlian.
Fascinating! If I were not in Texas I’d walking the beach, looking for that particular section of seawall. I like to think that little girl had a very happy life, and is still with us.
SPOILER..
Might have to take my first trip down to Weston Supermare and find the exact stones..
Straight line mission weston super mare
I'm watching from WSM I'll try and get some photos for you this week
Yes. Get on it! !
Do it! Make an adventure out of it!
@@TGXB poor fella!
Just a random info/heads up Tom, on the Scottish National library website there’s a side by side maps feature that allows you to cross reference Google maps with some older maps from around the 1800’s, shows existing buildings etc. 👍
Yes, it's a very useful site.
This comment has to go up
that MartinZero guy uses it alot in his videos, its incredibly useful!
WHAT THE WHAT??? i am over 100 years old and still making youtub videos? oh yeah baby. why? because i am the ultimate youtuber. woo woo woo you know it dear key
As well as this, Ill leave it in another comment. There's a site called KnowyourPlace which focuses on maps over tlme of the bristol area
Tom, for the next episode, you should actually go to the location once you've found it, would be cool to see you find those exact bricks for example. Love the series!
agreed
in a straight line
and avoiding all roads
Or recreate them at the orignal location
+1 for this
I have just shown this video and my screenshot of the woman in the Polka dot dress to my brother who was born in 1949. He is sure this is our mother’s sister. So, that is me (the little girl) and my brother in the background the photo and the photo would have been taken in 1961. He had remembered the trip as being Bournemouth, but on seeing the entire segment now realizes it was Weston-super-mare all along. Sorry for the delay in confirming this, we live far apart and are now together for the first time in ages. The subject of being able to recognize people from old photos came up which reminded me of these photos from the box brownie. I have emailed Tom, so we’ll see what he has to say.
Wow, this is amazing! Any word from Tom?
did you get a response??? Well done on being found!
Any developments?
What news? @GeoWizard
Please tell me your name is Doreen Mcmahon. 😀
Hey tom - film photographer here. I find old cameras in antique shops all the time that still have film in them. But usually, having been sitting in shops with careless people opening the backs etc, the film will have been ruined a million times over with so much repeated light exposure. Finding old cameras with film still inside where images still come out in development, THAT's the more rare part. This is a very cool video.
Sometimes the films also have degraded quite badly. I once had some properly old C41 colour film processed and it was almost only shades of yellow. A roll of Kodachrome 40 Super 8 film came back entirely blank as if it had been pulled out of the cassette and exposed to light. The good thing for me was that Kodak sent me a brand new film, which was a nice thing to have right at the end of the Kodachrome era.
The oldest undeveloped film I've ever found was a roll of AGFA 120 roll film in a box with a 1945 expiration date and next to it a never-used roll expired 1946. I never developed the film because the same place had hundreds of properly boring out-of-focus random holiday shots and I didn't expect that one roll to be any better so I thought having the roll in its original wrapper would be more interesting.
Actually that happened with my brother. He found a 1940s camera of my grandparents and it still had film in it. It was very poor quality though and partly molded or so. He digitalised the photo and - if I remember correctly - used Photoshop to improve the photos' quality.
Hello, I am completely new to your channel. My son called to tell me about the video. Seeing those photos was quite intriguing to us. I was born 1957 and my mother’s family are from the West Country. The little girl looks a lot like me! The lady in the Polka dot dress looks amazingly like my mother’s sister and I seem to remember her having a similar dress in photos I have seen. But the older lady is unfamiliar but could have been a relative who lived locally. The only thing that is a puzzle is that my aunt went grey/white at a very young age due to some problem. Could she have dyed it in the early 60’s? I seem to remember my Mum grumbling about her sister doing this. We are now looking into the history of hair dye! I am sending the link to my brother who is quite a bit older and might remember more.
Be sure to update us!
That's so cool!
Did you email Tom? He might not have seen this comment.
Any update?
Tom needs to see this comment! Does @GeoWizard tagging work?
This episode was a trip for me. I grew up in Weston and almost immediately recognised the pier in the background, then spent the next ten minutes convincing myself it must be somewhere else, surely there are plenty of piers and stone walls that look like that... but nope! Crazy small world.
