R. Dean's Raven Inn
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 1:50PM
Timebinder in COMMERCE, GROUP PORTRAIT

Two things identify the geographic location of this photo: the little delivery van with Rugby Cooperative Society painted on the side (this is the Warwickshire town of Rugby's grocery cooperative founded in 1862 and continuing into the 1960s at least, which makes sense considering the basket on one boy's arm) and the advertising signage for Leamington Ales and Stout (also Warwickshire), a regional product sold at R. Dean's Raven Inn. I find numerous listings for The Raven Inn, Broad Street, Brinklow, Rugby, Warwickshire, on the internet, but no photographs, so I cannot conclusively say it is the same inn, yet it is likely. We can be sure most everything in this image would look drastically different today except perhaps the inn itself – though that may have been significantly altered as well.

A group of men and boys and one woman pose before the inn early in the last century. A bit of humor: to the far right before the gate is the motion blurred form of what I think is a little terrier posing for the camera in a sitting position, paws up, but no one is paying it any attention. Is it with one of the group or with the cameraman? One thing is certain, it knows what to do in front of a camera, bless its accommodating little soul!

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