Sepia Saturday 81: All the Fun of the Fair

The picture prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday theme shows five glum Irish ladies rather determined not to have a good time while selling their bric-a-brac at an early 20th Century stall. Perhaps the thought of carrying around all that hat for the rest of the day was just a little too much. Whatever the cause, it doesn't convey the feeling of festivity that I associate with show week and the Luna Park of my youth.


Fair Day in Morledge, Derby, 1882, by C.T. Moore
In an article about Derbyshire fairground photographer Charles Warwick posted three years ago, I used this image of a painting by C.T. Moore, a lively scene of an Easter fair taking place in the Morledge, Derby in 1882.


Detail: Itinerant Photographer's Tent
Closer examination of the painting reveals, parked amongst numerous hawkers, swings, an "Aetherscope" and several other attractions, an itinerant photographer's tent offering "Carte de Visite" on the far right, adjacent to a caravan. After further investigation, I identified several photographers accompanying a large group of travellers who toured the Midlands in the 1870s to 1890s, and who regularly attended the Easter Fair in Derby. These included Samuel Whiting (later a swing boat proprietor), Charles Warwick, Charles Antill and Charles Tyler. Although I'd come across all of these photographers previously, and had compiled profiles for three of them, I had no examples of the work of Antill or Tyler. Since then I've received several contributions of images, purchased a photo by Charles Tyler, and learnt a lot more about the life and careers of both him and his son Albert Charles Tyler.


William & Sarah Hall with their daughter Eliza, Swanwick, c.1867-68
Image © and courtesy of Judith Brennan
Charles Tyler (1837-1908) started working as a confectioner with the family business in the small village of Wymeswold, near Loughborough in Leicestershire. The 1861 Census (7 April) shows Charles and his father living in a caravan parked at the Morledge, Derby. They were presumably winding down after a busy time the previous Easter weekend holiday hawking sweets (Easter Sunday was 31 March). In late 1864 he married Alice Suett, the daughter of a fellow traveller, and not long after appears to have taken up the photographic trade. By the late 1860s, when the above carte de visite portrait was taken in Swanwick, Derbyshire, he and Alice were living in a van and travelling to various fair around the Midlands.


Generic card mount design overprinted "MR. C. TYLER Market Place WHITWIGK" [sic]
Image © and courtesy of Judith Brennan
The card mount is a generic one, overprinted with his name and "home" address, complete with spelling mistake - it would not have been produced by a high end printer! The Market Place in Whitwick was also not far from Loughborough, and was possibly where he set up shop when there were no country fairs to attend. I do have some doubts whether Tyler was, in fact, capable of reproducing copies of any previously taken portrait from the original negative as claimed, since glass plate negatives were bulky and heavy, and space would have been at a premium in his van.


Market Place, Grantham
Image © and courtesy of Google StreetView
Birth locations for Charles' and Alice's children over first two decades of their marriage show a wide distribution, indicating that they ferried their growing brood from village to town throughout the Midlands, following the country fair circuit through the 1870s and 1880s. Census night on Sunday 2 April 1871 found Charles, Alice, three young children and a servant in "booths and caravans" in The Yard of the Blue Lion in the Grantham Market Place, Lincolnshire. It seems likely that they were already packing up in preparation for a move to Derby to attend the Easter Fair on the following weekend. Further locations visited included Hinckley, Long Eaton, Nottingham and Burslem. They were back in Grantham on census night 3 April 1881, this time with two weeks to spare before the Easter fair in Derby, which they presumably attended.


Four young men (and a dog) of Bollington, Cheshire, c.1885-1890
Image © and courtesy of Frances Quinn
This remnant of a carte de visite portrait depicting four young men and a well behaved dog, sent to me by Frances Quinn, was probably taken in the late 1880s at Bollington, north of Macclesfield in Cheshire. It was perhaps close to the northern limit of the Tyler's range, but appears to have been a regular haunt, because his fifth son Edwin was born there in the summer/autumn of 1873.


Carte de visite by Charles Tyler, "here and at Wymeswold," c.1885-1890
The card mount used is by now far more elaborate, with classical design elements common to many being published in the late 1880s. He advertises that he is able to take portraits of fidgety children "by the instantaneous process" which essentially means that he is taking advantage of the faster emulsions commercially available by that time to employ quicker exposure times. Most interesting to me, however, is the tell-tale mark of an itinerant tradesman, unable to specify a permanent studio location: "Here and at Wymeswold, ..." Unfortunately, any other locations that might have been listed must await the appearance of a more complete version of this particular carte de visite design.


Possibly Catherine (Kate) Quinn of Billington, c.1876
Fragment of ambrotype by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Frances Quinn
Frances also sent me these images of a fragment of an ambrotype or collodion positive portrait, believing it might be of her father-in-law's great aunt Catherine Quinn (1873-1959) of Bollington, Cheshire. What little I can see of the studio setting is typical for the the early to mid-1860s, with a diamond patterned carpet, and a wood panelling backdrop (although I think this backdrop is actually painted canvas, rather than real wood panelling). The seated pose of the man, probably facing directly forwards towards the camera, and with his legs apart, was common in the 1850s and 1860s.

Collodion positives were introduced in the 1850s, but their popularity started to decline in the 1860s, during the heyday of the carte de visite. However, due to their convenience and low cost, they were still favoured by some itinerant photographers, even as late as the 1890s. I found a picture of a very similar girl's outfit, with woven checked or tartan dress and jacket, dated 1874 in Jo Ann Olian's Children's Fashions 1860-1912: 1,065 Costume Designs from "LaMode Illustree," (publ. 1994, Dover Publications, New York). The portrait could therefore easily have been taken in the late 1870s, as Frances suggests. Whether the portrait was taken by Charles Tyler or some other photographer may well remain a mystery. We know that he was visiting Bollington in the mid-1870s, but I'm not sure how many other photographers in the general area.


