Color Photos Capture England at Work and Play, 1928 [33 Photos]

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, photographer Clifton R. Adams was commissioned by the National Geographic to document life in England. Adams’ beautiful autochromes—a process of producing color images by using potato starch—present images that capture the last of an England that was slowly heading towards modernity.

1. The Chief Warder, a Coldstream Guardsmen, and a Yeoman Warder pose at the Tower of London.
2. A part of the company of Yeomen preparatory, known as Beefeaters, at the Tower of London.
3. English Boy Scouts on a hike stop for a rest near Ambleside, Cumbria in 1929.
4. A girl stands in an unidentified field in Lincolnshire in 1929 holding barley.
5. Passengers ride on ‘Billy’, a locomotive picture running at the Kent seaside resort of Margate in 1931.
6. Boy Scouts at Abinger Hammer, a village in Surrey situated in between Dorking and Guildford – on a Sunday hike.
7. A family builds a sandcastle at the seaside resort of Sandbourne, near Bournemouth in Dorset.
8. Veteran soldiers – known as Chelsea Pensioners – sit on the steps of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London.
9. A postman delivers packages with his parcel post barrow in front of a shop in Oxford 1928.
10. Two soldiers stand in Hythe, Kent, in 1928.
11. A group of women hike in Cumbria.
12. Two girls send a letter at a red pillar box in Belfast in 1927.
13. A London double-decker bus stops to allow people aboard.
14. A little boy mails a letter in the hedgerow, in Sussex.
15. Women have tea in front of the Clock House, originally a hospice, in Buckinghamshire.
16. A young woman mails a letter at the pillar box, in Oxford.
17. A view of a vine-covered house on a Stratford-upon-Avon street, in Warwickshire.
18. A view of the Cunard SS “Mauretania” at dock, in Southampton, Hampshire.
19. In Oxford, the corner of High street and Carfax is bustling.
20. Two bus drivers stand in front of a tour bus in Ulverston, Cumbria.
21. Women selling Queen Alexandra roses for charity, in Seaford, East Sussex.
22. A young girl sells artificial flowers for charity on Alexandra Day, in Kent
23. A war veteran sells matches on the street, in Canterbury, Kent.
24. A war veteran sells matches on the street, in Canterbury, Kent.
25. A woman sticks her head out of her bridge house window, in Ambleside, Lake District, Cumbria, England.
26. Two women buy ice cream from a vendor out of his converted car, in Cornwall. Kelly’s ice cream is still in production today.
27. The characters of Britannia and her colonies and dependencies, in Southampton, Hampshire.
28. Actors dress for a pageant as Britannia and her knights.
29. A young girl plays in the sand at Sandown, Isle of Wight.
30. Two women rest for lunch in a Lancashire hayfield.
31. A police constable passes the day with farmers gathering hay, in Lancashire.
32. An informal portrait of a farmer and his cart, in Crowland, Lincolnshire. Decoy Farm is now the site of a recycling centre and a housing estate.
33. An English woman points pridefully to her farm cart, in Cambridgeshire, England
34. A policeman directs buses in the intersection of Trafalgar Square, London.

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