Distant view of loco passing through town?

[Greetlander]

Buxton?

Been on Google Earth - I almost want to agree with you - prominent houses closest on Victoria Park Road??

 

[Edgeley]

Been on Google Earth - I almost want to agree with you - prominent houses closest on Victoria Park Road??

It's only speculation - but possibly yes, looking down from the Fairfield district which rises fairly steeply on the east side of the town. I can't pin it down though.
Buxton as a candidate might address some of the points which have been raised: the lack of mills/chimneys (Buxton didn't have any as far as I know) and the steeply pitched house roofs (the highest town in England with a propensity to catch snow).

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Without saying where I've found this matching road topography, just to avoid any wild goose chases...

...and yes, there is a viaduct through the trees although I don't think it is because it looks a lot closer than in the old photograph... but the similarities, including the height and shape of the hills behind, are striking.

Thoughts?

 

[30907]

Without saying where I've found this matching road topography, just to avoid any wild goose chases...

...and yes, there is a viaduct through the trees although I don't think it is because it looks a lot closer than in the old photograph... but the similarities, including the height and shape of the hills behind, are striking.

Thoughts?

View attachment 173905

Sorry, but I can’t see a match between the houses. Am I missing something?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Sorry, but I can’t see a match between the houses. Am I missing something?

The houses are very likely to have been redeveloped since 1900...

I'm searching for the road layout with a viaduct behind.

The road layout is a lot less likely to change than the housing stock.

 

[eastwestdivide]

The houses are very likely to have been redeveloped since 1900...

I wouldn't say *very* likely. More like "could have been redeveloped".
There's a lot of that villa-type housing still in existence, and loads of Victorian terraces for example.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Well, that's true ( I live in a house built in 1898 for a start! ), but even so... I suspect the road layout is more likely to be stable than the housing... so looking for any hairpin on a hill adjacent to a viaduct is eventually going to lead to the mystery location.

 

[Whisky Papa]

The houses are very likely to have been redeveloped since 1900...

I'm searching for the road layout with a viaduct behind.

The road layout is a lot less likely to change than the housing stock.

The road certainly could have been redeveloped, although my gut instinct is that some or all of the houses will be still extant. The original houses were no doubt quite expensive in their day, so unless something drastic had happened (such as war damage or the whole town becoming so economically distressed they became derelict), I would assume they would only be replaced by something that would make more money for the developer after paying a still hefty purchase price. In recent years this might include low-rise, relatively upmarket apartments, perhaps? Maybe at one time a large detached home might also have been a replacement, but the sites look a bit small for that. Other readers might have further suggestions?

I can't see any economic argument for replacing them with a terrace of - admittedly handsome - cottages, as in post #33. I might also add that such cottages were built to very similar designs in the gritstone areas of the Pennines for a long period of time, pretty much from the start of the Industrial Revolution to perhaps WWI, so those in #33 might well pre-date the photo and perhaps even the villas themselves, which I'm guessing are mid to late Victorian.

 

[Greetlander]

Any advance on Buxton?

 

[stuu]

The houses are very likely to have been redeveloped since 1900...

I would suggest the chances that large Victorian villas were redeveloped into stone-built terraces are infinitesimally small

 

[eastwestdivide]

Any advance on Buxton?

I couldn't make the Buxton suggestion make sense, even with old maps from NLS

 

[Lloyds siding]

Just possibly a view of High Buxton

 

[LickeyIncliner]

I find the row of very small white buildings extending off to the left of the photo quite curious, just because they look so small compared to the (new?) houses to the right along the same road or lane. Given that they're painted white I assume they're cottages, but they look like individual single-storey buildings rather than a continuous terrace, which is surprising.

From the tree in the foreground and the other trees/bushes visible it looks likely that the view is to the NW, with the prevailing wind coming from the left of the view.

It "feels" to me like North of England rather than Scotland, but I wouldn't want to put money on it...

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I would suggest the chances that large Victorian villas were redeveloped into stone-built terraces are infinitesimally small

I also said that I didn't think the location I found was the one we are looking for ( which is why I didn't name it ); my context was that the distinctive shape of the road is likely to be a better means of finding the location than looking at the houses.