View Charles Tyler (1837-1908), itinerant photographer in a larger map
On Sunday 5 April 1891, the weekend after Easter, Charles and Alice were back at the Morledge, Derby, two of their sons Arthur and Edwin and now working as photographic assistants. Their eldest son Albert Charles Tyler, aged 25, by now was operating separately from his own caravan, then parked at Mantle Lane, Whitwick. Over the previous two and a half decades they had covered an impressive area, illustrated by the location map of the English Midlands above.


Unidentified woman, unknown location, c.1894-1896
Image © and courtesy of Gillian Jones
When this portrait of a young woman was taken in the mid-1890s, Charles Tyler had retired from an active role in the photography business and had become a publican. He owned and ran the Engineers' Arms in Coalville while Albert, now married to Swadlincote girl Lucy Smedley, operated the nominal "father and son" portrait venture from the van. The backdrop used is a rudimentary one, consisting of an unornamented, light coloured sheet, and Albert has taken little care to disguise its appearance. In additon the bright sunlight, probably coming from a skylight in the caravan roof directly above the subject, has heightened the contrast between the woman's dark clothing and the light backdrop, thus revealing little detail on her fine dress.


C. Tyler & Son, here and at Swadlincote & Coalville
Printed by publishers Adams & Co. of London the card mount demonstrates by the caption "here and at Swadlincote & Coalville," that they used Lucy's and Charles's parents' abodes respectively as home bases.


Three, unidentified women, c.1895-1900
Carte de visite portrait by A.C. Tyler of Coalville
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The final portrait was taken, judging by the fashion of the dresses worn by the three women pictured, some time in the late 1890s. They are clearly dressed for an outing, with lavishly decorated hats, and umbrellas in case of the occasional light shower. Albert, now working on his own as "A.C. Tyler," has by now acquired a painted backdrop which lends something to the atmosphere with a little perspective, but it is probably still taken within the cramped confines of a photographer's caravan or tent.

There are several tell-tale signs to look for which might indicate a photographic portrait has been taken by an itinerant.
- There may be several locations listed, without a qualifier indicating that they were permanent branches.
- The words "Here and at ..." with no definite statement where "here might be, is presumably indicative of a traveller.
- Alternatively, there might not be a location listed at all.
- Rudimentary or out-of-date backdrops, carpets and other accessories used, edges poorly disguised and often with grass or bare earth showing.
- Portraits often taken outdoors.
- In the United Kingdom, collodion positives were predominantly used by travelling photographers after the mid- to late 1860s, but rarely by studio photographers.
- Tin types were generally the preserve of itinerants after the end of the 1870s.

Many thanks to Judith Brennan, Frances Quinn and Gillian Rhodes for permission to use their images.

Sepia Saturday 79: Dressed for the Beach

Sepia Saturday's photo prompt this week from Alan Burnett depicts two young early 20th Century ladies relaxing on the beach in Atlantic City, but dressed in a manner that will certainly protect them well from the noon day sun. Not everyone goes to beach to swim, and if you live in this Antipodean location, then you'd be advised to go well wrapped at this time of the year (the Met Service advises 3 layers!). As far as swimming's concerned, I think you'd have to pay me.


My own contribution for this theme consists of two tintypes, mounted in flimsy paper sleeves the size of cartes de visite. They are part of a larger collection of 73 loose photographs which I purchased as a single lot on eBay last year. The vendor told me that they had originally been acquired together, and my own research has given me reason to believe that they do indeed belong together. Although these tin types are not inscribed, I've been able to determine, by comparison with others in the collection in which the subjects are identified, and by some additional research, who is depicted and approximately when it was taken.


Measuring roughly 69 x 82 mm, they are an odd size, somewhere between quarter-plate and sixth-plate. Both show a woman seated on the beach with two young children. She is Emily Minns née Carr (1840-1927), wife of Stoke Newington draper Charles Thomas Minns (1838-1900), and the two children with her are most likely her two eldest sons Charles Walter Marston Minns (1874-1951) and Frederick Thomas Minns (1875-1956).


Her third son was born in late 1877, which suggests to me that these two photographs were taken in the summer of 1877, probably by an itinerant beach photographer. The second image, taken from a slightly different angle, includes what may be a large spoked wheel of a bathing machine, similar to that shown in an early 20th Century photograph which I posted two weeks ago as a submission for the 105th Carnival of Genealogy (Swimsuit Edition).


Ladies' and Children's Bathing Suits
Harper's Bazaar, 15 July 1876
I assumed initially that they were dressed for outdoor activities. However, now that I've looked at Stella Blum's Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898, I think they could well be wearing bathing suits. Although not identical - that would be so "last year" wouldn't it - the clothes are similar to those depicted in the engraving shown from July 1876, reproduced above. Perhaps someone more familiar with Victorian fashions can confirm - or refute - this. While they belong firmly in the "What were they thinking?" category in the present day, I feel they were at the height of fashion back then.

I'm looking forward to a suitably eclectic selection of swimsuits among the other Sepia Saturday contributions this week.

Sidney's first appearance at Church, 16 June 1861

I often think of the rise of popular portrait photography as having really taken off with the introduction of the carte de visite by Disderi, a craze for which is commonly reputed to have been precipitated around 1860 by the enthusiastic British Royal couple. However, the collodion positive process, which had been introduced by Scott Archer in 1852, and resulted in the format known in the United States as the ambrotype, was responsible for the birth of another portrait type which Coe (1976) describes as also having become well known on that side of the Atlantic, the ferrotype or tintype. Writing about a recent visit to the Who Do You Think You Are? Live! family history show in London, Maureen Taylor remarked on her Family Tree Magazine photodetective blog that she noticed how tintypes are far less commonly seen in the United Kingdom. Perhaps this is the reason I understimate it's importance in those early years.

