Welcome to the 
web pages:
Robert and Barbara
Darlaston
Birmingham childhood, family scenes and steam
railway photographs,;
compiled by Robert Darlaston
PHOTOGRAPHS To celebrate our Golden Wedding in June 2019
we set up an album of eighty photos of our family and
a few of its activities during those years. You are welcome to view the photos: please follow this link:
Fifty Golden Years 1969 - 2019
Note: with some browsers it is best to right click
and open in a new window.
(When the page
displays, click on the down arrow, and again on the first photo. Use the
further arrows to view other photos).
There is a
further album with eighty steam railway photographs, taken from 1953 – 1968
which may be accessed via:
You
may also like to view our Album with one photo from each year from 1953 (when
Robert
first had a camera) to 2015: Click here >
One a Year: .
FAMILY PAGES
Meet the Darlastons : Family photos from the 1940s to date, plus our selection
of “Desert Island Delights”
(from music, art and literature). Updated
2/4/2018
Harebells
on the Common: -Birmingham in the
war and 1940s: rationing, hospital,
early days at school,
trams, wireless,
schoolboy nonsense, Welsh farm holidays, and Robert’s first pin-up. Updated
Sep2023
Amberley.
Memories of Amberley Prep
School, Birmingham, illustrated by childhood mementos Updated 3/9/2017
KingEdwardsSchool: A memoir of Robert’s
school days at King Edward’s School, Birmingham in the 1950s
with
contemporary photographs, plus an account of a return to K.E.S. in 2006 (updated,
6/3/2008)
Trams: Memories of the last years of Birmingham
trams, 1947-1953, with photographs and press-cuttings plus
details of tram 395,
preserved in Birmingham. A glimpse of
Birmingham’s 21st century trams Updated 24/10/18
1959 - Revisited Colour photos from the Midlands, South Wales
and Scotland, taken in 1959 Added 7/9/2009
Birmingham
Pictorial: Photos of the city
in the 21st century, including a few bits of history. Additions, 6/4/09
Goostrey: Pictures of our
Cheshire village with Goostrey weather statistics from 1987 to 2017 Updated
regularly
Family Trees:
The family back to the de Harlastons
in 1373. Seven generations of Hopkin
Smith, plus our link
with Ivor Novello. Historical
narrative about the family with photos from 1890 – 1958 Additions
25/1/09
CruiseHolidays. : Ships and
cities from Canberra at Istanbul, Aurora in New York to Arcadia in Cadiz (Updated,
October 2018)
Banking Years: Some mildly humorous incidents from Robert’s career, with
rather embarrassing photographs
RAILWAYS
About 400
photos by Robert Darlaston of steam trains, mostly from 1953-1965
Railways 50years ago: Steam in the 1950s: Birmingham and West Midlands, South Devon,
Swindon, Wales; GWR Slip Coach (new
14/2/08)
Railways1: West Midlands; train-spotting at
Birmingham Snow Hill; South Wales (incl Llantrisant and Afan valley) 1953-62 Updated 23/10/14
Railways2: Mid-Wales railway journey via Brecon in
1959 and West Country railways from 1957-62
Railways3: Railways in the Scottish Highlands in 1959
- 1961 and the Isle of Man Railway in 1965 New
material added 23/7/08.
Railways4: Birmingham New St; steam scenes from
around
Railways5:
The
decline of steam from 1964 to 1968. Closure of the old Birmingham Snow Hill. New material added 13/7/08.
Moor St and Tyseley: Scenes at the GWR stations
and loco depot in Birmingham, 1953-2010.
(New material 12/12/2010)
SevernValley&LlangollenRlys. Scenes on two preserved
GWR lines, 1957 – 2017
Welsh Narrow Gauge 1 Talyllyn
Railway from 1955; Welshpool & Llanfair from 1956, Vale of Rheidol 1953
-1985
Welsh Narrow Gauge 2
Ffestiniog Railway from 1955, Welsh Highland
Railway, Snowdon Mountain Railway.
Railway
Chronology of Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1954-2017
A
year-by-year account of changes to the area’s railway network since 1954
I
have compiled this Chronology to form a supplement to that compiled by Mr C.R.
Clinker and published in 1954.
It is
available in three sections accessed by these links:
RAILWAYS of W. MIDLANDS pt 1.
Modernisation and Reshaping, 1954-74
RAILWAYS of W. MIDLANDS pt 2.
Recovery and Sectorisation, 1975-93
RAILWAYS of W. MIDLANDS pt 3.
The Privatisation Years, 1994-2017
(pages added 22nd June 2015, updated 1st
Sept 2017)
HOME
PAGE This
page was last updated on 24/10/2018.
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Photographs ©
Robert Darlaston unless otherwise stated
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