Photos of the counties of southern England in 1938

Here I present a series of photographs of southern English counties, taken in 1938 by an American photographer. These photographs give a wonderful impression of England before the War. Many of the villages have little changed over the years.....
Music:
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

[@songsmith31a]

Looking back in my late 70s, I realise how fortunate I was to grow up after WW2 and know much of the rural England we see here. How EMPTY of traffic the streets were then. My solo bike rides around. west country byways remain with me still. Thank you for this delightful journey to the past.

[@NigelFowlerSutton]

Thank you very much, Mark. I am really pleased you enjoyed looking at these wonderful photos from a bygone age. Indeed, we are most fortunate to have been born after WWII. Just a decade divides our ages. How right you are, the streets were empty of traffic. Take away the modern signs of life and so much remains from the times of my youth.

[@phubblewubbphubblewubb]

I'm weeping for my beautiful England.

[@faysmyth6947]

I am Scottish and adore my country's majestic scenery, but there is something about the modest beauty and tranquility of these English villages that I love. I think it may be the sense of safety they exude. I'm aware that's probably an illusion but a harmless and comforting one.

[@MrDaiseymay]

excellent ! young lady. we are losing our Stiff --upper

[@BrianRooney-zh6hl]

I am also Scottish and I agree with every word you have written the serenity comes right through the photographs ,wonderful

[@ngipiksari]

Fortunately for Scotland it still has its majestic scenery and its culture is relatively intact. There'll be nothing English left soon yet if we complain we're racist.

[@philiplancaster9668]

@@ngipiksari The tide is turning my friend.

[@ngipiksari]

@@philiplancaster9668 I hope you're right but I suspect the damage is done

[@rolfvaughan4085]

I so long for my old England back..loved and missed so much.RIP.

[@alicewestbury4817]

Yes coming home from school and your mother in the kitchen wearing an apron,

[@alicewestbury4817]

Denise Bond my mother always seemed to have a tea towel tucked in the ties and she would use it for everything like flicking away flies from air , shooing the cat out and getting things from the oven , Christ the germs!! Ha ha

[@philiplancaster9668]

@@alicewestbury4817 Absolutely right! That's how I remember it - ah! Those halcyon days, immortalised here by VW's peerlessly descriptive music.

[@alicewestbury4817]

Philip Lancaster yeh I always remember hearing the solid steady voice of the man reading the shipping forecast on a dark winter morning and hearing the mournful sound of the foghorn as we lived by the sea. That memory all rips at my heart. Ha

[@philiplancaster9668]

@@alicewestbury4817 What's wrong with solid and steady? Don't YOU hanker for past treasured memories of England your native land?? I know I do!

[@dottyg.6151]

Heart-breaking. I was born in Epsom just after the war and remember our milk being delivered by horse and cart, the 'bread man' bringing his basket of bread to the door and coal being delivered by men who looked as though they'd been down the mine to get it. I loved hearing the church bells ringing across the common from Christ Church, on a Sunday morning, watching the cricket being played on Stamford Green and going with my friends to the Stew Ponds to find frog spawn - and the bomb crater where we could find sticklebacks! We didn't have a car but my dad could drive so if he was able to borrow or hire one he would take us out through wonderful villages, to Silent Pool and often to Wisley Huts where we could paddle and swim in the lake. The old pub across the lake has long since been demolished and it's remains lie under the motorway, the hay fields of Epsom common are now woodlands - nice, but no skylarks, the beautiful old seventeenth century buildings that were in Epsom town have made way for a one-way traffic system and the lovely floral roundabouts at each end of the town are now busy traffic lights. All in the name of progress. I'm under no illusion about the hardship and poverty that existed in the past - my family were of Welsh coal mining/quarrying stock. That doesn't prevent me from grieving for the England I knew and loved - and know can never return.

[@alangaughran]

Quite a lot of that is still there. I noticed the overhanging clock at Abinger Hangar too.

[@ronniedixon1128]

Beautiful no mobiles no social media pleasant well mannered people total bliss

[@pakistanidalek]

Aye, no crime either. Policeman were a lot younger, you didn't have to look your doors at night, we still believed in Father Christmas and the streets were paved with gold. Great times.

[@Trapezius8oblique]

Cause all the crimes were sent to Australia

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

No big brother.

[@ronniedixon1128]

@@pakistanidalek was that a really poor attempt at sarcasm? Started well but ended quite bizarrely

[@pakistanidalek]

@@ronniedixon1128 A bit like life in that respect.

[@coolmacatrain9434]

England. The very essence of what makes the western world what it is, and indeed, what it stands for! ...(and I'm Irish) God Bless England

[@dulls8475]

Those people have gone unfortunately....

[@davidhussell8581]

Thank you for those pictures. England - a truly beautiful, old and gentle land. This is the land my dear, late father volunteered to fight for, and fight he did, all the way off the beaches, right through to Berlin. He returned to marry and father two sons, all whilst doing a very useful job. Since then our population has increased from around 40 million to now, 65 million and rising, including many who come here, not to become like us, but to take and criticise. The island is now overcrowded, and I should know as I spent a lifetime attempting to ameliorate the effects of that overpopulation. If only we had had leaders who loved our country and not low people who have loved only themselves, whilst despising our people. If only....

[@eddielindaa]

How peaceful and tranquil...

