Stirling

This is our 100th blip for the LornaLPodcast Blipfoto journal - Happy Blipday to us!

Since we started posting pictures here, the Platform to Platform project team has worked very hard to transform Lorna Lloyd's Diary of the war (first published on Blipfoto in the LornaL journal) into a full podcast series. We have also conducted empirical research into audience engagement with this digitised archive in the two formats of blips and podcast episodes. We have presented on this work at a few events, most recently in Chester at the Archives and Records Association conference at the start of this month, and two weeks ago at the BBC at 100 Symposium in Bradford, as reviewed by Hazel on her blog.

Along the way we have benefited greatly from the input of the Blipfoto community. Some members have served as advisers to the project, others volunteered to be interviewed for our empirical study, and many more have encouraged us in our endeavours by leaving kind comments, stars, and even a couple of favourites, on the entries to this journal. We particularly enjoyed welcoming the blippers amongst our audience of around 90 to our podcast series launch event in Malvern on 24th May, and are currently grateful to all those who have been sending us photographs of the locations mentioned in Lorna's war diary entries for the LornalPodcast journal here.  

Since it's a blipday for us, we sought a special photograph from one of the greatest supporters of the Platform to platform project: Tweedy. As well as advising us as a member of our project board, Tweedy lives in Stirling - Lorna's home from 1918 until the early 1920s. From the photographs that we posted to the LornaL journal, such as this one, we believe that the family lived near the Kings Park. We hope to be able to confirm this when the 1921 Scottish census is released later this year. 

The photograph that Tweedy has supplied is of the Kings Park Tennis Pavilion. It was built in 1923, and Kings Park Lawn Tennis Club opened one year later in 1924. Tennis proved a very popular sport with local people over the years: there were originally four courts, then another four were added. This pavilion appears to be unique in Central Scotland in the provision of spectator verandas on both sides. The tennis courts hosted annual Central District tennis competitions until 1964, and the multi-purpose courts that now occupy the site are still well used. From its early days, the pavilion served refreshments. Now it's a café - and, according to its Facebook page, if you go along this Saturday morning, you can join outdoor silent disco Yoga class nearby!

If you would like to give us a blipday present, we're still seeking photographs of the locations listed below to add to this journal. Please send any that you think suitable from your own archive (preferably not blipped before) to h.hall@napier.ac.uk. Thank you!

ENGLAND: CITIES AND LARGE TOWNS
Birmingham
Bolton
Bristol - we'd love a shot of Lorna's grandfather's shop, still in business at 81 Henleaze Road
Cheltenham
Coventry
Gloucester
Ilford
Sheffield
Southampton
Swindon
Worcester

ENGLAND: SMALLER LOCATIONS
Aust, Gloucestershire
Leigh, Gloucestershire
Sand Bay, Somerset
Shrivenham, Oxfordshire
Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire
 
ENGLAND: VERY SPECIFIC LOCATIONS
Callow End, Malvern 
Caxton Hall, London

EUROPE - SPECIFIC PLACES
Albania: Durrës (Durazzo)
Czech Republic: Bohemia
France: Bailleul, Boulogne, Dunkirk, Forest of Compiegne, Maginot Line, Marne Roncesvalles, Wimereux
Finland: Hanko (Hangoe), Mannerheim Line, Petsamo, Viipuri
Germany: Elbe (river), Heligoland, Munich, Siegfried Line
Greece: Thermopylae
Italy: Romagna, Taranto
Netherlands: Scheldt (river), The Hague, Zeeland
Poland: Silesia, Warsaw, Westerplatte
Russia: Karelian Isthmus, St Petersburg (Leningrad)
Spain: Guernica

REST OF THE WORLD - SPECIFIC PLACES
Argentina: Buenos Aires, River Plate
Epypt: Sidi Barrani
Iraq: Babylon (Hillah)
Cameroon/Chad/Niger/Nigeria: Lake Chad
Senegal: Dakar
South Africa: Mafeking (Mafekeng)
Uruguay: Montevideo

REST OF THE WORLD - GENERAL
Belgium
Canada
Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic)
Finland
France
French Equatorial Africa (now Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon)
Germany
Greece
Italy
Libya
Luxembourg
Middle East
Norway
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
South Africa
Sweden
Uruguay