After having been first described in France in 1853, and then introduced into the US in the late 1850s by Smith and Griswold (Leggatt, 1999) the tintype became enormously popular from around 1860 onwards. There were significant advantages in this process, particularly to the itinerant photographer, in that the outlay expenditure for setting up in business was low, and it was quick and cheap to produce, and versatile. The lack of a negative meant that it was a one off portrait, which was the most significant disadvantage - for duplicates one had to rather go the carte de visite route. Their cheapness and versatility meant that tintypes were produced in huge quantities across the North America continent throughout the 1860s and 1870s, and remained enormously popular for the remainder of the Victorian era and even well into the 1900s (Hannavy, 1997). Leggatt (1999) states that, in his opinion,

"Compared with other processes the tintype tones seem uninteresting. They were often made by unskilled photographers, and their quality was very variable. They do have some significance, however, in that they made photography available to working classes, not just to the more well-to-do."

While I have to disagree about the mid-range tones of the tintypes rendering them uninteresting - to me they impart a feeling of warmth and immediacy generally not seen in the more common albumen prints of the carte de visite - the availability of these portraits to almost every facet of society often provides a glimpse into a side of life rarely encountered elsewhere.


The roughly trimmed early tintype portrait shown here epitomises everything I like about the collodion positive format. The tonal range in this particular, unenhanced image is more than adequate, and has been embellished with some skillful hand colouring of the subject's pink cheeks and the light blue cravat tied around his neck. In fact, the tones of the tintype impart such depth to the photograph that I had to check carefully for further retouching. The stylised oak leaf-patterned edging to his jacket, the tartan check and folds of his skirt, the gold (I think!) patterned head band and dashing feathers on his dark velvet cap, the slightly hesitant expression on his face, even his neatly laced up boots, all point to it being a special day for the young subject of this portrait.


A lthough we might be able to make an educated guess at the occasion, a paper label affixed to the reverse of the tintype, and inscribed in black ink with what appears to be a contemporary hand, handily reveals the purpose of the sitting:

Sidneys first appearance at Church. 16. June 1861

The lack of an apostrophe notwithstanding, I'm very thankful to his mother for recording the event for posterity. Surely it was his mother who dressed him so carefully for the important event, led him to church, and then into the studio, calmed his fears about about the head clamp being fixed into place and the strange man under the dark cloth fiddling for what seemed like ages, and likewise carefully wrote out the label when they got home later that day?


American poet William Cullen Bryant's mother recorded that he made his first appearance at church in the middle of his third year (Muller, 2008). This young lad appears a little older - perhaps about four years old - but it is likely that this was but the first of several visits that he made to a photographic studio during his lifetime. Audrey Linkman writes that most photographic portraits in the 1800s were taken to celebrate or record events that she refers to as rites of passage, such as christenings, birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. Although few of the photographs in our family history collections have generally been lucky enough to survive with such helpful annotations, it is often a useful exercise to examine portraits with a view to which significant event in the subject's, or subjects', life it might portray.

The carte de visite portrait shown above, which I used in a previous article on Photo-Sleuth, was probably taken in the late 1860s, and from the dress worn by the child clearly celebrated it's christening. Other events, such as the breeching of boys and the confirmation of both sexes may be more difficult to pick out, since the accompanying clothing changes may not be so obvious to us a century and more later. I'll be keeping a sharp eye out for such possibilties, both in my own old family photos as well as my collection of purchased photographs, and will hopefully feature some more in the coming months, as I return to a more regular posting of articles and images here on Photo-Sleuth.


These photographs have an even greater poignancy for me at the moment because, just as happened in the household of sometime reader of this blog intelliwench last year, my eldest daughter has just started at university a month ago. Of course this has occasioned some wistful perusing of old photographs, including the record of her first day at "big school" some dozen odd years ago, shown above. This shot captures her in the ubiquitous "two sizes too big/she'll grow into it" school uniform on her way to the car as we head off at the beginning of that first day, with her two younger, over-excited and very jealous sisters desperately wishing they were going too.

Some things change, some just stay the same.

References

Coe, Brian (1976) The Birth of Photography: The story of the formative years 1800-1900, (1989 Edition) London: Spring Books, ISBN 0-600-56296-4, 144p.

Hannavy, John (1997) Victorian Photographer at Work, Series: A History in Camera, Risborough: Shire Publications Ltd., ISBN 0-7478-0358-7, 136p.

Leggatt, Robert (1999) A History of Photography: The Tintype Process. Last updated 24 Sep 2008.

Linkman, Audrey (n.d.) Picturing the Family, Ch. 5.4 Rites of Passage, Unit A173_1, The Open University.

Muller, Gilbert H. (2008) William Cullen Bryant: Author of America, Ch 1. America's First Poet, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-7467-9, 400p.

Sixth-plate tintype of "Sidneys first appearance at Church, 16 June 1861," by unknown photographer, Collection of Brett Payne

Carte de visite portrait of Unidentified woman and child, by Job Bramley, the Family Fry Pan Portrait Gallery, Leicester, Collection of Brett Payne

35mm colour print of LFP's first day at school, by Brett Payne, 13 January 1998, Collection of Brett Payne

A mystery marriage in Barton-under-Needwood (Part 3)

(Continued from Part 2)

Having established that William Farmer's period of operation as a photographer in the village of Barton-under-Needwood was from roughly 1863 until 1873, we can return to, and examine in more detail, the wedding photograph which I introduced in the first article (Part 1).


I previously estimated that the portrait was probably taken either in the late 1860s or early 1870s. With a better understanding of Farmer's movements and career as a photographer, it seems likely that it was between 1867 and 1873. This and the other two portraits appear to have been taken in a farm yard or courtyard of some sort. From the style of clothing in the wedding portrait, the subjects were fairly well off, by which I mean that they are more likely to have been tenant farmers or landowners than farm labourers.

