Margaret and Barry's Early Lives

Locked down, locked in and locked up by the panicked response of England's excuse for a Government to the Coronavirus, there was plenty (indeed too much) time to collect, collate, process and think what to do with the results of many long years of photography. Here are but two of the results using technology not previously available to us.

Margaret's collage spans her first 25 years; Barry's begins in mid-teens and is restricted to what he calls 'formative' activities. These very different early experiences nevertheless led us into 33 years of joint endeavour, including the last 25 years of full-time travel summarised in our website: www.magbaztravels.

Margaret's First Twenty-Five Years

From Baby to Bride!
​       Captions for the Photographs
  1. September 1950: Aged 17 months at Sandway, Thornton Gate, Rossall Beach, Cleveleys: where I was born
  2. May 1951: Aged 2 years, with Monty at Sandway  
  3. June 1951: With Daddy and brother Alan at Sandway
  4. June 1951: Ice creams in Jubilee Gardens, Cleveleys, with Granny & Grandad Kelsall and Alan
  5. 1952: A Sand-Grown’un on Cleveleys Beach
  6. 1954: With the fairy off the Christmas tree at Wave Crest, Beach Road, Cleveleys: the Boarding House that was home from age 3 to 10  
  7. 1959: Riding the Beach Road donkeys (Silver and Billy), with Cousin Alison Kelsall
  8. 1959: At Swanley in Kent with Mum and baby Andrew Sparkes, first child of my half-sister Brenda
  9. 1964: Guide Camp at Bowness in the Lakes, with Jennifer Ridgeway and good friend Pat Townsend
  10. September 1966: A term at school in Germany, with Magda and Christel Betsch, the daughters of my host family in Nagold, Black Forest  
  11. 1966: My first passport photo, in Fleetwood Grammar School uniform, ready for the term in Germany
  12. September 1969: The archaeological excavation of the Roman site Colonia Ulpia Trajana at Xanten on the Lower Rhine, directed by Herr Professor Dr Dr Binding of Cologne University (in the Lederhosen) and run by Bernhardt (in the trench): I joined a group of German students working here for the summer vacation  
  13. May 1970: Finals time, taken at St Mary’s College, University of Durham
  14. Durham Cathedral on Palace Green above the old Water Mill, site of the Archaeology Department and many a fascinating tutorial with Professor Eric Birley  
  15. 1st August 1970: Wedding Day, with Peter Gorrie at St John’s, Little Thornton
  16. 1972: With Peter in a lock on the Thames, securing Schedar – the houseboat that was our first home  

Barry's Formative Years

Cycling, Climbing, Sailing, Motorcycling, RAF, Hong Kong, Studying, Teaching, India
​A Key to the Pictures

  1. Malton, North Yorkshire: At the Youth Hostel for a Christmas with the Hull Cyclists Touring Club
  2. The Yorkshire Dales: Uphill near Hawes with the Hull Cyclists Touring Club
  3. Market Rasen, Lincolnshire: In student days, stopped yet again by the roadside for repairs to my motorbike
  4. Buttermere, The Lake District: Driving the minibus, camped with the East Yorkshire Mountaineering Club
  5. Madras (now Chennai): At the Technical Teachers’ Training Institute with my group of Indian counterparts, re-writing the South Indian Polytechnics’ Physics Curriculum
  6. Glencoe, Scottish Highlands: Beneath Buachaille Etive Mòr with the East Yorkshire Mountaineering Club
  7. RAF Hednesford, Staffordshire: Among 21 recruits and our drill instructor on Cannock Chase for National Service basic training - bull s*i* and square-bashing
  8. Beverley, East Yorkshire: Winter riding towards the Minster with the Hull Cyclists Touring Club
  9. Madras (now Chennai), Southern India: With Murdoch MacKenzie, the charismatic Minister of St Andrew’s Kirk in that city
  10. The Isle of Skye: Free climbing in the Cuillin Mountains
  11. The Isle of Skye: With Charlie on the Cuillin Ridge in Winter
  12. Agra, Northern India: On a first visit to the Taj Mahal
  13. The Isle of Skye: On the Cioch (‘Breast’ in Gaelic) on the face of Sron na Ciche in the Cuillin Mountains above Glen Brittle
  14. RAF Honington, Suffolk: Reading upside down, demob-happy at the Cold War V-Bomber base, my final posting
  15. Stanage Edge, Peak District: Near Sheffield, a 3.5-mile-long Pennine gritstone edge and a favourite place to meet for the East Yorkshire Mountaineering Club
  16. Norfolk Broads: Sailing was a regular part of student life, financed by Summer jobs as a bus conductor in Bridlington
  17. RAF Kai Tak, Hong Kong: Serving with the Far East Air Force, three of us formed our very own cycling club in order to explore the New Territories
  18. Mahabalipuram, South India: In the Shore Temple, part of a long line of Hindu monuments carved from the rock of the sea cliffs on the Coromandel Coast
  19. RAF Hednesford, Staffordshire: Preparing for a route march and night exercise (a mock attack) on Cannock Chase




















































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