I live in Bristol, currently studying in Weston (Winter Gardens as seen in the video!) and felt exactly the same way when I saw it. Small world indeed!
Okay, but what are the odds that I instantly recognized the flag in the second sandcastle from the left?
I still don't understand why they have an Arizona (USA) state flag there on the wrong side of the pond, but having lived there for 35 years, there was no missing it.
@@Nevir202 yea i recognized that too lol
Same lol. From Burnham-On-Sea. Recognised it from some old photos displayed at some local pub. Was practically screaming at my monitor.
@@Nevir202 i noticed the AZ flag too…im wondering if this was in the mid 60’s when the London Bridge was moved to AZ? If so, maybe there was some sort of interest in AZ?
This popped up on my sidebar and is just up my street. You said that 70 year olds might not spend much time on UA-cam but I am 71 and spend many hours. i love searching for places and other things and this was just up my street. Fantastic!
My dad passed at 83 last month and probably 70% of what he watched was UA-cam.
4:08 Looking at the flags on the sandcastle, that's definitely the Arizona flag, and the Irish coat of arms. Which seems incredibly weird to have laying around as a sandcastle ornamental piece. The other flag on the left looks like the Royal arms of England emblem with the three lions. Seems like a shop were selling interesting and quirky flags to take to the beach. The choice of which is a whole other interesting mystery in itself
It may be a little weird, but not so weird once you realize that arizona is the best designed flag in the US.
@@seanicus100 plus if this is indeed the mid 50s, Arizona was the newest state, making it a little less weird
Came to to point out the Arizona state flag on the sandcastle though very very unlikely these are Arizonans or even Americans.
I thought I was losing my mind when I saw the Arizona Flag
@@Andersand Still, that flag was adapted in 1917, so it's at least 40 years, can't really call it that new
Yay, you got the email! Just to gove credit where credit is due, the images of Littlehampton Westworks were provided by Julia Edge, a curator at the Littlehampton Museum. Btw Tom, perfect pronunciation on the "Tomasz" and you were right, I am not British, but an avid viewer nonetheless.
King
Tomasz sounds kinda polish?
Very nice!
@@messibeaucoup yes
@chedatomasz it would appear @makingitthrough190 might be the subject of the photo. She has reached out to Tom, but hasn't heard back.
At one point, I was genuinely expecting you to put the picture of the lady who took the 360 Google Earth picture next to the picture of the girl and start comparing their facial structures. "Could this be the same woman?!?”
i was preparing for that as well LOL
I was actually surprised he didn't briefly speculate 😂😂
dont encourage him haha!
After working in various charity shops over a 10 year period I can confirm that this kinda thing happens a few times a year. There is people who go into charity shops looking to buy only old cameras. They were always happiest when they had film in them
It makes me wonder, do these people buy old undeveloped film, with the bonus of getting an old camera?
@@renerpho most likely not, people still shoot film and go to thrift stores and op shops looking on deals on cameras. they find undeveloped rolls pretty regularly
It's all fun and games till they find some psycho crazy man horror movie photos and they cant sleep ever again
Might I suggest. Scarborough! Nope, thought not.
Yup, I found an old Sony camera and low and behold there was a tape inside. I watched the tape (a little bit nervously too) but come to find out it was very wholesome family recording their daughter learning to play piano.
Could you imagine if the lady and her dog who took the picture on the beach in 2020 was the little girl in the photo, that would be unbelievable.
Sounds like a plot from LOST
LOL that was *my* first thought.
Could you imagine if the lady on the beach was holding the photo?!
@@CallieMasters5000 Bahahahaha - love it !!
😄 i was thinking the same
This is low-key the best series you are doing Tom, across the missions and all Geogussr videos. The pay-off at the end of these videos is THE BEST. Kudos!
Agreed. This is the series that got me to subscribe and every one is great.
Too far
Apart from the real life missions, this is the best series by far, I enjoy it so much! There's something about the investigation and the mystery that's extremely satisfying to watch.
I think the historical aspect adds a layer of connection to the human experience. The rate of change of the geography is so different than our human/generational rate of change.