With that in mind, it seemed likely to me that notice of such a wedding would have been inserted in the local newspaper. From the list of newspapers held by The Magic Attic in Swadlincote it seems likely that the Burton Chronicle and The Derby Mercury would have been the daily newspapers of choice in the 1860s and 1870s. Fortunately a complete set images of issues of The Derby Mercury newspaper from 1800-1900 are included in the 19th Century British Library Newspaper Collection presented online by Gale Cengage Learning. This is available by subscription, or alternatively accessible through many libraries who have such subscriptions, and a friend very kindly conducted some searches for me through such a library facility. I have previously used it during a period when Gale was offering a free trial, and am therefore familiar with the searching mechanisms and parameters.

The search engine deals with text files of the newspaper documents created with the aid of sophisticated scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) software. This allows the user to look for specific words or text strings, either in article titles or in entire documents, limiting searches by publication date and/or title. Using the "Basic Search" tool, and searching for all instances (not just in titles, but throughout all documents) of the keyword "Needwood" between 1865 and 1875 (to allow some margin of error in my date estimate) in The Derby Mercury produced 340 positive results.


Each of these "hits" was presented with the article title so it was then a relatively simple, if somewhat tedious, exercise to browse through the list selecting and viewing all of those which fell under the title, "Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries." Of the 66 hits only eleven were marriage announcements where at least one of the participants was shown as being from Barton-under-Needwood; the remainder were births and deaths, or entries from the nearby, but completely separate, village of Needwood. I transcribed all of these in full (the names of bride or groom, where from Barton-under-Needwood, highlighted in bold are my own embellishment):

1865-03-08: On the 25th ult., at St. Peter's Church, Derby, by the Rev. J. Smith, Mr. Lewis Stretton to Miss Elizabeth Ironmonger, of Barton-under-Needwood.

1865-03-15: On the 4th inst., at the parish church, Barton-under-Needwood, by the Rev. H.G. Cooper, Mr. Thomas Fallowes Walker, of Burton-on-Trent, to Miss Emma Bowler, second daughter of Mr. Bowler, second daughter of Mr. Bowler, of Burton-on-Trent.

1866-11-21: On the 11th inst., at the Register-office, Burton, Mr. William Jones, of Burton-on-Trent, to Miss Emily Smith, of Barton-under-Needwood.

1867-03-13: On the 4th inst., at Tatenhill, by the Rev. W.P. Smeeth, M.A., Mr. Samuel Archer, of Burton park, to Caroline Ball, of Barton-under-Needwood.

1867-03-27: On the 13th inst., at Repton, by the Rev. W. Williams, Mr. Halbard, of Barton-under-Needwood, to Alice Mary, second daughter of Mr. Seth Smith, of Repton.

1869-07-28: On the 17th, at St. James's Church, Barton-under-Needwood, by the Rev. H.G. Cooper, M.A., Mr. George Lewis, Pontypridd, South Wales, to Elizabeth Wilson, only daughter of Mr. Wm. Tunley, of the former place.

1870-02-09: On the 29th ult., at the Register Office, Mr. James Todd of Burton, to Miss Emma Chamberlain, of Barton-under-Needwood.

1870-02-23: On the 22nd inst., at Weston-upon-Trent, by the Rev. J. Wadham, Mr. Jacob Botham Smith, to Mary Ann, eldest daughter of Mr. James Hoult, of Blakenhall Farm, Barton-under-Needwood.

1872-04-10: ASKHAM-LEE - April 3, at the Cathedral, Manchester, by the Rev. H.C. Smith, M.A., Minor Canon, Thos. Askham, of Pocklington, Yorkshire, to Laura Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the late Charles Hastings Lee, of Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire.

1873-12-17: COULSON-MARSHALL - Dec 9, at the parish church, Burton-on-Trent, by the Rev. C.F. Thornewill, M.A., vicar, Mr. Samuel Coulson, of Alverton House, Denstone, son of the late Mr. Samuel Coulson, of Barton-under-Needwood, to Eliza, youngest daughter of Mr. William Marshall, of Burton-on-Trent.

1875-06-09: BRADDYLL-BIRCH - On the 2nd of June, at the parish church, Long Eaton, by the Rev. T. Ford Fenn, M.A., Head Master of Trent College, Henry John, eldest son of the late Edward S.B. Richmond Gale Braddyll, Esq., to Mary, fifth daughter of the late William Birch, F.R.C.S.E., of Barton-under-Needwood, Esq.

Apart from the convenience of this search method, one major advantage is that it includes marriages that didn't actually take place at Barton-under-Needwood. Those are the only ones that would be found if one looked, for example at the Barton parish registers. However, there are important limitations of and disadvantages to this method, the most obvious being that the marriage depicted in our portrait may not have received a newspaper notice at all. I proceeded with a more detailed examination of the eleven marriages, keeping in mind the fact that the list was almost certainly incomplete.

Of the eleven marriages listed, only one (1870, Smith-Hoult) is from a family obviously involved in farming, at least from the information given in the newspaper entry. To investigate further, I tracked down each of these families using the 1861 and 1871 Census records, GRO Birth, Marriage & Death indexes, the IGI and other sources, turning up five more candidates.

- Elizabeth Ironmonger was the daughter of Edwin Ironmonger, a farm labourer of Catholme Bridge, Barton-under-Needwood, and herself working as a domestic servant at Harborne in 1861. The marriage date of March 1865 is a little early, in my estimate, for the photograph, and I would place this one low on the list of possibilities.

- Caroline Ball was the daughter of James Ball, a farmer who lived on the Main Street of Barton-under-Needwood. In March 1867 she was 39 years old and married Samuel Archer, farmer of 230 acres at Barton Park. He was a widower two years her senior, with five children from his first marriage, aged between seven and sixteen.

