St Andrew's Middle Class School, Litchurch, Derby

The carte de visite featured in this article is one from my own family archives. When I inherited it, it was - and still is - in an old envelope, inscribed on the front: "Photograph (C.V.P.) (Middle Class School) (Geo. Sutherland)."


Charles Vincent Payne (1868-1941) was my great-grandfather. He was the eldest son of Henry Payne (1842-1907) and Henrietta Christina Payne née Benfield (1843-1914) - see cabinet card featured in a previous article here) - and was born when the family were living at 29 Douglas Street in Litchurch. His father is shown on the birth certificate as a provision dealer.


On 20th June 1876, when he was eight years old, Charles Vincent was enrolled at St. Andrew's Middle Class School, located on London Road [Source: St Andrew’s Middle Class School Admission Register, Derbyshire County Records Office, Matlock, Courtesy of Nigel Aspdin]. By this time, the family had moved to St. James' Road, New Normanton, where Henry was building houses.


The carte de visite inside the envelope is a school or class photograph showing 31 boys and two male teachers, seated, standing and kneeling in front of a large brick building. Mr George Sutherland was head master of the school, and I suspect that he is the bearded man standing at the right hand side. All of the boys have mortar board hats, although a few are holding them in their hands. Unfortunately, I don't know which boy is my great-grandfather Charles Vincent Payne. There is no indication on the photo itself, and I don't have any other photos of him from this era with which to compare it. It is possible that he is seated at the extreme right, with his mortar board in his lap, but I can't be sure.


The school was situated immediately adjacent to St Andrew's Church, on the corner of London road and Hulland street, and adjacent to the London & North Western Railway Goods Offices, as described in the extract from Wright's 1874 trade directory shown above [Source: University of Leicester's Historical Directories].


On 21 December 1876 Charlie was awarded the Form 1 examination prize at St Andrews, as reported in The Derby Mercury of 27 December 1876 [Source: 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Database]. He remained at the school until February 1880, apart from a spell of just over ten months from 8 October 1877 until 27 August 1878, which the Payne family spent living at Ash House near Turnditch, north of Derby.


On 20 December 1878, George Sutherland wrote a letter to Charlie's father about an incident that had happened at school, obviously in response to a letter from Henry Payne, attesting to his belief that Charlie was innocent in the matter:

My Dear Sir,
I should have replied to yours before, but my time has been so engaged. I had asked Charles somewhat closely about the skates, as he appears to be the last boy seen with them. I never could believe that he could have taken them; for, as I told Mr. Cope (the father of the boy who had lost them) I had always found your son the very soul of truthfulness. I assure you I do not by any means consider him guilty. I regret very much about the over coat being lost and am at a loss to account for it - I hope, however, I may yet hear of it.
I am truly yrs, George Sutherland

On 12 February 1880, he was presented with a copy of "Episodes of Discovery" (published by Blackie & Son Ltd. in 1880) inscribed, "Presented to Charles Vincent Payne on his leaving the Middle Class School Derby. With best wishes for his future life Feb:12:1880." Two weeks earlier he had turned twelve and was about to set off on an exciting adventure with his father, but the story of that adventure will have to wait for a future article.

The boys in the photograph appear to me to be aged around nine or ten years old. If I am right, then the photograph was probably taken in mid-1877, before the Payne family's sojourn in Turnditch.


The card mount shows details of the photographer George W. Holden of 12A William Street, Windsor. Holden developed a country-wide photographic business, specialising in scholastic portraits, and would have travelled to Derby, probably to take a series of class photographs at the school. Further school photographs by Holden will be featured in a future Photo-Sleuth article.

St. Chad's Church Schools, Derby, 1895

This class photograph at St. Chad's Church School, Derby in 1895 was another fairly recent eBay purchase. I added it a few months ago to my profile and portfolio of the Derby and Nottingham studio of Gervase Gibson & Sons, but have decided it could do with an airing here as well.


The photograph measures 200 x 135 mm and is mounted on thick buff coloured (probably off-white originally) card with rounded corners measuring 216 x 164 mm. The name of the school, location and year, "St. Chad's Church Schools, Derby, 1895," are printed in a bold Gothic-style typeface above the photographic print, and the name and location of the studio in a simple, small, italic typeface below the print. It seems likely that Gibson & Sons, who had only recently opened a branch at 30 St Peter's Street in Derby that year, were commissioned to take portraits of the entire school. Perhaps they offered very favourable rates to introduce themselves to the Derby clientele.

The photograph and front of the mount have nothing which indicates who any of the people might be. There is a small "x" handwritten in blue ink (perhaps ball point) on the photograph, directly below the feet of a boy seated in the front row, fourth from the right - presumably a family member of a previous owner of the photo - but no clue as to his identity. The reverse of the mount is likewise blank, but appears to have been previously glued into an album.