The grandmother in the photo looks exactly like my great grandmother but I know she was only about the mother’s age at the time. The little girl also looks almost identical to my grandmother, my mum as a child and 2 of my cousins (same face). All these similarities could mean it was my family and with how the dates line up the grandmother would be my great great grandmother, the mother would be my great grandmother and the little girl my grandmother.
They also all lived around that area of England until the 80s so it is very possible, I would be interested to know where the camera was found as it could easily of been donated to the charity shop when my great nan died as we donated a lot of her old things.
its kinda hard to believe lol but im not saying its not, im just saying its very hard to believe. ill eat my words if proof is given lol
You can write him an email about that, as he said. He has his email address on the about section of his channel
This can't be this easy...😂🙈
@@Arcycesarz @yehwtf I don't have any proof to actually email him I just found it interesting to speculate. I might look into it further soon though but it's still very unlikely
@@lillyp603 Curious, I post to follow this thread. Must be wrong but who knows.
I study photography and photographic history in Dublin and have collected a few 'orphaned' family photo albums from vintage shops around Europe over the years if some scans of these for detective work would be interesting to you then please let me know !
Email them to him. I don't think he reads every comment. But im sure he will read the email and will be interested
I was wondering how it is possible for undeveloped, exposed film to last this long (half a century?) Could you clarify?
@@julius-horsthuis i'd like to know as well, that's unbelievable
@@julius-horsthuis it’s weird to think about, but when the light 70 years ago hit the film it allowed grains of silver salt in the film to break apart within the gelatin they were sitting in, and leave behind metallic silver. Those silver salts and metallic silver stayed suspended in the dried out gelatin for as long as they had too, until all of the unexposed silver salts were washed away in development process, leaving the original image behind as metallic silver (which blocks light and forms the black and grey parts of the negative). Had the film never been exposed to light in the 50s, it would have become dramatically less sensitive to light over the years, but since the original photograph was taken when it WAS sensitive, that image has existed in its entirety for decades, but only as a specific arrangement of silver salts and metallic silver, which were finally separated from each other when it was developed!
@@julius-horsthuis Yes, it is. The pictures degrade, depending on storage conditions (cool and dry is ideal) but it's far from unheard of to get at least something recognisable from films that have been sitting for half a century. Especially black & white films last a long time, colour films degrade more quickly. They might also be very difficult to develop because the processes changed and even if you're able to find the original recipes and instructions you might not be able to source the necessary chemicals. B&W is pretty much standardised and can be developed using the strangest household items (including coffee, search the web for "Caffenol" developer), colour is much more sensitive and complex. The only surviving colour negative process (C41) was invented in 1972, so any older films will be very difficult to develop, and some manufacturers might have used older, proprietary processes even longer. Reversal (slide) films are even worse. AGFA had their proprietary Agfachrome process into the early 1990s and Kodak produced K14 film until 2006 if I remember correctly. Colour negative films can be developed as B&W though.
I work in Weston. For the Town Council. Obviously they have close ties with the tourist trade. I could put the feelers out. Although I would suggest however the little girl/family aren’t local. Traditionally Weston has been a popular holiday destination for people from Brum and the Welsh.
Lewis who sent the pics in said he found the camera in Dawlish, he thinks.
@@ashmaybe9634 I missed that bit. Irony being I know Dawlish like the back of my hand as well.
there appears to be arizona flag on the sandcastles too, not sure if any other country has one similar to it
@@chaseharlann as well as what looks like a flag with with the Irish coat of arms
@@GeniusSloth That's definitely the Arizona flag, and the Irish coat of arms. Which seems incredibly weird to have laying around as a sandcastle ornamental piece. The other flag on the left looks like the Royal arms of England emblem with the three lions. Seems like a shop were selling interesting and quirky flags to take to the beach. The choice of which is a whole other interesting mystery in itself
Agree with the comments below. You need to go there and find those stone blocks! Love this series! I especially like the follow-ups that you do to the previous episode.
Yep, this needs to happen!
And then recreate the photos. I wanna see Tom dressed as a '50s beach granny.
And please let him not only look 1m high for that one stone, since the beach could have been higher (or lower) back then.
