Time marches on

77 years between these 2 photos. Looks like the poor drainage issue still hasn't been fully resolved although it's a damn sight better in 2015 than it was in 1938. I'm going through a phase of collecting old photos of the town where I live and it is amazing how much it has changed over the last 100 years or so. Maybe its my age, but I look at some of those pictures of the town centre thronging with people, the streets lined with little shops and I find myself wishing it could return to that. The town centre today has one of those soul less shopping malls and the high street is a wasteland peppered with empty premises or pop up shops. I avoid it.

Having mentioned the amount of change, it can also be surprising how much is the same. This road for example. All of those houses are still there today, all but one of the trees has gone and the corner shop on the right is still a corner shop. Where the cars are parked on the right is a small parade of shops. In 1938 it looks like there was a farm building there, showing how farmland was being developed for housing. Amazing that they built these houses but didn't think to put in a proper road or pavements or maybe this was taken when the estate was still under development? Seems unlikely.

More of these to come when I find the opportunity.