Colorful England: Pre-WWII Honeymoon Snaps Found in Grandma's Attic

   

Newly-wedded British couple Denys and Margaret Gardiner spent their honeymoon driving 900 miles up and down the east coast of England in August 1939, just weeks before the Second World War broke out. But the best thing (that is, the best thing for us) was that they took color pictures of the countryside they drove their convertible through.

After the death of his grandmother in February 2014, Barney Britton found an unexpected treasure while cleaning out her attic: a wooden box filled with dozens of 35mm slides documenting his grandparents' honeymoon trip in 1939. Although Britton's mother remembered seeing the photos as a child, they were long presumed to be lost after several decades and multiple house moves. To Britton's delight, most of the slides were remarkably well-preserved even after nearly 75 years of storage. Many of the photos were shot using Agfacolor film—a novelty at the time—providing a rare and exceptional look at England in color in the month preceding the outbreak of World War II.

Church of All Saints, Upper Sheringham, Norfolk, 1939

 

The road between Morston and Blakeney, Norfolk, 1939
 
Common Lane, towards Brancaster, Norfolk, 1939

 

Unknown location, August 1939

 

A Ford, in Thetford Norfolk, 1939
 
Unknown location, August 1939

 

Boston, Lincolnshire, 1939
 
Lincolnshire, 1939

 

Hull - New Holland Ferry, 1939
 
Hull - New Holland Ferry, 1939

 

Nelson Street, Kings Lynn Norfolk, 1939

 

Burham Market, Norfolk, August 1939
 
Unknown location, August 1939

 

Sheringham, Norfolk, August 1939

 

Stiffkey, Norfolk, August 1939
 
Unknown location, August 1939

 

Bridge over River Glaven (between Wiveton and Cley), Norfolk, 1939

 

Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, August 1939
 
Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, August 1939

 

Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, August 1939

 

Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, August 1939
 
Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, August 1939

 

Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, 1939

 

Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, 1939
 
Yorkshire Moors, August 1939

 

Yorkshire Moors, August 1939

 

Lincoln, Lincolnshire 1939
 
High Bridge, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, 1939

 

Lincoln Cathedral, from Sincil Dyke, Lincoln, 1939

 

Brayford Pool, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, 1939
 
Lincolnshire Wolds, 1939

 

Lincolnshire Wolds, 1939

 

Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, 1939
 
Yorkshire Moors, August 1939

 

Yorkshire, August 1939

 

Norfolk, August 1939
 
York, August 1939

 

Yorkshire, August 1939

 

Hampstead Heath looking over 'Vale of Heath', London, 1939

 

Embankment, Londo,n 1939
 
Unknown location, August 1939

 

Cavendish, Suffolk, 1939

 

Prentice Street, Lavenham, Suffolk, 1939

 

Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, August 1939
 
Near Wethersfield, Suffolk, 1939

 

Unknown location, August 1939

 

Unknown location, August 1939

 

Add captionUnknown location, August 1939
 
Walsingham, Norfolk, August 1939

 

Lavenham, Suffolk, August 1939

 

Unknown location, August 1939

 

Unknown location, August 1939
 
Embankment, London, August 1939

 

Embankment, London, August 1939

 

Thames, London, 1939

 

Thames, London, 1939
 
Archway, London, 1939

 

Above the Wash, Lincs/Norfolk, August 1939