The end of Weston Super Mere Peir is new because the old one burnt down in 2008 (it also burnt down in 1930 as well and had a small fire in 2019), but the end closest to land is original and it was always at road level
What is it with peir’s burning down?
@@pugsterjosh7925 because they are not on land they have lower safety standards than normal properties this means with the lack of regulation, they naturally cut corners. So are more likely to pretty much garentueed to set on fire at some point.
@@pugsterjosh7925 Local rumour is arson for insurance.
@@BoblBach And in Brighton, Pier rivalry.
I remember being woken up to my phone buzzing nonstop, then heading to work and seeing a towering pillar of smoke in the distance.
Well done for getting the location, that’s definitely Weston Super Mare. I recognised it immediately as it was where I grew up!
The building to the left is a Victorian seaside shelter and toilet block that was converted into tearooms a decade or two ago and is now a takeaway and shop. The pier was devastated by fire 14 years ago but was rebuilt which is why the Google street view pictures show it being different to the older photo. The building in the far distance with the pointy roof, shown under the arm of the boy standing behind the girl, is the Grand Atlantic Hotel
There is a long, dark history of the happy, colourful piers of Britain burning down. Always puts a bit of a damper on these stories. I used to love the pier at WSM as a kid. Admittedly, I didn’t know any better.
Hi Tom, from personal experience I know that the tide can change the sand situation on a beach drastically and practically over night.
So the stone walk way you see there could have already been there but covered in sand at the time of the pictures, only to be revealed in time for the later satellite imagery.
So here's my bonus story: In the west of Portugal we went to a beach, sadly I forgot the name of it, where we spent one day jumping over a ledge into the sand ~2m below and had a lot of fun. A few days later we went there again and that place was now a ~3m drop onto stones. It was a humbling experience to see the power of the sea like that.
Anyways, just my two cents. Great video, I was really impressed with the speed!
In the photo of the girl, you can kind of see it at the left hand side I think
These videos would also make great livestreams. I know Tom often spends multiple days on these hunts, but with the whole community helping simultaneously it would be great to see how many we can solve in one session.
You're right. He'd almost need someone monitoring the comment stream but I'd watch the heck out of it.
You might get a fire hose of information though that could be very wrong. Maybe in a Discord or something where you could manage it better, send photos, and all that.
Exactly. Would have immediately dismissed most of Sussex as it's all pebble beaches round here. I was almost shouting at the screen 🤣great idea.
Oh my! I can't believe you found these old photographs of me.
Ha, well done!
Haha x
Lol
Lol, there is a comment from @makingitthrough190. Her first comment was a year ago but the last she made was in March 2024 confirming that she is the girl in the photo.
(Its the 4th comment from the top when I look, but may be different for you or as time goes on)
@@chrisbodum3621 It's a joke on a comment he said in the vid.
Hello Tom. Doreen McManamon is my grandmother. It's remarkable that you identified the location, but also, somehow, her true and God-given name. Your talents are remarkable.
😂
Do you mean that it's your grandma in the photo?
@@Arcycesarz /s
Proof?
@@SKaleLP You didn't answer the askers question...
There is something in this photo that is at least an odd coincidence if not something that might help identify/verify the person in the picture. one of the flags on the sandcastle is if i am not mistaken the state flag of arizona (it being black and white makes it impossible to be sure) odd given the location of the first in the series was tucson az. not sure what the third flag is (the not three lion one).
That is the flag of Arizona. I spotted it as well. The three lions flag looks more like the coat of arms of Royal Arms of England (i googled it, since i genuinely though it is the coat of arms of Estonia, which is similar, but in that period, Estonia was part of USSR)
Looking at vintage sandcastle flags from UK, the third one is yellow angel harp on a blue background. Looks like it's some kind of set of flags you can buy.
@Azhar Leonard Third flag is Irish.
@@kinkkku Is it an Erin Go Bragh flag?
@@UA-camShortsAreTheDevil I guess it's also used there. Royal standard of UK has both, the angel harp and three lions. EDIT: Definitely Irish, as Chris Bell said above. "the third quadrant represents the ancient Kingdom of Ireland and contains a version of the gold harp from the coat of arms of Ireland on a blue field." from wikipedia.