There can't be all that many hairpins in the country with a viaduct behind them, surely?

The possible market building is another clue, but so few of those survive now.

 

[SouthernR]

I find the row of very small white buildings extending off to the left of the photo quite curious, just because they look so small compared to the (new?) houses to the right along the same road or lane. Given that they're painted white I assume they're cottages, but they look like individual single-storey buildings rather than a continuous terrace, which is surprising.

From the tree in the foreground and the other trees/bushes visible it looks likely that the view is to the NW, with the prevailing wind coming from the left of the view.

It "feels" to me like North of England rather than Scotland, but I wouldn't want to put money on it...

Those "small white buildings" could be racks of blankets or linen drying?

 

[Rescars]

I find the row of very small white buildings extending off to the left of the photo quite curious, just because they look so small compared to the (new?) houses to the right along the same road or lane. Given that they're painted white I assume they're cottages, but they look like individual single-storey buildings rather than a continuous terrace, which is surprising.

From the tree in the foreground and the other trees/bushes visible it looks likely that the view is to the NW, with the prevailing wind coming from the left of the view.

It "feels" to me like North of England rather than Scotland, but I wouldn't want to put money on it...

The absence of leaves on the trees suggests the photo was taken in winter. So presumably it's cold. In which case, though it may be a trick of the light, it seems strange that so many fires are apparently lit in the cottages, but so few in the villas. Are the well-heeled not at home?

 

[Mat17]

There can't be all that many hairpins in the country with a viaduct behind them, surely?

Perhaps the viaduct is no longer exant? Plenty of closed routes.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Perhaps the viaduct is no longer exant? Plenty of closed routes.

That's a strong possibility, but should be possible to establish where viaducts have been removed and then compare with the road layouts - then look for older photos of whatever area?

 

[LYradial]

I will offer a speculation that the large building on top of the hills is a workhouse and the location of the picture is south or east of the Birmingham plateau. its not Birmingham's workhouse as that was huge, I don’t think the location is Solihull but there are many other possibilities

 

[lazonbytunnel]

An update, this has now been solved as a view of Scarborough taken from Oliver’s Mount, with Oriel Crescent being the street in the centre of the photo. Thanks again for all the replies.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

An update, this has now been solved as a view of Scarborough taken from Oliver’s Mount, with Oriel Crescent being the street in the centre of the photo. Thanks again for all the replies.

Excellent work - would never have thought of looking that far across!!

I see the big house is still there, pretty much unchanged.

The viewpoint from which the photograph was taken must have been from somewhere close to what is now a road called The Glade.

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[Ayrshire Roy]

Thanks for the update.

 

[swt_passenger]

I wonder if the thick pillars in the viaduct are designed to enable a skew arch to be formed to enable the railway to cross something else at an angle - a canal perhaps.

Valley Road, I think this turned out to be? Not at all clear in the original, might have been a much smaller road.

The four section roof canopy perpendicular to the viaduct is shown on old maps as “Excursion Station”, later on post WW2 maps it’s just “closed station”. @Deepgreen had the right idea in his replies, about it having one long through platform and a single bay…

 

[Greetlander]

Grateful for the update - was only thinking about this earlier today.

 

[njamescouk]

I find the row of very small white buildings extending off to the left of the photo quite curious, just because they look so small compared to the (new?) houses to the right along the same road or lane. Given that they're painted white I assume they're cottages, but they look like individual single-storey buildings rather than a continuous terrace, which is surprising.

From the tree in the foreground and the other trees/bushes visible it looks likely that the view is to the NW, with the prevailing wind coming from the left of the view.

It "feels" to me like North of England rather than Scotland, but I wouldn't want to put money on it...

I was thinking seaside chalets. just seen it's Scarborough...

 

[Whisky Papa]

I was thinking seaside chalets. just seen it's Scarborough...

It would be very interesting to know what those actually were. I think I'm right in saying that is where the modern housing on the southern end of Weaponness Valley Road now stands.