Holiday snaps from a lost world: Remarkable collection of colour photos are found from couple's honeymoon road-trip around England on the eve of World War Two






As they shared ice creams in the sunshine and picnicked in flower-filled meadows, the Britain newly-wedded couple Denys and Margaret Gardiner motored through in their Morris Eight must have seemed as enduring as the country scenes captured in their honeymoon photos.

But just weeks after their 900-mile round trip up and down the east coast of England in August 1939, the peace and tranquility of the country was to be shattered by the outbreak of the Second World War.

After years hidden away in Mrs Gardiner's attic, the incredible colour photos of the last days of peace, captured by Mr Gardiner's photography enthusiast cousin Eldred, have been uncovered and tell a wonderful story of love young and a journey through a lost Britain.

The pictures were discovered by the couple's grandson, Barney Britton, who was amazed at how clear the images still were after 70 years.



Publishing the photos on website DP Review, Mr Britton, himself a professional photographer, said: 'My mother vaguely remembered seeing colour pictures of her parents' honeymoon trip when she was a child but after several decades and multiple house moves, she presumed they had been lost.



'Not so - they were in my grandmother's attic all all along, and earlier this month we found them, while clearing out her house.'

In August 1939, newly-married Margaret and Denys Gardiner set off in their Morris Eight Convertible (pictured here in Norfolk) for a honeymoon trip around Britain. The photos Mr Gardiner's cousin Eldred would take provide a glimpse into a Britain whose peace was about to be shattered with the outbreak of the Second World War

Mr Gardiner gets in the ice creams during a short stop (left) and the couple enjoy a picnic next to a poppy-filled meadow (right). The photos were shot in colour using 35mm Agfacolor film, which was a novelty at the time

The photos, found in Mrs Gardiner's attic, were carefully preserved between small sheets of glass, meaning they are still of very high quality even 70 years on

A popular ride: The Morris Eight was extremely popular at the time and its success propelled its manufacturer to become the biggest car company in Britain in the 1940s

A month after the couple returned from the trip, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced on the radio that Hitler had missed a deadline to withdraw his troops from Poland and 'consequently, this nation is at war with Germany'.

Both Mr and Mrs Gardiner joined the war effort, she as a nurse who tended wounded soldiers, and he signed up for the Home Guard , due to illness preventing him from being sent to the front. After the war, the couple moved from their home in north London to Winchester, Hampshire, where Mrs Gardiner continued to work as a nurse and her husband, though ill with tuberculosis, worked for the local council. While living there they had their only child, a daughter who they named Alison, who is Mr Britton's mother. When Alison grew up and moved to the North East, the couple followed her to be near their grandchildren, settling in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, in the home where the photos were later discovered. Speaking about the pictures, Mr Britton, 32, told MailOnline: 'I don't remember hearing my grandmother talk about the holiday, though my mother had told me about the pictures due to my interest in photography. 'When we were going through my grandmother's things after we held a memorial service to her, my mother said: "I bet we find those photos" and sure enough we did. 'I have the equipment to be able to scan them and was amazed when I saw them. Little is known about my great uncle Eldred, as he died, also from tuberculosis, one year after the photos were taken. 'Colour films in those days would have been extremely expensive and difficult to use, they were very sensitive to high temperatures and light, making the quality of the pictures he took all the more impressive.'

The wedding of Denys Gardiner, born 1916, and Margaret, born 1913, at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Finchley Road, Hampstead, London, April 15th 1939 Shots in the collection show pictures taken of the Thames before they set off on their honeymoon, and feature Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in the background

Photographer Eldred was also keen to get shots of the Thames barges, in an era when cargo ships came much further into the city, making the river a bustling hive of industry. St Paul's Cathedral appears in the background of the photo on the left



One of the final photos of the city shows a tram travelling along the banks of the Thames, the next shots then capture the start of the couple's trip into the countryside



Mrs Gardiner, 26 at the time of the photos, was trained as a nurse and worked in hospitals during the Second World War. She lived to be 100 but died this year

Mr Gardiner was part of the Home Guard in the Second World War after tuberculosis kept him from fighting. Despite the illness, he lived to be 79 and died in 1995

The couple's trip took them north from London into Suffolk, where they stopped at Lavenham (left) before heading through Thetford, Norfolk (right) to the Norfolk coast

Mr Britton has asked members of the public who recognise locations in the photos to come forward. After he put the photos online, a Norfolk local said he believed this photo was taken on a bridge over the River Glaven between the villages of Wiveton and Cley

Well-preserved: One of the best-preserved images in the collection, this photo shows a village sign in Shernborne, Norfolk, which is situated not far from Sandringham

A bather takes a paddle in the River Stiffkey outside Wells-next-the-Sea as the couple and their photographer tour the north Norfolk coast

A picture of the couple camping is one of few to show their cat, Edgar, who also accompanied them on the trip. Mr Britton said: 'Edgar the cat survived the war but only narrowly, thanks to a stray bomb that took away at least one of his nine lives during the London blitz'

Mr Gardiner stocks up on water outside a church in Sheringham, not far from Cromer, Norfolk as his trusty car EYV731 awaits the next leg of the journey

The trio and their cat then moved on to Lincolnshire, where Eldred captured images of the waterfront at Boston (left) and Lincoln Cathedral (right)

The couple then moved on into Yorkshire where Eldred took this photo of Beverley Minster. Mr Britton said of his great-uncle: 'My family knows very little about Eldred, beyond the fact that he was an engraver by trade. Born in 1904 he was older than my grandparents but died young, succumbing to tuberculosis in 1940. His hand-made wooden tripod is one of my prized possessions'

The honeymooners encountered a much slower pace of life in the countryside than they would have been used to in London. Here they wait while a group of farmhands clear the road after a spill from a heavily loaded cart and horses

As well as documenting the honeymoon, photographer Eldred was obviously keen to capture everyday life around Britain as the trio travelled up the east coast

The group enjoy a walk along the city walls of York (left) and a more artistically-angled shot shows Mr Gardiner winching up water in Norfolk (right)



The couple visited the seaside at Flamborough Cliffs, Yorkshire, before heading north into County Durham and then returning home to London just weeks before war was declared

Mr Gardiner takes a stroll in Yorkshire. Mr Britton, who is himself a photographer, says the pictures 'provide a glimpse into a time - and a place - long vanished'