This beautifully clear black and white photograph was taken by Phil Williamson's grandfather, who was studying at Royal College of Music in London for about 18 months between 1909/10 . The young Australian was a keen, but amateur, photographer at that stage of his life. He did not carry on with it in quite the same way after he returned home, and only took the usual family snaps, etc. It is believed he used glass negatives, which gave the exceptional clarity and detail, but unfortunately these no longer exist. He travelled widely within the U.K., but he was probably interested in Derbyshire as his own grandmother (Sarah Webster) was born in Little Eaton in about 1824.

On the original photograph you can almost read the number plate of the charabanc! This was clearly the very early days of motor vehicles in the village as sign at the bottom of the very big window reads "GARAGE". In 1908 the garage was advertised as "E Williams, motor engineers & garage^[1]". A solitary charabanc has been replaced by motor cycles in the modern Matlock Bath.

The buildings on the left, originally part of Matlock Bath's famous Great Hotel, are almost the same today. The buildings on the right disappeared when the road was widened.

Look carefully at the wedge-shaped building at the bottom of Waterloo Road (The Pitchings). This photograph shows it was four storeys high. Today there are only three storeys; it appears to have been completely rebuilt, probably about 1923, by Williams Deacon's Bank who bought the premises in March 1918.
Compare the photograph with a modern drawing of The Pitchings
Photographs of Matlock Bath Today (3)

The building housed a Grocery & Confectionery shop at the time this picture was taken. Peter Reeds, the grocer, is probably standing outside his shop and is wearing a long white apron^[2].