- Philip Halbard was a 43 year-old ironmonger from Burton-upon-Trent, probably only briefly resident in Barton-under-Needwood, who established the Britannia foundry in Horninglow Street, this marriage being his third. His bride Alice Mary Smith, 21 years old at the time of her marriage in March 1867, was the second daughter of Repton farmer Seth Smith.

- Emma Chamberlain was a daughter of William Chamberlain, agricultural labourer of Fulbrook, Barton-under-Needwood, who was 21 when she married James Todd, a 24 year-old brewer's clerk from Burton-on-Trent, in February 1870. Considering the occupation of both the groom and the bride's father, I think this marriage is also unlikely to be the one in Farmer's portrait.

- Mary Ann Hoult, aged 35 and a spinster, was the eldest daughter of James Hoult, tenant farmer of Upper Blakenhall Farm, west of Barton-under Needwood. Her husband Jacob Botham Smith was 29, and one of four children of Jacob Botham Smith senior, farmer of Aston-upon-Trent. They married in February 1870 at Weston-on-Trent, and settled at Glebe Farm in that parish.

- Samuel Coulson, a 32 year-old maltster, brickmaker and farmer, formerly of the Main Street, Barton-under-Needwood, married Eliza Marshall of Burton-on-Trent. They settled at Alvaston House, Denstone on a farm of some 110 acres.

Before I attempt to narrow down that list any further, I would like to discuss the possible modus operandi of the photographer. A preliminary investigation of William Farmer, presented in the previous article in this series, revealed that he probably spent at least a decade or so travelling around with his family in a caravan before settling in Barton-under-Needwood. Although I don't have evidence that he operated as an itinerant or travelling photographer during the entire period, it seems fairly likely. He certainly described himself as a photographic artist on census night in April 1861. This was shortly after the carte de visite was introduced and, although it became popular very rapidly, it seems more likely that Farmer was using the wet-plate collodion process at the time, and producing ambrotypes or tintypes for his customers.


The Itinerant Photographer on Clapham Common, by John Thomson
from Street Life in London, by John Thomson & Adolphe Smith, 1877/78
Courtesy of The Open University
As Robert Leggat discusses in his History of Photography: The Tintype Process, the method appealed to itinerant and street photographers because the process was simple, quick, cheap to produce, with low capital requirements. In addition, since they were direct positives, the intermediate stage of exposure of glass negatives was not necessary. A typical set up for itinerant photographers is shown in the photograph from the late 1870s above, titled "The Itinerant Photographer on Clapham Common" and reproduced from Street Life in London by Thomson & Smith (courtesy of The Open University).

It is likely that Farmer had been using this process since Frederick Scott Archer had developed it and published the details in 1852, making it freely available. Brian Coe states, in his informative book, The Birth of Photography, that "unlike the Daguerreotype process it required little skill and a very modest investment in apparatus and materials. No licences were needed for its commercial operation ... the difference in cost was considerable, and even the poor could be tempted into a photographic studio for a sixpenny portrait." Although the tintype or ferrotype process variation was first described in 1853, it only became popular around 1860.

It was a little unusual for the population of a small village the size of Barton-under-Needwood - only 1,677 people in 1871 - to sustain the services of a resident photographer for very long. By comparison, the only photographers working in that part of South Derbyshire south of the River Trent in the 1870s were James Toft & Arthur Hall in the parish of Swadlincote (pop. 1,927 in 1871) and William Rodbourn in the township of Stanton & Newhall (pop. 3,204 in 1871). None of them managed to stay in business for more than a couple of years. However, it was recently pointed out to me (thank you, Nigel and his knowledgeable neighbour) that Barton-under-Needwood was, and still is, characterised by a large proportion of rather grand houses. The term "Beerages," obviously derived from the word "peerage," is how many people in the area refer to the estates established with old money by Burton brewery owners in and around some of the surrounding villages, including Barton. Some of the residents of the village, such as the ironmonger Philip Halbard (see above), even commuted to work in Burton-on-Trent on a fairly regular basis.

Farmer probably realised that he could find enough wealthy clientele in this community from whom to make a living, and thus avoid the continual travelling with a growing family. They presumably rented the house in the Main Street in which they were living in 1871, but it is possible that Farmer may not have conducted his business on those premises. Indeed he may never have used a regular studio. He was already set up to operate as a travelling photographer, with all of the appropriate equipment, which he is likely to have continued to use. He may also have retained the caravan as a mobile studio, perhaps parked down the lane in a farmer's yard. He would then have the means to carry out visits to rural properties in the surrounding area on commission, and perhaps more speculative excursions to nearby villages at periodic intervals. It would therefore have been a fairly normal undertaking for him to take his photographic equipment out to a farm to take portraits of a wedding party, and would have possibly included shots of the relatives, farm buildings, and even animals, as part of the deal.

So, with that in mind we can return to the six marriage possibilities listed previously. It is probably easiest to exclude the least likely candidates first, and investigate the others in more detail. The clothing worn by the wedding group does not suggest they were agricultural labourers or domestic servants, as were the participants in the Stretton-Ironmonger and Chamberlain-Todd marriages. I feel that the Halbard-Smith marriage, too, is an unlikely candidate since it would have been quite a distance for Farmer to have travelled from Barton to the Smith farm at Repton, where the bride's father lived and where the marriage took place. It would have been far easier, and cheaper, for them to visit a studio in Burton-on-Trent.

This leaves three potential marriages:
- Samuel Archer m: 13 March 1867 Caroline Ball
- Jacob Botham Smith m: 23 February 1870 Mary Ann Hoult
- Samuel Coulson m: 17 December 1873 Eliza Marshall
and I will investigate these families in greater detail in Part 4.

