Description:Children pose for this photograph in the ford of the Shropshire Brook and on the bridge in Old Road, Armitage, The boy second from left is Oliver Carthy, the next boy's name is Conway and next to him is Joe Johnson.
The Shropshire Brook, more recently colloquially known as 'Dummies Brook' rises in Beaudesert Park and flows into the River Trent close by. The ford would have been used by wheeled traffic - and for summertime pleasure.
The bridge and brook still exist but today are hemmed in by hedges and houses. A nearby road is called Ford Way. A Community Group was formed in 2020 to potentially organise the rejuvenation of the bridge and its immediate vicinity.
This picture is from an album of photographs taken by Thomas Harvey Boycott (1876- 1949) who lived with his widowed mother, Fanny Maria, whose family had lived at Handsacre Hall as farmers, together with his unmarried aunt, Sarah Elizabeth Harvey. Harvey Boycott was a Clerk at Lichfield District Probate Court and a skilled amateur photographer. The album was a parting gift from Harvey and his mother to the Rev. R.E. Grice-Hutchinson (1885-1976) who was Curate of Armitage with Pipe Ridware 1909-1913.