According to Kelly's 1895 trade directory, St Chad's School in Gordon Road, Normanton, Derby was a mixed school erected in 1888 for 450 boys and girls, and 230 infants. By 1895 it had an average attendance of 600. Thomas George Seymour (b. 1865-) was master, while Mrs. Ada Sarah Atherley (b. 1860) was the infants' mistress. The 37 boys shown in this photo only include a small proportion of the total boys in the school at that time (presumably about 300, if we assume that the school was roughly half boys and half girls). Unfortunately there is no indication which class or classes are represented. It is possible that the gentleman standing at left is Mr. Seymour, and that the lady on the right is Mrs. Atherley, although there were undoubtedly other teachers at the school. The 1901 Census shows several other members of the teaching profession living within two or three blocks of the school, any of whom could be in the photo.

- Mary Byrne, School Teacher, 4 Mount Carmel Street
- Joseph B. Ashcroft, School Master, 6 Mount Carmel Street
- Agnes Wakefield, School Teacher, 11 Mount Carmel Street
- Mabel E. Head, High School Mistress, 17 Mount Carmel Street
- Gertrude Moore, School Teacher, 17 Mount Carmel Street
- Agnes M. Braine, School Teacher, 17 Mount Carmel Street
- Thomas G. Seymour, School Master, 20 Mount Carmel Street
- Alice Ridley, Teacher in Elementary School, 26 Mount Carmel Street
- Catherine S. Brown, School Mistress, 5 Breedon Hill Road
- Sarah E. Brown, Assistant School Mistress, 5 Breedon Hill Road
- Mary L. Cox, Pupil Teacher, 25 Breedon Hill Road
- William Creswell, Instructor of Pupil Teachers, 41 Breedon Hill Road
- Sarah Julia Fowke, School Teacher, 51 Breedon Hill Road
- James W. Hougham, School Master, 59 Breedon Hill Road
- Emma J. Smith, School Mistress, 4 Breedon Hill Road
- Sarah L. Allen, School Teacher, 4 Breedon Hill Road
- Millicent Platts, School Mistress, 16 St Chad's Road
- Mary L. Thompson, School Mistress, 20 St Chad's Road
- Arthur C. Townsend, School Master, 22 St Chad's Road
- Gertrude M. Hubbard, School Teacher, 38 St Chad's Road
- Daisy S. Eggleston, Pupil Teacher, 52 St Chad's Road

Many Victorian school enrolment registers have survived and deposited in the Derbyshire County Records Office at Matlock. It would be interesting to know whether those for St Chad's are among them. The boys look to be aged between about 6 and 10 years, and were therefore born between c. 1885 and 1889.


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From the GoogleMaps satellite image of Gordon Road, it appears that the school still exists, and that the class portrait was probably taken against the right hand end of the south-west facade of the building.

A continental school group?

I like old photos of school groups, and have accumulated a few in my small collection, in addition to those which include members of my own family. One of the former group is not in wonderful condition and not particularly remarkable, but intrigues me as I purchased it on eBay from a UK seller, but I believe it may not have originated there.


The photograph (151 x 103.5 mm) is mounted on a cabinet card measuring 164.5 x 108.5 mm. There is unfortunately no photographer's imprint, either on the front or the reverse, although the design on the reverse is not one that I have come across before on English card mounts.


The dresses worn by the two women teachers (from her apparent age, the one on the right is probably a pupil teacher) are not very clear, but they appear to be simple, everyday versions of fashions common in the 1880s.


In addition, the tiles on the roof and the shape of the door appear, at least to me, to be more akin to styles found on the continent.


I wonder if any other readers can come up with some ideas or clues as to where this school was? Please email me if you have any information which you think might help, or similar photographs.

P.S. Nigel Aspdin has come across fancy tile work like this in Derby, and sent me a recent photograph of the estate school at Kedleston Hall which shows a very similar style.


He also thinks the doors could be those of a stable, and suggests that perhaps it was an estate school.

I've had an opportunity to examine the school photograph in some more detail. There are 17 boys and 17 girls, apparently ranging in age from about 5 (the youngest looking girl at the extreme left of the front row) to about 11 (such as the girl immediately to the left of the student teacher, and the tallest boys standing in the back row.) Most of the girls have white pinafores, except one at the right who has perhaps forgotten it is photo day - she has a striped pinny. Immediately behind her, a naughty boy has moved resulting in his features being blurred. To his left, at the end of the row, another boy is getting bored and is trying, unsuccessfully, to stifle a yawn. A boy in the middle row, second from the left hand end, has had enough, and is making some smart-aleck comment to the friend on his right, who is trying hard not to laugh.

The pupil teacher on the right looks very young, perhaps only 16 or 17, and probably hasn't been in the job very long - she appears rather nervous. The older woman teacher's eyes appear half-closed. She may have been distracted by the antics of her naughtier charges, and blinked. However, it may also be that the light caught her blue eyes at just the wrong angle. The wet collodion proess used at that time had a higher sensitivity to blue light, and people with blue eyes often appear to have glazed eyes or vacant stares, a curiosity akin to the red-eye caused by the flash in modern photography.