References

History of Local Newspapers from The Magic Atttic
The Derby Mercury Newspaper 1801-1900, images from the British Library courtesy of Gale Cengage
International Genealogical Index (IGI) from the LDS Church at FamilySearch
Index to GRO Births, Marriages & Deaths from FreeBMD
UK Census 1841-1901 indexed images from Ancestry
E.R. Kelly's Post Office Directory of Staffordshire, 1868, from Ancestry
J.G. Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland & Staffordshire, 1870, from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
E.R. Kelly's Post Office Directory of Staffordshire, 1872, from Ancestry
F. Wright's Directory of South Derbyshire, 1874, from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
E.R. Kelly's Post Office Directory of Derbyshire, 1876, from Ancestry
Nigel J. Tringham (ed.), Burton-upon-Trent: Economic history, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 9: Burton-upon-Trent (2003), pp. 53-84, from British History Online
The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, The Mortimer-Percy Volume, by the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, from GoogleBooks
Robert Leggatt's article, The Tintype Process, on A History of Photography from its beginnings till the 1920s, web site dated 1997-2008
Brian Coe (1976) The Birth of Photography, publ. Spring Books, London, ISBN 0600562964
The Rise of the Itinerant Photographer, in Picturing the family, Course A173_1 from The Open University

A mystery marriage in Barton-under-Needwood (Part 2)

(Continued from Part 1)

William John Farmer arrived in the Staffordshire village of Barton-under-Needwood in 1862 or 1863, having apparently lived for some years in a caravan, working as an itinerant photographer. Although he was probably born around 1819, the location is uncertain, and nothing is known of either his early life or marriage.

The 1861 Census shows him, aged 41 and working as a photographic artist, with his wife Harriet and five children in a caravan in the small village of Rocester on the banks of the Dove River in north Staffordshire. The birth places specified for the children, although all in Staffordshire, suggest that they moved frequently:
- William Henry b. c.1853 Wasall (sic = Walsall)
- Thomas b. c.1854 Barton
- Joseph b. c.1857 Handsworth
- William b. c.1859 Penkridge
- Georgiana b. c.Aug 1860 Uttoxeter

Another daughter named Harriet was apparently born at Rugeley later that year, although not too much reliability should be read into these dates and locations, since members of this family rarely provided consistent information to successive census enumerators. William himself various described his birth place as "New York, U.S.A.," "Finchley, Bedfordshire," and "Lichfield, Staffordshire," and in 1881 apparently told the census enumerator that his name was Thomas!

Perhaps the impending arrival of another child was just too much for them all to remain "on the road." William and Harriet had a further four children between 1863 and 1869, but they were all born in Barton-under-Needwood, suggesting that they remained in the village throughout that time. This is supported by listings of W.J. Farmer as a photographer in Barton-under-Needwood in trade directories for 1868, 1870 and 1872.


Extract from 1871 Census of Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire
National Archives Ref. RG10/2903/48/11/55
In April 1871, still with seven children at home, they were living in a house on the High Street of Barton, close to the centre of the village, and it seems likely that William Farmer used the premises as a studio, even though no studio portraits by him have yet been found. Their son Thomas was two doors away, living with George Allsop, a plumber and glazier to whom he was apprenticed. His younger brother Joseph was nearby in Wales End, where he was employed as a groom to William Tunley, a district manager of the Bristol Life Insurance Office.


Nigel Aspdin very kindly sent me this wonderful image of another carte de visite by Farmer, from his own family collection. It was taken around the same time as those displayed in Part 1 of this article and shows a view westwards down the Main Street in the village of Barton-under-Needwood, a scene that most village residents would have seen every day of their lives.


The shop occupying the corner of the large double-story building in the centre of the photograph is identified by the large sign above the window as that of William Woodroffe, draper and grocer (Harrod, 1870). There are two figures in front of the shop, who would appear to be young boys. Woodroffe and his wife Maria did indeed have two sons, aged 10 and 3 at the time of the 1871 Census, but they also had young lads and lasses working in the shop, so any attempt at identification would really just be wild speculation.


The building, apparently now known in the village as the old parsonage, is shown in the centre of this extract from an early to mid-1880s Ordnance Survey map of the village (above), to the north-west of St. James' Church, while my interpretation of the photographer's approximate field of view is shown in the satellite image (below) taken from GoogleMaps.




Along the main street, several more figures can be seen. Two women in the traditional conical, hooped skirts of the 1860s are standing on the pavement looking towards the photographer, perhaps interrupted on their way to the store. Further down the Main Street are two horse-drawn carts.


The 1871 Census reveals that the buildings immediately adjacent to Woodroffe's on the Main Street - clearly visible in Farmer's view - were occupied by George Tunnicliffe, a dispensing chemist, Edward Tolley, a hairdresser, Joseph Chamberlain, a retired bootmaker, and John Holland, the postmaster.


In the distance a number of buildings can be seen, all on the northern side of the Main Street. From my interpretation of the census enumerators sheets, in conjunction with the old Ordnance Survey map shown above, I believe the shop with the awning may have been occupied either by Amelia Pullin, draper & chemist, or Mrs Sarah Eliza Barnes, grocer/shopkeeper. That shop appears to be on the north-east corner with Cowberry Lane, and the building on the opposite (north-west) corner, the large windows of which can be seen directly behind the carts, may have been occupied by William Jones, grocer. The 1871 census suggests that the photographer William Farmer lived in the house immediately west of Jones' shop, which is not quite visible in this photograph.

Between 1872 and 1874, the Farmer family moved to Casey Lane, Charles Street, Horninglow (now a suburb of Burton-on-Trent) where William Farmer obtained a license to sell beer. After a couple of appearances at the Burton-on-Trent Petty Sessions in May 1876 and September 1877 for selling beer outside the regulation hours, he appears to have given up the business, because the 1881 Census shows him work as, of all things, a clockmaker. It seems likely that he was employed by one of several clock and watch makers in Burton-on-Trent as he is not included in the list of tradespeople in Kelly's 1880 trade directory.

