Easter is traditionally a time for excursions out and about taking in and enjoying the sights and sounds of Spring.
In 1911, Easter Sunday fell on 16th April and the unknown amateur stereographer, whose road trip aboard ‘X 1419’ is the subject of this Pressphotoman mini-series, headed for North Northumberland.
The village of Etal about 10 miles from Berwick upon Tweed is known for its model village feel and riverside location together with 14th century castle ruins in the care of English Heritage.
Previous posts have featured stereo views of locations close to Newcastle upon Tyne whereas the trip to Etal aboard ‘X 1419’ took its party more than 60 miles to the north.
Two stereocards in the collection, though slightly damaged by the passage of time, offer the opportunity to retrace the unknown stereographer’s tyre tracks and footsteps to locations recognisable today.
The first shows the village’s historic Black Bull pub with its thatched roof as the most prominent building on the skyline.
The adjoining row of cottages to its left was rebuilt in the mid-1930s as can be seen in the same 2026 view from the addition of dormer windows and tiled roofs.
Outside the pub, a painted sign has since been installed.
The second stereo, also dated Easter Sunday 1911, is titled ‘Etal Lane to River’ and features three men walking away from the camera.
Though taken more than a century ago, it’s a location easily found today and identifiable from the buildings in the far distance.
Whether the men were part of the road trip party or merely passers-by, their likely destination just out of view was the ford over the River Till, a crossing-point on what is a tributary of the River Tweed.
A fortnight earlier on Sunday 2nd April 1911, the stereographer had produced two fine landscape studies featuring ‘The Hart Burn, near Hartburn’ to the north west of Newcastle.
In June, a further series of stereocards will enable readers to resume this 1911 road trip as it culminates in celebrations marking the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary.
Pressphotoman 
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