The Facebook comments at the end were really fun to read. It's so cool to get insights like these from locals with info that really only they can know cus they lived there when they were kids.
Perhaps this could be you or me in a few decades. Or maybe other things could happen.
I've lived in Weston all my life. I knew it was Weston by first glance. I used to watch old videos on geoguessr and see you brush over Weston, hoping you'd visit here digitally. This is incredible, great work Tom
I'm only 9 minutes in but one of the flags on the sandcastle is the Arizona state flag.
Basically all this means is that the photo was taken sometime after 1917 or so.
These flags are still sold on UK beaches today. Wonder why these specific flags?!
I live in AZ and noticed that straight off. Clearly not AZ but it is a cool flag….. maybe just sold for that reason
Maybe Arizona stole their flag idea from a Weston Super Mare beach vendor
@@johnpheth :D plot twist
That is so weird. The English side of my family lived in Weston super mare and took me to the beach in the summer in the 1960s.... I can remember I used to get a new bucket and some small flags for the sand castles. Yes, the Arizona flag was one they sold! I like the idea that Arizona got the idea for it's flag from Weston beach!
Tom - now shown the still images to mum, and she said "definitely first half of the '50s" based on clothing. She won't mind me saying that she was around in those days, probably between 6 and 10 when these photos were taken, albeit in Norwich rather than Weston-Super-Mare.
Great content Tom! The tale of this undeveloped photos brought to my mind a similar case: the ill fated 1897 Andrée´s balloon expedition to the North Pole where the film, found three decades later, cast some light on the last days of its members. For those who like this sort of thing, there is a superb article on the English Wikipedia.
that's what happens when you send a swede to do a norwegians job (joking) will check that out.
Stopped breathing for a second-my family vacationed in WSM, and my grandmother’s favourite ‘nice’ day dress way a turquoise polka-dotted number. She’s wearing it in almost every photo of her from the era. It’s not her, but for a second I had such a strangely hopeful feeling! Good luck to you find the person; I can’t imagine how they will feel to see this!
Nice episode. I was thrown off by the flags in the tops of the sandcastles in the picture with the three children. The one flag looks like it is from the US state of Arizona, and I was trying to figure out why a toddler in Britain would have had an obscure state flag. Ultimately, I think you got the right location - well done.
Superb content mate, I could watch these forever. The personal stories attached to the photos and the quest for answers to decade long questions is equally fascinating and heartwarming.
I know you probably have a life to live, but can’t you just make these all day?
The videos in this series make me very emotional, please don't stop doing it thinking that it got overdone, i can't get enough of it!
No offense but why?
As much as I love watching you play Geoguessr, these detective videos are so entertaining. I'd love to see more of this! Great work.
This is the best thing that’s happened so far today. I’ll spare the details but it’s been a hell of a day for me. Thank you Thomas for all the amazingly wholesome and intriguing content.
Looking at old photos is like time travel. This exciting journey to another time, seeing how places have changed, or not, standing in the exact same places where horses used to ride instead of cars, thinking about all those people who were there at some point in time, going about their ordinary lives just like we are now, and are now long gone, just like we will in a few decades... Yet occasionally, things like this happen where the lives of complete strangers touch together for just a moment, in a way that neither of them would've ever expected. And reading the wholesome comments from locals who recognize the places, reminiscing on old memories, the irreplacable unique human memory. It makes me indescribably sad and happy at the same time. This is why we need to keep passing down stories. Thank you for bringing this little bit of magic into my world.
Tom I am so glad you are uploading weekly. Missed you man! ❤️🇬🇧
Tom,
You are by and large my favorite content creator on YT. Having a great deal of interest in geography, I’m so happy that I stumbled upon your channel a couple of years back.
I very much enjoy this series, as well as many others! Keep up the great content. Looking forward to when you come to the US here soon.
This is a content goldmine, and I'm here for it. Well done.
I clicked on the video and instantly recognised this as Weston-Super-Mare, the pier in Weston burned down when I was younger (some time in the 00s if I had to guess) and it was fully rebuilt. I've spent a lot of time in Weston in my life and I'm impressed you managed to find this so quick, nicely done, Tom!