[@MrDaiseymay]

I'd like to think that you are among the vast majority. We we survive, no matter what.

[@sedekiman]

I remember this England when the milkman delivered with a horse and cart. The horse was a piebald and her name was Dainty!

[@piggypiggypig1746]

@Jésus Rapigay I grew up in Penge SE london during the 70's and remember the rag and bone man on his horse and cart shouting "any old iron". Not so long ago.

[@1946nimrod]

@@piggypiggypig1746 ..'AROLD.....!!

[@piggypiggypig1746]

@@1946nimrod Haha!

[@lelleithmurray235]

@@piggypiggypig1746 Luton,1969...

[@daydays12]

lovely story. In the village where I was raised ..in the West Country I remember the blacksmith's forge That village has been gobbled up by the nearby city...😞

[@zig_ziggy]

Totally beautiful, especially set to Vaughan Williams. It's how I remember England in the nineteen fifties. Thank you

[@daydays12]

me too and even in the early nineteen sixties...

[@alexandradane3672]

Thank you so very much. I am so grateful for these lovely photographs but right now I can’t say much more as I am so overwhelmed with memories and remembering how life was even though the country then was on the brink of war. Thank , thank you again and I think those of us who can still remember the beauty of the countryside, the villages, hamlets , even how the towns and cities were , I feel so lucky to have known it and all the wonderful people who always had a cheery smile , always a greeting and the kindness and simplicity . Oh dear , I am getting very sentimental.

[@daydays12]

Thank you for that piece of sentimentality 🙂

[@fepeerreview3150]

As the world looked before electrical wires were draped everywhere, every ground surface was covered in asphalt or concrete and every small item was shrink wrapped in plastic. Thank you for this really beautiful presentation. It makes me homesick. Exquisite choice of music as well.

[@daydays12]

makes me homesick too

[@amullinder]

Such beautiful scenes of the England I once knew. As a person who was born in the mid-1950's I feel sad that this is the England that I'll never see again.

[@nigelmitchell351]

Well we must have voted for it, I mean it must have been in the various parties manifestos. Wasn't it.?

[@tommillar2821]

sadly i know only to well that you are quite right, we have seen the best,

[@sarahstrong7174]

I know it looks very picturesque but there might have been disadvantages. Bad drains, polio, scarlet -fever, diphtheria, virtually all children who got cancer died of it whereas now 70% are saved. A lot of young people died of T.B. especially those from poorer circumstances. The air in London was terribly polluted there were dreadful smogs & many died.

[@sarahstrong7174]

And there is so much more awareness of child abuse. A child trying to say that something bad happened now has far more chance of being listened to. Back then you were expected to cover it all up, would be likely to be punished for lying if you said anything or worse, young girls of the age of 11 or 12 were accused of enticing & corrupting mature married men into getting sexually involved with them & these girls were sometimes seen as a moral danger & were locked up for thr rest of their lives in mental hospitals. All because they were abused by a man 4x their age, who got away scot free! Thank goodness we have more awareness now. Whereas back then children were automatically regarded as the one who must be in the wrong. There was basically an underlying negative attitude towards children & young people.

[@sarahstrong7174]

@Gorgon Don And to the gypsies & travellers who in the U.K. had their children stolen from them by the authorities even as late as into the 1970s.

[@globalman]

Thank you for all your beautiful photos. It is all bitter sweet to see. These scenes Eight years before I was born. Maybe no mod cons but seems like a kinder, gentler world that another war and unbridled immigration destroyed. When people made trunk calls and spoke to a lady to place the call. I lived one year in London 1976 and visited England several times. By the late 1990's things had vastly changed and from what I hear and read of recent times some places are unrecognisable. It was not a perfect world, that does not exist but I lament with a sad heart the attack on English and British culture that is now on the march.

[@smitajky]

One of those attacks came from the disgruntled population itself. Having fought two wars on behalf of the super rich, the British working man demanded a better share of the affluence of the country at the same time as the national affluence had evaporated through the funding of those wars. The British culture had always been one of oppression and exploitation of the vulnerable. (Dickins described some of that ). The culture that most of us remember never existed in the first place.

[@snowflakemelter1172]

@@smitajky get a job.

[@davidbarlow350]

@@smitajky Nice to hear from such a ray of sunshine!

[@OlivierGabin]

@@smitajky Agreed. And look at the living conditions of ordinary people. How many houses with tap water ? How many with an heating ? How many even with electricity ? It looks pretty from the outside, but living there at this period was a different thing...

[@jemmajames6719]

Charlie K Better in some ways, far worse in others

[@simonkwong5380]

Thank you Nigel for sharing with us an idyllic and wonderful world we all aspire to live in but has unfortunately slipped away slowly but surely. As a Canadian living in Canada, seeing these images of rural England to the cherish music of our beloved Vaughan Williams evokes in me a sense of déjà vu.

[@sisyphussapprentice8976]

Hard to imagine, seeing these images ,that the country was on the brink of one of the biggest threats to it's existence imaginable. Thank you for bringing back childhood memories.

[@mickpeters4457]

Wish I could turn the clock back. We may have been financially poorer then but life was far happier and much more peaceful.

[@aliengrey6052]

Mick Peters no stabbing then eh!

[@denisoleary5302]

If only.