William Farmer died, aged 63, in late 1883 in the Burton Registration District. None of his children appear to have followed him into the photographic business. Nor have I been able to find any connection with the photographer Thomas Farmer (b. 1827) who was living in Willington, Derbyshire in April 1881, or with Albert Farmer (Farmer's Photographics), who were active in Derby in the 1920s.

In the next article (Part 3), I will investigate the possible subjects of the wedding photograph.

References

E.R. Kelly's Post Office Directory of Staffordshire, 1868, from Ancestry
J.G. Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland & Staffordshire, 1870, from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
E.R. Kelly's Post Office Directory of Staffordshire, 1872, from Ancestry
F. Wright's Directory of South Derbyshire, 1874, from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
E.R. Kelly's Post Office Directory of Staffordshire, 1880, from Ancestry
The Derby Mercury Newspaper 1801-1900, images from the British Library and Gale Cengage
Index to GRO Births, Marriages & Deaths from FreeBMD
UK Census 1841-1901 indexed images from Ancestry

J. Burton's Galerie Francaise of Aston Road, Birmingham

Angela Barrett recently sent me scans of four cartes de visite identified on the reverse as having been taken by J. Burton of Aston Road, Birmingham, wondering if this was the same photographer as the John Burton & Sons who operated a branch studio in Birmingham in the 1860s, and who I featured in a previous Photo-Sleuth article. The photographs were in a purchased leather bound, gilt-edged album with brass clasps identified as having belonged to one George Ernest Nind (born 1869).


The collection of cdvs is an interesting lot. Three of them depict two or three small children, possibly aged between one and four years, while the fourth shows a woman perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties. Three of the portraits have been taken in what appears to be a standard studio setting, with the same chair, painted backdrop, curtain and carpet. The remaining portrait is outdoors on the grass. Two of the pictures show a couple of the smaller children seated in a perambulator, or early pram.


I believe that the portraits were taken in the early to mid-1870s, say between c. 1871 and 1875, deduced from a combination of several factors, including the woman's hair, the style of her clothing and the "studio" setting, all of which are typical of this period.

I managed to find a birth record for George Ernest Nind in the GRO indexes transcribed and presented online by FreeBMD, showing a registration in the Registration District of Cleobury Mortimer, spanning the boundaries of the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire, in the March quarter of 1869. His family also appears in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 Censuses (available online by subscription from Ancestry), with which I was able to draw up the following family outline:

John Smith NIND b. 1840 Sedgeberrow WOR d. 1924 Worcester WOR m: 1864 Elizabeth Mary SHERRARD b. 1843 Bromley St Leonard, London MID d. 1899 Martley WOR
|- John Sherrard NIND b. c.Aug 1864 Cradley HER
|- Eleanor Mary NIND b. c.Nov 1865 Cradley HER
|- William Charles NIND b. c.Nov 1866 Cradley HER
|- Frederic Augustus NIND b. c.Nov 1867 Cradley HER
|- George Ernest NIND b. c.Feb 1869 Kinlet SAL
|- Henry Edward NIND b. c.Nov 1869 Kinlet SAL
|- Elizabeth Ellen NIND b. c.Nov 1870 Kinlet SAL
|- Florence Emily NIND b. c.Feb 1872 Kinlet SAL
|- Percy NIND b. c.1873 Kinlet SAL
|- Edmund Robert NIND b. c.Aug 1874 St John Worcester WOR
|- Archibald Ralph NIND b. c.Nov 1877 St John Worcester WOR
|- Francis (Frank) Horace NIND b. c.Aug 1879 St John Worcester WOR
|- Son NIND b. c.1881 St John Worcester WOR
|- Marguerite Louise NIND b. c.Nov 1883 St John Worcester WOR
|- Daughter NIND b. c.1887 St John Worcester WOR

George Nind was one of fifteen children of a farmer and haulier/contractor John Smith Nind (1840-1924) and his wife Elizabeth Mary née Sherrard (1843-1899). They lived in Cradley, Herefordshire (1864-1867), Kinlet, Shropshire (1869-1873) and Worcester, Worcestershire (1875-1891). If these portraits depict members of this family group, and that is by no means certain, then there are a large number of children to choose from.


One of Angela's correspondents had suggested that the perambulator might have been a photographer's prop, and probably not affordable to the ordinary family. However, I think it more likely to have belonged to the family who were photographed. I found an engraving of a permabulator of very similar design from this period on the Smithsonian Institution Libraries web site and the following reference from the book, A Manual of Domestic Economy by John Henry Walsh, published in 1874 [the full text of this book is available online at Google Books]:

The Perambulator is one of the most extraordinary investions of the day, and chiefly from its extreme simplicity. Any one who has attempted to draw the old-fashioned child's carriage will have felt its weight and the disagreeable nature of the duty; and yet, until within the last quarter of a century, although very nearly the same principle had been adopted for Bath chairs during more than a century, no one thought of extending it to that for the child. They are now made so extensively, and at so low a rate, that they may be procured in every village; but they are not always manufactured in the best possible way.

The suggestion is that by the second half of the Eighteenth Century permabulators had indeed become affordable to many families.


A fifth carte de visite with a view of an unidentified church, also by J. Burton of Aston Road, was pasted on top of the frontispiece of the album.


The firm of John Burton & Sons operated a branch studio on the corner of New Street and Bennett's Hill in central Birmingham from 1862 until 1866. The card mount above is from this period, although probably taken at the Derby branch. From what I can tell, they never had a branch on Aston Road, Birmingham, and for this reason, I think it unlikely that these portraits were by the rather more famous Burton firm which had its origins in Leicester, as they appear to have been taken several years after the closure of the New Street branch.


