Thames River, looking west along the river, Byron, Ontario

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

The Thames River flows placidly along in this black and white, non-glossy photograph framed by an overhanging tree branch. The scene is shot from the well foliaged north bank of the Thames, capturing a wooden mill on the opposite bank as well as part of a curved road and a lower building behind the mill. Other buildings are tucked in the trees beyond the curve of the road. In the left foreground gentle rapids stretch across the width of the river towards the mill. The water level is very shallow. On the right side of the picture, grassy river flats on the north edge of the river lead up to a steeper somewhat bare embankment. A fence can seen and as well as several one to two story buildings on the higher ground in the right. In the background the river meanders around a bend to the right surrounded by mature trees on both banks. More buildings are visible in the distant background.

Notes

The handwritten inscription appears on the reverse of the card mounted photograph. This photograph is one of five similar sized, card mounted scenes of the Byron area in the London Room Photograph Collection which suggests that they may have been taken by the same photographer around the same time.

According to the book: "160 Years of Byron History," by Roy Kerr, Kenny's Grist Mill was lost to a flood in 1883. The mill in this photograph is likely the Ross Grist Mill, a later mill which was swept downstream in the flood of 1937. The gentle rapids in this shot are probably the washed out remnants of the mill's dam.

The buildings on the right bank may have belonged to the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium opened in 1910 and renamed in the 1940's as the Beck Memorial Sanatorium after its founders, Sir Adam and Lady Beck.

Inscriptions

[Byron, Ont. Byron area. Thames River Kenny's Mill]

Date of Original

ca. 1930

Dimensions