[@pakistanidalek]

No, you were young once and your parents shielded all the shittier things in life from you. And then you grew up and started to see life through an adult's eyes

[@denisoleary5302]

@@pakistanidalek I was there. London was a bomb site, that was bad, and now the newcomers have made it worse.

[@pakistanidalek]

@@denisoleary5302 No. The bombsite london with all its dirt, filth, smog and slums was a lot worse .

[@jillianhorsley5985]

I have just subscribed as I wanted to view my Country as it was before the UK Corporation destroyed it. I watch with great sadness and a heavy heart. I am an amateur photographer and shoot landscapes, these images represent all that was peaceful and beautiful on our land, many thanks to all of the photographers that cared enough to capture a moment in time. Bless us all.

[@MrDaiseymay]

All the occupants are working in London, so they can afford these stinking old wood and straw hovels, that have No toilets --but a hole in the ground at the bottem of a long garden, No running hot water, or--in some cases, no cold either, but a Well, also at the bottem of the garden. NO electricity or Gas, only Oil lamps, and one small fireplace for heating the whole building. DAMP ?? you don't know the meaning of it, which often froze the Bed Blankets to the walls, so cold were the winter's. Shopping ? one small corner hovel, with very limited food choice. I'm quoting from a famous autobiography book, written by a former Wartime Land Army Girl. She --a volunteer, and from a well to--do family, pulled no punches. But stuck to it throughout the War. Could modern 'Have-alls' manage that---I doubt it.

[@susanbrown2909]

Philip Croft Right up to the late 60s ,most were like that . Bloody freezing ...now with so called progress,many who have heating can’t afford it ,in the present economic climate. So back to the old days.

[@colinharbinson8284]

@@susanbrown2909 I grew up in what was then a village, no central heating and pretty basic living I suppose we were poor, but too busy having fun to notice.

[@misdangered4326]

@@colinharbinson8284 I grew up without central heating and having to boil a kettle for hot baths. Survived it though. I’d prefer to be back in those time# rather than now tbh.

[@phillipbailey9615]

I suppose what you don't have, you don't worry about

[@tarquin4592]

From 'The Lark Ascending' to the dark descending.....

[@mr.145]

Perfect metaphor.

[@philiplancaster9668]

Indeed - perfectly played by Hilary Hahn - though I still prefer the classic Boult recording with the incomparable late Hugh Bean. There was something about that recording's sheer sense of repose.

[@catherinewhite2172]

Sad but true .

[@barriebaldwinclod8974]

Long live my long past - she is in my heart forever -

[@MOLYN867]

I remember towns and villages like this. A completely different world .Then we all became obsessed with the motor car.

[@pakistanidalek]

And the internet. If only we could uninvent the internet and colour photography. Imagine a world like that? Heaven!!

[@susanbrown2909]

Yes...The creator provided the horse to tug us around ...no noise ,no lung damaging particles ,and reduced air quality . Now it’s acrid cars belging out toxic fumes,noise ,accidents etc. More concrete laid per mile.. If only we could get decent people in running our country to put things to right. Mother Earth won’t keep taking this crap,and we can’t keep adapting. Something has to be done...

[@daydays12]

me too. The motor car has lot to answer for...a horror

[@daydays12]

@@susanbrown2909 Yes

[@emausderratsuchende5447]

Exactly in the Moment if I want to drink my Earl Grey and eat some Sweets KZbin's Algorithmen present me this Beautiful Pictures of old England, Atmospheric Photos. Thanks a lot for the British Blood toll for liberation from Fascism. Greetings from Germany.

[@jonathanaikman2285]

Not just England but Europe too was so beautiful before war destroyed so much.

[@ol7469]

More than war, the American 'way of life' was the end of genteel Europe.

[@petebondurant58]

@@ol7469 Yes. The Americans should have let Stalin have the damned place.

[@daydays12]

Yes. The second war was caused by the first and the first was MADNESS...so much destroyed and lost...

[@blissy1]

The houses just blended in with the surroundings

[@satsumamoon]

Everything blends together because its all the same colour

[@MrPeachblossom]

dont worry in 50 years these new houses will blend in too by falling down and slowly decomposing back to nature judging by the shoddy materials and building going on today

[@orielkolnai6548]

These wonderful snapshots show a lost world of small, self-governing communities with modest tastes and gentle manners. England then was unique in its lack of hysteria coupled to confidence in its own peaceful values. Sometimes in France one encounters the same atmosphere of self-reliance coupled with stoicism, but France has different traditions, whist rapidly developing the same brash crudeness which so disfigures life here. If we ever recover, possibly through some sort of revolution, these images will show us the tranquillity possible in a properly ordered society.

[@anythingbootneck]

It would make me feel even sadder if I saw pictures of the exact places today.

[@None-zc5vg]

They may have changed little, apart from the traffic, but their rustic inhabitants will have been replaced by the well-off.

[@tooyoungtobeold8756]

Some haven't changed much apart from traffic, yellow lines and road signs.

[@chazsach6594]

Probably flattened fo a motorway or housing estate.

[@LabRat6619]

17th century blacksmith replaced by a Pakistani mini market.

[@lucaschapman2188]

Take your rose tinted glasses off! One month living in the 1930's you will be begging to go back to the future.

[@chrismccartney8668]

Wouldnt we enjoy a staycation here so peaceful. And Vaughan WilliamsMusic so fitting

[@783nata]

The serene, harmonious and very interesting video on the background of a gentle, the wonderful music! I think this video makes you nostalgic for England... Thank you very much, dear Nigel! Have a happy day! Hugs!