I'm pretty sure you and your fellow chavs were the ones who burnt it down.
@@lanamortenson8694 ?
I'm from Weston, I didn't expect to see this!
You should consider doing a mission down here mate. Sand Point to Brean Down without roads would be quality lol.
Have a look into it if you get the chance! A good mix of woodland, urban areas and fields!
This is really incredible what you're doing. You are literally giving people and their family's a slice of their history back to them that was presumably lost.
It’s amazing
@GeoWizard, just had a thought that you might really enjoy a BBC drama miniseries called 'Shooting the Past' (1999). Doesn't seem to be on any of the streaming services, but is available on DVD at Amazon, or findable as unofficial uploads on UA-cam. It's a really inspiring, moving and emotional series about photo museum curators tracking people's lives throughout history using their extensive historical collection 😀
A great bit of telly that. And yes, would very much appeal to all GeoDetective fans, I think.
A wonderfully atmospheric series, much better than Stephen Poliakoff's recent BBC offerings
weston is a lovely place. I live in the west midlands and the main reason we go there a lot is because its the nearest beach, its as simple as that, and the fact it's just a pleasant place
I love these historical photo hunts
This channel might be one of the best parts of UA-cam.
Hi Tom! You’re one of the very few people I actually give likes to help you out. Because you’re not just doing the talk, you also do the walk.
I am obsessed with this series! Please do more
You know, Destin from SmarterEveryDay regularly buys old slides and negatives from thrift stores or garage sales, and no one knows anything about them. From what he's said in podcasts, he has a ton of them. could be interesting to see if you can locate some of them
Great collab idea indeed!
Definitely one of the best ongoing series on this channel 👍
Keep it up, Tom
i love this series so much. I think getting help from locals is totaly legit. Thats what a real detective would do ! I want to to see you in person at one of these places !
I cant even express how much I love this series. My favorite youtube videos ever.
I agree. Fantastic channel and this series is superb
14:37 did he just do that to a 70 year old lady??? LOL
Right after him doing that, moving to the present day image, I was thinking: what if that lady walking her dog is the same person!? Now that would be a longshot if anything!
No, he did that to a 4 year old child.
Bro this is my favorite series on the channel I’m so happy that he’s posting this more!
I can't believe it, the moment i saw the picture i thought Weston-super-Mare. Haven't been there since i was a kid, maybe 15 years. Nice work Tom.
Same here, been a good 10 years for me but seemed familiar straight away!
Same
I've got a set of post cards someone sent back and forth with family in the UK in like the 1920's, really fkn cool. Roads in the area they're addressed to have been completely remodeled and street names have suffered the same. Really cool to see a small piece of someone's reality in the past. Love these videos!
this man ability to lacate places from just a picture never ceases to amaze me, every time he does it, it's like I'm seeying it for the first time xD
Hi Tom. Have been a fan for some time and have just now caught up to date with the GeoDetective playlist. Far aside from all the neat little tips and tricks I've learned from watching your channel, I am always inspired by your perseverance!
me : trying to guess the city
Tom : Trying to find the exact brick
Good job! You were incredibly lucky to find the pier as so many have sadly disappeared since those days.
HAH I knew it was Weston-Super-Mare before the video had even began. That wall is too distinctive having lived there for 3 years. I used to walk down that promenade all the time during my Uni years.
I've let the Weston-Super-Mare photography group know! :)
Keep up these videos GeoWizard, these are extremely entertaining.
Imagine that the woman on the beach on Google maps is the same as the girl in the picture. That would be amazing
As soon as I've seen her I thought the same
I was thinking about that as well. I was expecting Tom to make a remark on that :)
The little girl will be in her 70s now as photo from the 50s .the woman on beach with dog is nowhere near that age
I grew up in Weston and the second I saw the first photo and also the brick wall in the second photo, I knew it was Weston! Funny that it must be ingrained in my memories. Great Vid Tom keep it up ❤️
Weston Super Mare. I used to live there!
There’s a building like that still on the promenade and that pier is the old one that caught fire a few years ago and got rebuilt.
