Added Colour!
All our early photographs were made in black and white and this is how we always expect to see them. With the odd exception, there are no colour photographs showing Wreningham or its people from before the 1950s.
A new method of introducing colour into our old black and white village photographs came along in 2024. Some of the results are shown on this page. The conversion method employs Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it only takes a few seconds to process / colourise each monochrome image. Nothing had to be ‘sent away’; all the colourisations were carried out on a regular personal computer here in Wreningham!
The colourised images on this page are only a small selection of many we have created.
None of the images on other pages have been artificially coloured; all of those remain true to the historical record.
This studio photograph of the Bullimore family – probably taken in Norwich – might well be the oldest surviving photograph in the village. It is believed to date back to the late 1850s.
Its colourisation gives a very subtle result but still provides a certain lift over the monochrome original. Left to right are John Bullimore, (and we think) Barbara Denny – his aunt – and Anna Bullimore – his sister.
John Bullimore ran an outfitters shop in Norwich in the early 1850s. Does this explain his elegant attire? In about 1856, he returned to Wreningham and became the farm steward for William Ottey Burton.
His aunt was the widow of Loddon gentleman-farmer Stephen Denny who had died a few years before.
More information is given about John Bullimore’s life here.
The selection of added colours is made entirely by the AI software. So how does the process work?
The AI software compares the many parts of an original black and white photograph with a very large set of reference images already stored in its software. These reference images include a vast range of subjects. Each reference image has a twin: one in colour; the other being identical but stored in monochrome.
So: the AI software might identify the image of a horse in ‘our’ original monochrome photograph. Using the shades of grey of ‘our’ horse, the AI finds a horse in its reference (monochrome) collection which has similar shades of grey; it then awards a colour to ‘our’ horse based on the colour of the (reference) twin.
It only takes seconds for the software to resolve and award colours for all the recognised parts of the complete photograph. Of course, some old black and white photographs are too much of a challenge. Unsurprisingly, this page is illustrated with a selection of the most successful!
The colourised photographs, below, demonstrate how impressive they can appear. The adjacent links will take you to pages where you can view the monochrome originals.
The story about the blacksmiths is given here.
There is a dedicated page about local carriers here.
More information about John Rowe is available here.
The above photograph (also taken by Tom Nokes) of an elegant lady walking past Church Farm is now understood to be Elizabeth Long – her maiden name was Thurston.
Elizabeth was the wife of Dennis William Long and they both lived at Fir Grove. Church Farm had been bequeathed to Elizabeth by Martha Bullimore, her aunt. Martha was also born a Thurston.
The adjacent photograph shows Elizabeth in her familiar dark dress – and also carrying her basket – standing behind the farmhouse at Fir Grove.
More information about Church Farm is provided on this page – with further details about the Long family here.
Here is a very young James Peel as a naval cadet at HMS Ganges in the 1920s. This was the Royal Navy’s shore-based training facility at the Shotley Peninsula on the Suffolk Coast.
James had lost his parents in Ireland before being moved to England and brought up by a Bracon Ash family.
After many years sailing the globe with the Royal Navy, James married Violet Bullimore in 1950. They spent the remainder of their lives at Hill House Farm.
More information about James and Violet can be found here.
See more information about the Reading Room on this page.
The stage was at one end of the old hall – a WW2 Nissen hut relocated from Hethel Airfield. The colourisation has helped to enhance the many details. For example, the existence of a wooden footlight box has become much more obvious. The box appears to have been lined with bent shiny metal – either to reflect illumination – or, maybe, to ensure the wooden box did not catch fire when the very hot lamps were switched on!
See more about the original village hall and its modern-day successor here.