[@NigelFowlerSutton]

Yes, I am in nostalgic mood this week, my dear Natasha. I can indulge my memories of my home land from the comfort of a chair in glorious sunshine!! The best of both worlds...... Plus, so many of these villages have little changed since these photographs were taken. I have visited them all at some stage in my life.... Happy days! With seasonal greetings, best wishes and hugs! Nigel

[@janeyslater8272]

This gives me the deepest nostalgia for a time gone by, for things and surroundings I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing. Born in ‘61 my earliest memories are of the remains of these times.. Each year I return to Britain I purposely search out the beauty of the countryside and it’s quaint towns and villages. Exquisitely presented, thank you.

[@jeffmoore4266]

Me too.return every year except this year.born 1949.such a wonderful childhood.

[@miguelcoelho3877]

Beautiful. And on top of so much beauty, we hear an American rose, Hilary Hahn, playing The Lark Ascending, arguably the most iconic of compositions by one of the most quintessentially English composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams. What a great choice! (And with so much oomph that puts my old Hi-Fi to shame... damn!)

[@graemedurie9094]

Yes, that's a very good rendition. To my mind, that by Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra remains the best, but different accounts please different people.

[@miguelcoelho3877]

@@graemedurie9094 Thank you for the insight. I will look into your suggestion. Hilary Hahn has been, for many years, one of my favorite violinists. I absolutely love her pitch-perfect intonation, flawless technique, and presence on stage (based on what I have seen posted on KZbin). But, of course, there are other very good renditions of The Lark Ascending. Here's a hyperlink to another favorite of mine: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6DJYmWDaadgZ8k I hope you like it.

[@daydays12]

@@miguelcoelho3877 I ADORE Hilary Hahn.. I don't know if you like Sibelius ( many English people do) but her performance, on You Tube: Sibelius : violin concerto (Hilary Hahn) Conducted by Mikko Franck with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France ...all is perfect sound, filming , music Mikko Franck sits because he has a damaged back - I also love the rapport between him and Hilayr Hahn and between them both and the Orchestra. It is so beautiful it makes me cry.

[@markroose8686]

Fabulous images! Paradise Lost.

[@bobgrant9882]

Paradise always lost when we turn from the Living God of the Bible.

[@oddviews]

And cannot follow John Milton for Paradise Regained!

[@stevemarshall5197]

Superb brings back happy memories of my youth !

[@user-vu7rv1xf1l]

I wasn't even born until the 1980s but this still makes me cry, my soul remembers this England, & the England of Alfred's dream. Most dear to them that love her Most great to them that know. Her fortress is a faithful heart Her pride is suffering

[@eddielindaa]

I agree. Love this

[@johnmartin6178]

It's the music that does it, lovely, very nostalgic. At 2.59 is Corfe Castle and not a lot has changed apart from the cars parked everywhere.

[@irenejohnston6802]

The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Classic FM listener favourite ❤️

[@pat8212]

So heartwarming seeing these so beautiful English villages. Reminds many older English folk of the way we were....the way our beautiful country once was. It isn’t anything like it once was. A crying shame to my way of thinking. Special folk try to keep up our traditional way of life, but it becomes more and more difficult as the years pass. ‘Thanks for the memories’ as Bob Hope once sang........beautiful....

[@shirley7777]

So beautiful, both images and music. Thank you for this.

[@sinemetu9037]

I now live in a rural village in the South West of France and can honestly say that life in many parts is still the same as this. I love it.

[@Bonypart]

Same here. South West France too and being born in the early 40s life here is as I recall it was all those years ago. Pure tranquillity.

[@sinemetu9037]

Bonypart, We are just a small village and yet we have a bakery, butcher, pharmacy, tabac, post office and two general stores.... love it.

[@Bonypart]

@@sinemetu9037 You are lucky. I live in a tiny hamlet and the nearest village has no shops. It's a fifteen minute drive to a bigger village with all that you listed.

[@garysimpson3900]

Beautiful: made even more so by the music.

[@Musrusticus-]

Thank you for these beautiful reminders of OUR England. I would that it returned.

[@timcolledge3732]

Very moving, especially when compared to today......

[@davidcousins3508]

Love these photos and the presentation...a snapshot of aspects of England within living memory that seem so different from today . Makes you want to get in a time machine and travel back . But I wonder how many of us ,used to our modern lives ,conveniences and comforts ,would genuinely enjoy it ,

[@karlhrdylicka]

david cousins .Me .I would go back to 1938 , it's a few years before the start of my life in the 40s everything was in black and white , first time I heard stereophonic sound was when 2 bombs exploded at the same time, Knowing what I know now yes I would go back, I am ENGLISH born and bred from many generations of ENGLISH ancestors , I live in small village in one of the shire counties, through choice .never wanted to be rich or famous , in fact only 2 things I have ever needed , Good health and infinite wisdom , taking into account what is now going on in this Country I am glad to be on my way out rather than on the way in.

[@rogerking7258]

David Cousins. That's a very thoughtful summary of my feelings exactly.

[@karlhrdylicka]

@@rogerking7258 Thank you.I thought it best to put it in writing before alzheimers decides it's my turn to forget memories of Englands damp and mouldy land which I think is a better description for most of the time during the year .

