IN the free and easy selfie years of today we’re used to seeing all manner of photographs of ourselves at parties, on holiday or simply larking about with a mobile phone.

Not so in Edwardian Burnham when the photographs of the period show were more posed. Partly due to the photographic technology and partly due to the slightly more formal times when it came to behaviour. After all, Victorian England had only just ended and the 20th century was barely started.

Take for instance the photographs of people on the beach at Burnham snapped before the First World War. There is very little bare flesh and as for swimming costumes they tended to be more like day wear with skirts for females and what appears to be long johns and grandad-style vests for the chaps.

Only children were allowed to discard some of their clothes - such as socks and shoes - and just about everyone wore a hat. In the 19th century segregated bathing was common and the idea of swimming just for fun was something that had only just caught on.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the comparative formality of the sports team photograph. Arranged in neat rows the players of Edwardian Burnham’s cricket and hockey teams stare into the camera for what was often quite long exposures. It results in somewhat stiff expressions - but the clarity of the images supplied by the Highbridge historian Bob Lawrence author of the Book of Burnham allow us to study a generation of men just before the Great War. Moustaches, short hair and serious expressions bely the lives that lay beneath – with the same concerns that we have today of jobs, money, romance, fashion, families and who is going to buy the next pint of cider.

The men wore a mixture of boaters, large cloth caps, traditional sporting caps with tassels and straw hats to keep off the sun. Those not in sporting kit wear the closely fitted jackets of the time complete with waist coats and some revealing their gold or silver fob watches.

In contrast to the sporting photos is one delightful photograph of a fair ground attraction of the Burnham Juvenile Galloping Horses ride. The somewhat basic contraption is more than made up for by the attire of the youngsters taking a spin. The girls have opted for flounced pinafore dresses and either large white bows in their hair of wide brimmed sun hats, while the boys wear junior versions of their dads and uncles wearing suits or Norfolk jackets. All appear to wear boots and there’s not a mobile phone in sight.

We’d like to see and hear about your salad days in the areas around Bridgwater, Burnham and Cannington. Email your memories to harry.mottram@nqsw.co.uk