Happy Friday everyone! We are in the process of making some exciting changes here at Historypin, so keep a look out on our site for some great new features. Here are some fun stories and photos that caught my attention this week:

Pin of the Week

Pin of the week comes from the Science and Society Picture Library, with this great photo of a woman in sunglasses in 1939. I have never come across this particular thick-framed design in the 30’s before, and it’s fascinating to see something so oddly anachronistic-looking. This woman, enjoying the Royal Richmond Horse show, looks as though she went to the future and brought back a pair of 3D glasses. She certainly stands out among the crowd, and the sunglasses match her other accessories to boot!

Pinner of the Week

Pinner of the Week is the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling, based in the University of Glamorgan in Wales. The Centre is dedicated to promoting, teaching, developing and researching storytelling in all its forms, and this week have been pinning photos with some wonderful local stories.

For example, the caption from the photo above, contributed by Pete Keohane, reads: This is my brother, Tim fourth from the left circa 1964. Unfortunately theres no colour as each schools sash was a different colour. All the schools would celebrate the day and meet up in an open area for an open mass. Much later (after Bishop Headly was built) I did the march myself…..very loong day all in all – always someone fainting!! There was always interest from the locals of course – everyone came out to have a look. But those immaculate white outfits were difficult to keep clean!

This is great example of local oral history and storytelling, something we would love to see more of on Historypin! Check out the Centre’s Channel here.

Story of the Week

Story of the Week is about the Beatles, when they traveled to the small town of Minehead in 1964 to shoot their iconic film a Hard Day’s Night. Minehead, located on the coast of south-west England, had its relatively peaceful surroundings disrupted by the excitement of Beatlemania, which by 1964 was in full-swing. Teachers at local schools gave into demands to take the day off, and hundreds of screaming teenagers gathered at the railway station to greet John, Paul, George, and Ringo the morning of March 2, 1964.

Among the crowd was Sheena Reed, who wrote about her experience at the train station to her grandmother: “We all ran down to the railway line and had to cross a field to reach it” she wrote. “When we arrived there was a terrific crowd, all screaming and shouting around the train. Somehow we found the exact window that the Beatles were in and, as can be expected, there was an extra large crowd there. Some of our crazy sixth-formers raised a banner saying ‘Your kingdom is crumbling’ and ‘Viva Brahms’. The Beatles looked out of the window and pulled faces. My friend Sandra said when she saw their faces she just had to pull the banner down. When the Beatles saw it gone they all started clapping. They were eating dinner all the time we saw them.” Imagine people breaking out into hysterics while you were trying to eat your dinner!

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Beatles, with Ringo joining the line-up in 1962. The world of course, would never be the same. Click here to see a silly scene from a Hard Day’s Night filmed that day on the train through Minehead.