[@nottmjas]

Just within the living memory of those who would have been old enough to have appreciated pre war Britain. My parents' neighbour, Mrs C, was born in 1919 and celebrated her 102th birthday yesterday.

[@LadyAnna.888]

So beautiful! Thinking how many wars were fought to stop us being invaded,how many lives taken to protect us ... for this current invasion to finish us off without a shot being fired?? All done not by an enemy we didn't recognize but by an enemy within- our own traitorous people!!"

[@JustSayin993]

Take heart. The enemy of British Culture will be defeated now that it is being exposed.

[@dks13827]

@@JustSayin993 I don't know..........................

[@Wingalaxi]

My sentiments exactly.

[@markmoran916]

@@JustSayin993what exactly is British culture? A curry? A kebab? A Spanish beer? 🙄

[@peterpan1435]

@@markmoran916 You may be confusing culture with customs.

[@isrisentoday]

Beautiful pictures. Beautiful music.

[@frankparsons1629]

Gosh, and a view looking down the High Street, Winchester (the Roman Principia) and with the large Clock hanging over the street from the Old Guildhall (now Lloyds Bank), that clock being made by the town clockmaker, my 6th gt grandfather David Compigné (born 1671) and made by him for the City in 1712 or 13 to commemorate Queen Anne's recent visit to the City.

[@faustusTVR]

That really is something!

[@missasinenomine]

Do you mean @ 3:30? Isn't this Guildford?

[@frankparsons1629]

@@missasinenomine At 3.30 into the film and with 'our' clock thats the ancient City of Winchester (I know it well, since 1958) and looking east down the Roman Principia/High Street. I must go to Guildford however, I've only been by it from the Hogs Back, I'd like to to see the cathedral.

[@missasinenomine]

@@frankparsons1629 Oh. I won't argue with you. But 3:30 looks very similar to Guildford HS with the overhanging Town Hall clock. (which is gold btw). And there in the background is the Hog's back which you mention. However, I've never been to Winchester, so take your word for it. W & G must had the same town planners!

[@frankparsons1629]

@@missasinenomine Thanks to Google Earth I dipped into Guildford and there, as you say, there is the gold clock hanging over the street. At Winchester in that photo you will see further down the street on the right is the medieval Buttercross and in the distance is St. Catherines hill. We have our Annual Family gathering in Winchester every October and we go to our (very black) clock to pay our respects to our ancestor David who made the clock. Below it is a statue of Queen Anne, the building is the Old Guildhall. If you can't visit Winchester then go in to Google Earth and do look at the cathedral which is early Norman and though not as massive as Durham it is an impressive pile (1080); the Normans pulled down 2 Anglo-Saxon Minsters to build there.

[@huudielbo728]

Long before we ripped up railways and covered everything in concrete.

[@TheVickersDoorter]

And mosques.

[@LabRat6619]

We over fill the country with people with the hope of more taxation, we farm people to tax them.

[@SuperNevile]

@@LabRat6619 it's called GDP.....

[@pakistanidalek]

@@TheVickersDoorter And prejudiced bigots.

[@pakistanidalek]

@@TheVickersDoorter And bigots.

[@kebabtank]

Fear not good people, for this England still exists! Visit these beautiful villages tea and cake while you still can.

[@SuperDolly64]

Can't park your car, no spaces-too many people all round. Where once you could pull up and take a stroll you now have to drive up and down one way systems and park in a council space or the local sainsburys for ££££ - sorry no it's not the same.

[@SuperDolly64]

Also lovely to watch though, thank you for posting

[@SuperDolly64]

@@clearlake3492 am I elite? that's news to me, thanks for the promotion though

[@anotherluckyone]

@@clearlake3492 I am working my way up to being of good breeding.

[@SuperNevile]

@@clearlake3492 Cake? He has promised us The Moon!

[@keithrose6931]

"Glorious England" as it was just before the young men like my father went off to help save the world from the Germans (again ! )

[@colinrossiter5719]

keith rose, i know and understand that what i'm about to say may be a bit hard to comprehend as it was for myself, but you may like to look on bit chute and look at EUROPA THE LAST BATTLE - FULL VERSION (2017) if you can not find it go to google, it is 12 hours long but it will give another truer perspective on ww1 and ww2 + why we are where we are now

[@keithrose6931]

@@colinrossiter5719 Always willing to be informed with another perspective. Thank you !

[@kilowhiskeyalpha6078]

I believe he was fighting to conserve the status quo.

[@keithrose6931]

@Al Bundy for President Patton was a prick then .