Normally these would be either local folk or tourists from the midlands. That used to be quite a common beach resort at the time.
This kind of content, and the comments here, which just expand the content even more in a wholesome and constructive way, is what makes the internet great. You're doing god's work, Tom :)
Tom, what could be useful are AIs who color black-and-white photos. That way it's a bit easier to look at the picture even though the colors might be not true.
could you recommend one?
@@leotard2536 No, I never used them to be honest
This video came up in my feed today, not sure why, but it reminded me of something similar that happened to me about 8 years ago.
I bought a 1951 Voigtlander Perkeo for £14 on eBay, opened it up to find a roll of exposed 120 film. It was Kodacolor-X which required C-22 processing back in the day (and that was phased out around 1973). There are very few specialist labs around that will still process them, and they charge a fortune to do it. So with that in mind I decided to process it as a black and white at home (I do my own film regularly). About 30 minutes later I had some negatives with all 12 images on!
One of the photos was a lady enjoying a glass of stout is in the garden of the George Hotel adjacent to Yarmouth Pier in the Isle of Wight. My wife and I had holidayed in the area and had walked down the pier a few years before I found the film.
Kodacolor-X was only made between 1963 and 1974 so that helped narrow down the date of the images. What helped even more was a photo of the ferry (the MV Lymington) which was taken out of service in 1972, so the photos were definitely before then. I scanned them and sent them to the bloke that sold me the camera (and sent him back the negatives), he was chuffed to bits and had no idea there was a film in it, the camera had belonged to his Aunt.
Being the first person to see the images maybe 40-50 years after they were taken felt like a great honour. I can understand why there's a big hobby of processing found film, it's quite a thrill.
I also collect glass plate negatives and I while I’m keen to know the locations, I prefer to find the dates. One set had a photo of a lady on a beach and at the side of her was a copy of The Strand magazine. I tracked down that issue to be April 1921. My earliest plates are from the Great exhibition in Paris in 1900, but I do have an Ambrotype from Saturday 16th February 1856 (there is a handwritten note inside the case), that’s my earliest piece.
And this is the longest comment I’ve ever written on UA-cam.
Tom could write newspaper headlines with a title like that!
Well, to be fair, the title is misleading. It suggests the camera was at the charity shop for 70 years. Which is highly unlikely.
@@TheGruspastej I think the title is referring to the photo being undeveloped for 70 years and not the camera.
Hope we get a fan photo, touching the same stones from that wall.
Loved the video.
Keep making them, pretty please.
By the way, Toby Segar mentioned he watches your straight line videos. That man is a national treasure, you two should do something together!
Toby's great. I love the Storror vids
This is such an epic series, love from Australia Geowizard. Lets get this trending!
"70 year olds don't tend to spend a lot of time on youtube"..... and then there's my dad, 75, it's most of his day. every day. lol
My uncle is 87, watches nothing but UA-cam
Dang, my dad is 60 and still either working on his car or making something for the backyard.
@@badcornflakes6374 i would hope so, 60 is young!
I instantly thought of Weston but kept doubting myself as I haven't been to many big beaches and wasn't sure if they all looked like that!
"70 year old don't tend to spend a lot of time on youtube". You clearly don't know my 79 year old father. Hey dad!
There’s something about these old photographs that have a Je ne sais quoi about them, like who where these people? Why didn’t they get round to developing the film? Just a few moments caught on camera that have laid dormant for the last 70 years, only to resurface to a wide audience.
This is the only place to get this kind of content, brilliant stuff
Should come to New Zealand and do a straight line challenge 😭😭 its coming on winter here so that's the environment you like to do them in, I gana miss those series when summer actually hits in your country 😭😭😭😭, generally the 2nd I seen the wall and that main building and then the smaller ones in the background, i knew that was the place 😂, insane, imagine if that lady who took the picture is the girl in the pic, she looks about 70🤯🤯🤯🤯
Theres already a straight line across newzealand series out there
@@Zavstar really from GeoWizard ?
@@benradcliffe2717 no. But from kiwi locals who were inspired by tom. Here it is
ua-cam.com/video/SskUN_sL2CQ/v-deo.html
I honesly called it as Weston when I saw the photo, im from Dudley and cant belive you havent been to Weston! We call it Birmingham by the sea as we all go there all the time. Nice video man.
