This photo of Rainham High Street might be familiar as it has been used in the Old Photos of Rainham book previously but this updated picture comes with a fascinating story! Read on for more details.
As the author of the Rainham History website I get many copies of photos sent through, many of which are previously unseen but some are examples that have appeared elsewhere. Around 10 years ago I received some scans of various scenes around Kent from Tony Carruthers but didn't have any more info about locations or dates. Fast forward to July and Hamish Mackay Miller passed on a box of old photos which also contained some original 6"x 4" plate glass negatives including the Action Forum cover photo that dated to approximately 1910. This scene shows one of the earliest trams that came to Rainham along with the area around the High Street and Station Road. The White Horse is still the same building but the Cricketers was rebuilt in the 1930s further back from the road. Hookers garage was replaced by Barclays Bank, again in the 1930s.
I tried to scan the negatives but with limited success so contacted local photographer Claire Colston who has been working with old cameras and developing the results in her darkroom.
Claire writes: Printing from glass plates differs slightly to film especially plates that are fragile and 120 years old. Just a tiny finger print or bit of dirt especially on the emulsion side of the glass is always harder or impossible to remove compared to more modern day film. Still I managed to clean up the glass plates fairly well and I only handled them with surgical gloves on as cotton gloves tend to slip. There is a thumb print of one of the plates that could only have occurred when the emulsion side was still wet, this has to be the original photographers which I find amazing. It was quite tricky to get the settings right on the enlarger to contact print these but after trial and error I was very happy with the results. Some dodging and burning was called for.
There was no need to enlarge these negatives as they are so big to start with. Enlarging would be tricky but possible but detail would be slightly lost the bigger we made them. This is a direct positive of the original negative. What a privilege it was to work with these glass plate negatives. They are art in their own right I believe. Two of the pictures have the same lady and boy in yet are a few miles apart. There is no doubt in my mind that this was the photographers wife and child. What fascinates me is how did the photographer and his family get around? These negatives were taken on a half plate wooden and brass large format camera which would have been extortionate in its day. Whoever took these was a professional and these would have been made into postcards in their day. I use these cameras too and it is a real art but so satisfying to get an image. Scans have their place but I think you will agree printing these in the darkroom in the way that was originally intended does produce slightly better results.
Other photos from the same series include these from Gillingham, Sittingbourne and Teynham
The Grand Picture Variety Theatre/Cinema Jeffrey Street/Skinner Street Gillingham Old Photos
Sittingbourne A2 Canterbury Road around 1910 in Old Photos
Old Photos of Green Street/Lynsted Teynham Around 1910
Rainham High Street 1910 with Cricketers Inn pub
Green Lion pub and Vicarage House on the left (read more about THE GREEN LION PUBLIC HOUSE by Hazel Staden)
Gillingham Park 1910
Royal Naval Hospital Gillingham 1910
Ships on River Medway 1910