[@petergleave7807]

Yes, just like my Dad who was twenty years old at the time this film was shot - and his elder brother, Joe (who, was a 'Regular' serving aboard H.M.S. Sutton - a coal-fired minesweeper sloop - and who, two years later, in late May, 1940, would be helping to evacuate soldiers of 2 British Corps, B.E.F. from the beaches at La Panne, north of Dunkirk, in the closing days of Operation Dynamo. My father saw a great deal of action 'up close and personal' at a time when the armed forces of Great Britain and her Empire were very much 'on the back foot'. His unit - 234 Battery, 68th (4th West Lancs) Medium Regiment, R.A. went from a 'standing start' into a 'baptism of fire' during which they experienced eighteen months of intense war-fighting from December, 1940 (North Africa - against the Italian Army); April - May, '41 (Greek campaign in support of the Greeks Army vs an invading Italian army, and then against the Germans); 20th May - 1st June, 1941 (Battle of Crete - during the evacuation of the 4,000 British and Australian soldiers of the garrison of Heraklion by Force B of the R.N. on 29th May, the cruisers, Orion and Dido, and five destroyers [two sunk] came under relentless air attack by the Luftwaffe from 06.00 until 15.00 hrs. Over 1,000 of the soldiers embarked by Force B were killed or wounded - over 560 on H.M.S. Orion - the cruiser my father was on - alone). 234 Battery lost a hundred men killed in Greece and on Orion - including, almost to a man, it's N.C.O's. Having been brought up to strength near Cairo, Egypt, the regiment was then in action in the Western Desert almost continually until the 20th June, 1942 when practically the entire unit 'went into the bag' following the capture of the garrison ofTobruk (over 30,000 men) by General Rommel's Afrika Korps. The remainder of Dad's war was spent as a P.o.W., first in Italy, then - following the Italian armistice in 1943 - Germany. His generation lived to see the country they loved - and for the preservation and freedom of which so many of their fellow countrymen - and women - had fought and died - transformed beyond their wildest nightmares by mass immigration from the Turd World*. I served in the Territorial Army during the '70's. My 'reason in writing' for wishing to join a prestigious light armoured recce unit was. 'If the country's worth living in it's worth fighting for.' This opinion was expressed by the majority of contributors to Nick Pringle's book (see below). * (In)sincere apologies for the 'Freudian Slip'! P.S. Viewers of this comment might be interested in the book 'The Unknown Warriors' by Nick Pringle, which is a compilation of the views of British W.W.2. veterans in response to his questionnaire regarding their experiences during - and post - the war, and their opinion as to whether the sacrifice of their comrades was 'worth it'.+ +'Spoiler alert' - In the majority of cases, the answer was 'No'

[@miken2716]

My very dear old father died in 2010, aged 95. I find it simply staggering to think of the changes experienced by that generation of Britains’, not to mention two world wars. How did they cope? Do we fully appreciate who we were and what has been lost? Thank you so much for this.

[@whiteonggoy7009]

No yellow lines,little traffic,I can remember those days sadly gone,..thanks for the memories.

[@clivemetcalfe2304]

A lovely compilation. It's nice to see Corfe Castle in Dorset back in time.

[@alexandermarch9465]

hasn't changed much; that's why we recognise it

[@luisevieten2035]

Now we know why people were less depressed than today

[@Eunannos]

Wonderful -Music AND photos ! This is like a place of refuge in this present crazy world... 😀 Thanks,Nigel !

[@NigelFowlerSutton]

You are most welcome, Kevin. You can't beat a little nostalgia to warm the spirit..... Thanks for your visit and comment. Seasonal greetings and best wishes. Nigel

[@Eunannos]

Thank you for your kind comment,and Seasonal greetings to you also ! And a great 2017 ! 😀

[@petersawyer8044]

One thing is for certain, we will not be nostalgic for 2020 in eighty years time!

[@pakistanidalek]

People will. That's how nostalgia works. You grow up, stop believing in Father Christmas, start paying bills and see life through an adult's eyes. If only we could go back to being children again....

[@petersawyer8044]

@@pakistanidalek Can't imagine people will be nostalgic for Covid, polution, global warming, etc.

[@pakistanidalek]

@@petersawyer8044 They won't. They will just be nostalgic about all the positive things. A bit like people who are nostalgic now to be honest. That's how it works. We forget all the shitty and boring bits of our lives.

[@Kabbas3030]

People are nostalgic for the early 2010s kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3zKYXx4ZayIb9U

[@davesaunders3334]

@@petersawyer8044 - People of today are not nostalgic for polio, rickets, diphtheria, infant mortality, the Great Depression, rampaging genocidal fascism, women disqualified from voting, backstreet abortion, industrial injury, workhouses, insane asylums and being born into lifelong servitude. They’re nostalgic for their mum’s apron, rousing Churchill speeches on the wireless, winning the war, the smell of freshly baked jam tarts and that boy riding his bike down the cobbles on the Hovis advert. Nostalgia is bullshit. Fun, enjoyable bullshit.

[@aliharriman]

This is the England I would have liked to live in; between the two World Wars.

[@waltersickinger263]

Only if you were wealthy or a member of the aristocracy. The lives of ordinary people were pretty miserable. You have seen one too many movies romanticizing that era.

[@battz99]

That was the England that my mother remembered so fondly, especially in her final days. She died aged 96 in 2015 having lost my father in 1998. In the end she said that she was ready to go because she couldn't recognise her country any more. RIP Mum and Dad.

[@anicecupoftea8303]

During the great depression.

[@pakistanidalek]

During The Great Depression? What a strange person....

[@cirrus1964]

Vaughn Williams, perfect choice!

[@nni9310]

There is a difference between nostalgia for the past and actually living in it.

[@lucaschapman2188]

Take your rose tinted glasses off one month in the 1930's you will be begging to come back to the future!

[@col4574]

No national Health service then.Children died from fevers and TB etc.

[@onehairybuddha]

@@col4574 Not for lack of a health service, the technology wasn't there. Whether prince or pauper everyone is susceptible to illness if there is no known remedy, and treatments for TB were experimental at best in those days.