The fact that it has no photographer's imprint may or may not be relevant. Many Victorian school photos had no photographer's name. They were often taken by itinerant artists, who may have been a little less skilled. Most were taken outside, where there was good light, and lengthy exposure times would not be required. I find that they are therefore often more spontaneous in comparison to formal studio portraits, and much more character can be seen in the subjects.

The Ashe School Cricket XI, Ashe House, Etwall, Derbyshire

Nigel Aspdin found this photo postcard, apparently of a schoolboys' cricket team, blind stamped in the lower right hand corner with W.W. Winter's characteristic signature, amongst a collection of loose old photos of his late father and grandparents.


The postcard design (see reverse below) is similar to examples in my Winter studio profile and portfolio which I have estimated were taken in the 1920s.

Nigel writes:

On the back, in my father's handwriting, was written "A Obolensky is seated second from right." This immediately prompted me to look at it more carefully, and a quick search came up with the Wikipedia entry. Prince Alexander Sergeevich "Obo" Obolensky (February 17, 1916 - 29 March 1940) was a Russian prince and an international rugby union footballer who played for England. He was popularly known as just "The Prince" by many sports fans. (Note that the Wiki entry for The Ashe and Brasenose College were added by me). What I really want to rub in, just in case you have adopted a recent affinity to the All Blacks, is his part in the first ever England defeat of the All Blacks, a feat you can view on YouTube.

My father was at a private boys' preparatory school, The Ashe, at Ashe Hall near Etwall, Derby, and so this was the first easy clue, although I never remember him mention Obolensky. I took a trip out to the hall, now a Buddhist retreat, and sure enough the photo is taken on the path in front of the hall.

In order to attribute Obolensky as a pupil (as opposed to a member of a visiting team...unlikely but just possible) I managed to extract a very poor blazer badge from the photo. It is this that has occupied me to date.

Huge efforts at contacting people locally trying to track down former pupils have failed, as have efforts in local archives. The school only existed between the wars, during both world wars the building was used by the military. I got a response from an Obolensky I found in USA, and from her information from another family member, and established that his college at Oxford was Brasenose. The archivist there gave me good information, but sadly only his secondary public school, Trent College, was recorded by them, an already published fact. Trent College archives have no information except of course his sporting achievements.

I wonder if any readers might be able to identify either one of the boys in the photograph (Click here or on the image above for a more detailed version) or the badge on the blazer? Perhaps we can find someone who went to The Ashe School? Please get in touch with me if you can help.


P.S. Nigel found the advertisement shown above in a 1935 edition of the "Derby County Borough & District Directory." It includes a facsimilie of the crest, which looks very similar to that shown on the boy's blazer.

A Derbyshire photographer working afield

Robin Bishop sent me this copy of a rather nice cabinet card format photograph of a class of Victorian schoolgirls. Robin's grandmother Emilie Sewell (1889-), then about eight years old, is seated in the front row, at second from the right; she marked herself with an X on the lower margin of the mount, and inscribed the reverse with, "High Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk, England." Also written on the back is "Cunningham School Class."


She was born at Norwich in 1889, daughter of Edward Sewell and Emily Martin, but moved to Lowestoft when young, and emigrated to New Zealand with her widowed father in the early 1900s.

The photographer George Henry Everard Bower was born in 1869 in Syderstone, Norfolk, son of an Anglican minister. The 1891 Census shows him living with his parents and three sisters in Heigham, near Norwich, and he was then a "Student of Music." Between then and February 1893, when his father died, the whole family moved to the village of Ockbrook, east of Derby. They were living in Ockbrook until at least 1895, when one of George's sisters died. By late 1898, however, when the Kelly's Directory for 1899 was compiled, they had moved to 200 Osmaston Road in Derby. George's mother died in 1899; George and his three remaining sisters, all still unmarried, were living at the same address in April 1901.

I have not found any mention of Bower working as a photographer in any of the abovementioned references, and I suspect that it was a temporary occupation of fairly short-lived duration, perhaps to bring in a little more income while he was establishing his reputation as a music teacher. The fact that the address "200 Osmaston Road" is shown on the photograph suggests that it is unlikely to have been taken prior to 1895. Unfortunately, I don't yet know precisely when he left that address.

The photograph has a very low negative number (347) marked in pen on the front of the mount, suggesting that Bower was a relative newomer to the field. He was pretty competent, however, as the group portrait is a particularly good one, well posed, sharp, and with a decent tonal range and plenty of contrast. All that it is missing is a notice board with the school name and class number, a common accessory used in school portraits of the period.

It is particularly interesting that the photograph appears to have been taken at a school in Lowestoft, because of George Bower's Norfolk connection. Perhaps he returned to the Norfolk coast at some stage to ply his trade. There were many well established photographic studios in Derby at this time, and I think newcomers would have had a tough time trying to break into the field there. From my research into Derbyshire studios, I have found many photographers who were only in business for short periods in the mid- to late 1890s. Quite a few would either have changed professions or moved on to try other areas, and I suspect this may have been the case with Bower too.