Love this series
I don't think this helps the search, but Those flags on the sandcastle: An English And Irish Flag are there, but so is the flag of Arizona. I doubt that'd be the sort of flag you could buy for a sandcastle, so maybe there are American?
I was just about to ask what that flag was! Interesting.
@@Bellerophon17 Arizona I think has one of the cooler flags out of all the states. Arizona has been a state since 1912, it be the 48th state.
God, I love this series!
Would appreciate it if you'd zoom out more after putting the marker down so we could get a better last overview in which part of the country it's located. 🙂
I go to University in the Winter Gardens. I knew the location immediately! I was wondering how long it would take you. It's crazy how similar it is
I thought from the first moment I saw the first photo that it was Weston Super Mare. I'm not sure if that is the same little rectangular building though, as I want to say from my own memory that these were dotted along the front in multiple places, and just because one survives (albeit in refurbished form) doesn't automatically make it the same one. The promenade from the pier down past that point was massively reworked in the last decade or two (you can see some of the work happening in the oldest (2009) Google Streetview image for the road on the other side of that building. Currently it's a fish and chip shop, but I think they were originally public toilets spaced equally all down the front.
I'll add that if this is the same little rectangular building, then somewhere between the girl and the pier should be a small boating lake, according to detailed maps of the era available at the nls website, and I'm not sure we can see anything like that in the photo.
Looking at the photosphere right now. This has been uploaded by a guy with the name Tim Limbim. Looking at his other uploads, he seems to be a local guy. One of his uploads is actually a photosphere at a military terminal in Colorado Springs. And in another one he was in San Francisco. Might he be visiting relatives aka is that the connection to the mysterious Arizona flag?
So happy to see your success man, watching your vids from here in Japan reminds me of home. Love your content. You're blowing up!
My mum's in her 80s and she's always on t'interweb mate, when she's not playing bridge or doing yoga. Never assume!
These detective videos are always fun. Thanks, Tom!
I’m 70 and on UA-cam waaay too much. But USA based, so no help. Looks like a possible brother there, too.
The funny thing is that you immediately go on a "hunt for the pier" and I would think that of all the things that might have changed between then and now it's the wooden structure in the salt water. It seems ripe for "let's tear down the old one and build a super-pier that has a building on it." I'd have started with the stone buildings in the background that are likely still there.
Anyone else notice the Arizona flag? Quite a random detail, almost like a nod to the first old picture episode!
I just commented about the flag before seeing your comment. It's interesting
@@HAMRADIODUDE you can buy packets of fully assorted flags for Sandcastles c'mon
@@badcornflakes6374 hey, just pointing it out.
I bloody love this channel...
I'm loving these geodetectives. I admire how much time and effort goes into the.
I was born in 1955 and I’m definitely not 72. Yet!!! Love your videos btw.
If the little girl was born in 1950 she would be 72 this year. She looks about 4 years old, so if the photo was taken in 1954 it would add up.
If we had more information about that exact model of camera we could probably pin down the year. A fashion expert could probably date the dresses too!
First time ever I beat Tom to the answer! We would go exactly there on Christmas day in the campervan, to break out of the usual xmas routine.
Yay! Finally Geo detective! When are the regular episodes continuing?
Hey Tom, how about trying to put the photo in some local FB group? Seems like it helped with the one before. Maybe someone will recognize it. Theres a lot of older people on FB now.
Hi tom I’m the one who scanned these images and I’ve been scouring the uk trying to find this location, good luck, feels mad to know that I was the very first person to ever see these photos! (It’s like 99% western btw)
Knowing whereabouts you bought the camera might be a clue to the people in the photos. If, for example, you bought it in Bristol that would indicate that the original owner/photographer might have been a Bristolian and not a Liverpudlian.
It would be cool to go there and get a photo from the exact location and angle in the original photo to match up. Very cool series though. Thanks
Fascinating! If I were not in Texas I’d walking the beach, looking for that particular section of seawall. I like to think that little girl had a very happy life, and is still with us.