[@songsmith31a]

Certainly, a valid observation. I still remember with a shudder the old belt-driven dental drill taking forever to do its job on my childhood teeth. But these unspoilt images remind us that progress can also mean regrettable destructive disregard for a heritage acquired over centuries...with no way of repairing the damage and loss inflicted along the way.

[@chrismccartney8668]

This was the country that our parents fought and struggled for 1939 to 1945 so that we their children could enjoy s country not despoiled by the Nazis.. It looks so safe so much a home that when war over the same people voted to build Jerusalem here.... God Bless them as that wonderful tough reselute selfless generation passes away..

[@tectorama]

I would have liked to have seen captions showing locations. Lovely video, but maybe looking through "rose coloured spectacles" . It wasn't all quaint thatched cottages. A lot of people lived in relative poverty.

[@dlevi67]

"A lot of people lived in relative poverty" ... in quaint thatched cottages. Fully agree on the locations, but it's not easy. I think I recognised a couple of places (Alfriston? Guildford?), but I'm not sure.

[@ilovenitnat]

This England is long gone and never to be seen again I’m afraid. Lovely wonderful photos of a time and land now lost.

[@le1810]

We Lived in Kent and both my wife and my family had lived in the same area for at least 8 generations, 3 years ago we moved 300 miles to the Yorkshire Dales and went back at least 50 years...Its Wonderful

[@InArcadiaSum]

To quote the late, great Candida Lycett Green, lover of her and our country, "Unwrecked England".

[@tomkent4656]

Vaughan Williams. Perfect accompaniment.

[@PUAlum]

Got me singing, "They'll Always Be An England". At least as an American, I hope/pray so!! Thanks so much for posting this.

[@Montlhery1962]

Certainly images of Abinger Hammer and Shere, both near Guildford in Surrey

[@missasinenomine]

Probably. 3:36 Guildford, by the river Wey?

[@tomkent4656]

Shere has changed little.

[@simonroyle2806]

@@tomkent4656 . Except for all the SUVs jamming the place up!

[@rogerbarton497]

It would be interesting to have a video showing the slums in the East End of London of the same period, just so we don't get too dewy-eyed.

[@mrmyorky5634]

Well said sir, I agree completely that these wonderful images paint a one sided picture of life at this time. The majority of the working classes had a far less salubrious environment in which to live.

[@timmotion6494]

There are examples, also West London - even in the 1900s - 1950s - appalling squalour.

[@toke7560]

I am dewy-eyed after seeing this beautiful video. I wish i could go back. And never leave.

[@devogrant2817]

This is true i was thinking something on the same lines....for some of us this is the closes thing of heaven on earth ...too idealic !!!

[@drjthornley]

@@toke7560 Followed by myself.

[@royphillips4751]

Born in England in 1945 : but there is something extremely engaging about this photography and the sentiment it evokes. A long time Aussie now but there remains something very special about that country my mother missed so much.Thank you for these remarkable images.

[@NigelFowlerSutton]

Thanks Roy. You are most welcome. These are very evocative images and remind me so much of the England of my youth. I was born n 1954! Yet, although times have changed, many of the places featured in the video are still recognisable today. Take a look at this video I posted in 2020! kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6bbhqOboJt5rbM

[@richardgledhill6801]

All our politicians should have to watch these wonderful archives for one hour every day, standing to attention before they are allowed to speak!!

[@robbryant52]

When this country was great Britain an era you will unfortunately never see again

[@UrukEngineer]

It would have been useful if the locations were titled on the screen.

[@jayarajjohnson2476]

No modern building or architecture can come close to the beauty & simplicity and exquisiteness of the Old cottages, shops etc...

[@TiddleIX]

I love these pictures of the last 20 years of a way of life. By the end of the 50's the motor-car was changing everything, and the need for houses is stamping out the last embers of peaceful villages. If you stood where the photographer did to take the picture of Abinger Hammer, he would be run over in short order! And, in the Season, you get pushed off the kerb if you try to stand and admire Corfe Castle. This year has been different, and reminded me so much of my childhood, when roads were quiet and the only crowds were at football matches, certainly not infesting beautiful villages. Keep these wonderful pictures, matched with beautiful mu sic, coming, Nigel.

[@susyward6978]

We no longer die from TB, our children are not paralysed by Polio, are immunised against the dreaded whooping cough. Our homes are warm in the winter and we can visit the doctor without having to find the money to pay for it. A stint of unemployment does not see our children go hungry. There are lots of things I am nostalgic about for those far off days, but lots to be thankful for today

[@christopherfisher6293]

Expected to see my mum & dad come cycling through on there tandem!!

[@kim.epurdy1644]

This is so beautiful and very sad to think WW2 was just around the corner, ( My grandad fought in WW1 ) would be great to have England back to this way of living, one can dream, thank you so much for sharing these timeless photo's

[@davidproudfoot6668]

Great nostalgic photographs. The great hamlets, villages and towns of 20th century England still survive today; just seek them out, visit and enjoy.

[@michaeldelisieux5252]

Beautifully done!Cheers!

[@NigelFowlerSutton]

Thank you very much, Michael. You are most welcome! Nigel

[@tomtd]

We are richer, yet somehow so much more poor.

[@pakistanidalek]

No, we are just richer. Check out the slums of the good old days.

[@ivornappinion9406]

TRUE THAT

[@spitfireace87]

@@ivornappinion9406 poorer in life

[@voicezful]

People are poorer nowadays in real terms of wealth. After decimalisation, inflation and low wage increases for decades we are now much worse off. Bread 2d in 1938 £2 a loaf or more now, for basic bread.

[@pakistanidalek]

@@voicezful Where do you buy your bread from? I never pay more than £1 for a loaf. 2p in 1938 is the equivalent of around £1.30 now. How much was a wireless or television or car or fridge in 19388 compared to now?

[@melb5996]

Utterly utterly fabulous.Such a pity we don't have the locations of these as I'm sure most will look the same now but with colour. I recognise some but not most. I would sell my soul to go go back there (poverty and all) So much for 'progress' ☹️

[@blairmacewancrosbie8646]

I felt very wistful watching this and i wasn't born until 20 years after these photos were taken......!!!!

[@johngreene7928]

"oh my god", simpler times and so beautiful????? Where did we go wrong???

[@davidbarlow350]

Parliament.

[@bobgrant9882]

As a nation on the whole we turned from the God of the Bible.If you disagree with this John you become part of the (Where did we go wrong).

[@michaelcollins8845]

This is how our country should look.....not like a third world dump its become

[@alanyoung3039]

They Promised Us a land fit for Hero's, Go fight for the England you Know, tell em that at Dover Now, they'll be Rubber Dingy's all over , the white cliffs of Dover.

[@blackvulcan100]

Full of people who have no right to be here with their disgusting customs.

[@Hex-Trinity]

If you think the majority of people lived like this in 1939 I don't agree.

[@rowdyyates4273]

@@Hex-Trinity Lived like what???

[@rowdyyates4273]

Bowler58 .? How would you know ?

[@weejim48]

Fantastic old photos. Makes me remember my childhood from the 50’. Thanks for the video. 👍👍

[@NigelFowlerSutton]

My pleasure!

[@martynlejeune5191]

What a beautiful compilation of stunning old photographs. Well done.

[@unclestuka8543]

Lost this septic Isle ! Its almost gone, when the Queen departs , It will be all over for us Saxons

[@terenceretter5049]

@@clearlake3492 I think Uncle Stuka was being ironic.

[@peterobbo7512]

@@clearlake3492 Funny but uncalled for.

[@MrDaiseymay]

Wonderful vistas, although you take a few liberties with the Title' Home Counties' . Images of Dorset and the Cotswolds, but still, very enjoyable, and priceless.

[@radiofun232]

Simply beautiful, both the pictures and the music, they match well.

[@oculii1]

Beautiful... heart wrenching...

[@GrahamCLester]

There's even a Hovis sign! Bertie Wooster's England.

[@col4574]

Here! I will not have you badmouthing Hovis.I still eat it.

[@butzee]

One thing they can't take away is our great history! Not one foreign looking face either! Anyone got a time machine?

[@adriandonoghue8210]

beautiful collection of photographs with superb music

[@brianhavern1127]

Beautiful selection of photographs

[@andrewlong6438]

England in aspic. Great for those who wallow in nostalgia. Perhaps we need some balance with pictures of east end of London and northern cities.

[@QPRTokyo]

We see enough of those London pictures. They never took photos of decent hard working families in London and other cities. I remember an old photographer telling me that he only took photos of the worst places. The decent working class families never interested them. So we have thousands of photos of the worst cases but never of the average working class families. The great hard working and decent were of no interest to photographers.

[@Peasmouldia]

after briefly scanning the comments, it seems that the one major change that people don't focus on is the lack of motorised transport in these pictures. In 1958, when I was 5 years old, there were 2 cars in our street of 28 houses. By 1963 there were 2 houses that didn't have a car...

[@pigknickers2975]

It's such an obvious thing but people don't seem to see it. The two big deals of the 20th century are the car and the TV. But the car destroyed the towns it made so convenient, and the TV destroyed real individuality and made everyone think the same. The car brings industrialised noise and smoke to everywhere and gives the everpresent threat of death to all road users. Not small things.

[@davelester1985]

Perfect music selection for this video.

[@NigelFowlerSutton]

Thank you Dave

[@ChrisPinCornwall]

Quite lovely. Aesthetically, England has Not improved since then. Thank you for posting.

[@jasondaniel918]

Sadly, the phrase "gone with the wind" comes to mind.

[@markcherriman6136]

It would be great to know where the place's were .

[@BrianRooney-zh6hl]

thank you so much for sharing this ,I enjoyed this very much indeed

[@michaelkemp6857]

Wonderful views of a glorious past!

[@whiteeaglewarrior]

I know I am not the only one to feel both pride and sadness at how beautiful our home once was. Look at it now. Soulless. Invaded. Ugly. Overpopulated. Such destruction has been done by design.

[@None-zc5vg]

We have a Parliament of politicians who are effectively agents/quislings of vested- and supranational interests, whatever their Party labels.

[@Bethi4WFH]

Ugly? I think you need to travel around....when CV fades...and get off the motorways and A roads. This country is still very beautiful!

[@whiteeaglewarrior]

@@Bethi4WFH I have travelled all around the UK thanks Hun, and have seen this once charming land turn into something unrecognisable. It's not my eyes that need attention but clearly yours