The reverse of the card mount used for all five photographs, shown above, is very interesting. It uses a style of design which became popular in the early 1870s, as displayed in Roger Vaughan's excellent and very useful analysis of designs through the decades. However, it is also very similar to the design which had been used some years earlier by Burton & Sons when at their Birmingham studio. It may be that the "Aston Road" Burton was trying to get some spin-off of trade from this association.


I have as yet been unable to find any details of another "J. Burton" operating as a photographer in Aston or Birmingham, but have little doubt of his existence since, apart from your five examples, I was able to find several others on the web. Two of these are displayed in Roger Vaughan's large collection of Victorian cartes de visite. They are reproduced above by Roger's kind permission. The portrait of the two girls has the same chair, back wall, curtain and carpet as seen in the previous portraits, although the painted backdrop has changed, and there is an additional circular side table, upon which one girl rests her right elbow. Roger believes the vignetted portrait of the boy may be a copy of another photograph. Unfortunately neither are dated or have further details of the subjects or the studio, but all have an identical card mount design to Angela's, and appear to date from approximately the same time period, i.e. the early to mid-1870s.


I also found this carte de visite view of a church by J. Burton of Aston Road posted in a thread entitled "Identifying a church" by Colin Baker on the Birmingham History Forum, later identified as the Holy Trinity church, located on the corner of Trinity and Birchfield Roads in Aston (Satellite view of location from GoogleMaps).

There are a several pointers which lead me to think that this "J. Burton" may have been something of an itinerant, travelling or fairground practitioner, in spite of - or perhaps even because of - the "Aston Road" address shown on his printed card mount. The photographer has not taken a great deal of trouble over his "studio" background, demonstrating some inexperience. Although there are three parts to it, the right-hand edge of the painted backdrop is rather badly tacked onto the plain "wooden" wall. In a more established studio, I would have expected this join to have been hidden by some sort of strip to disguise it, and at least present the illusion of a doorway to an outside view. In one of the portraits, there is a significant gap between the carpet and the "skirting board." The presence of the skirting board, presumably fixed to a solid wall of some sort, rather than another canvas sheet, suggests to me that it was at least taken indoors, although probably in a photographer's van.


The subject of the painted backdrop interests me even more, as it appears to depict a fairground tent/stall. A woman and child are looking at the wares on display, while a seated woman points to items on the table. Some pots and pans are hanging at the front of the tent and I think I can see some bottles on the table. The writing on the side of the tent reads, "JOUETS D'ENF..." which has been interpreted by one of Angela's correspondents (the Curator of Costume at the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood) as Jouets d'Enfants or "children's toys". This illustration of what may be a scene at a carnival or fair strongly suggests to me that the photographer himself might be a frequenter of such events.

In Pauline Gashinski's notes about showman Randall Williams on her British Fairground Ancestors web site, she states:

"When new regulations prohibited the showmen from exhibiting at Birmingham’s Onion Fair, Randall was instrumental in establishing a new fair at Aston on the border of Birmingham on some waste land known as 'The Old Pleck'. Randall took on the role as lessee of the new venue for a number of years - calling it [the] 'Birmingham Fair'."

She includes the following advertisement from The Birmingham Gazette from 1875:

"Birmingham Pleasure Fair
Aston Road
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday next
30th September, 1st and 2nd October.
Applications for ground to Randall Williams
18 Summer Street, Birmingham
Fireworks on Thursday Evening"

On the same web page, in a report from The Era dated 11 November 1893, there is a mention of a J. Burton, one of a group of van-dwellers and other travellers attending a meeting with Randall Williams at the Rotherham Statutes Fair. While it may be a simple coincidence, it seems quite possible that this J. Burton was the same person who had operated a travelling photographic booth in the early to mid-1870s.


All of this points to the five photographs from Angela's album having been taken by a travelling photographer in the early to mid-1870s, possibly not far from their home. During the period in question they moved from Kinlet in Shropshire to Henwick Road in the parish of St John-in-Bedwardine, Worcester, and it seems likely that the church shown in the fifth carte de visite (detail above) might be the parish church from one of these two places.


Parish Church, St John-in-Bewardine, Worcester, Worcestershire
Image © and courtesy of Sally Lloyd
It looks similar, but not identical, to the Parish church of St John-in-Bewardine, Worcester [Satellite image from Google Maps], shown in this sample from a series of recent photographs by Sally Lloyd on Flickr. I wondered whether perhaps there was some significant rebuilding in the late 19th Century, but I may be completely off track.


Parish Church, St John the Baptist, Kinlet, Shropshire
Image © Gillian Palmer and courtesy of William LaMartin
The parish church of St John the Baptist at Kinlet has a similar crenellated tower, but quite a few significant differences which, I think, rule it out completely.

My investigations into the identity of this church are rather inconclusive, so I am hoping that some readers will be able to help in due course. Likewise, I'm also hoping that further sightings of, and perhaps portraits by, J. Burton of Aston Road will surface in due course. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you can help.

Another portrait by "Professor" Simpson of Ashbourne & Buxton

I've recently updated the article describing a cabinet photograph of a landau taken by "Professor" Frank Simpson of Ashbourne & Buxton, sent to me by John Bradley. Nigel Aspdin conducted some research at the Derby Local Studies Library and was successful in identifying the building in the background as the Railway Hotel in Buxton.


In the mean time, I received another image of a photograph by Simpson. This one is a carte de visite portrait, possibly a few years earlier than the landau photo, and not nearly as decent quality. The owner of the photograph, Terry Nolan, writes:

The attached photo is from a collection of prints which belonged to my grandmother. Her name was Frances Helen Larissey, later Mrs Nolan of Handsworth, nr Sheffield. I can't identify any of the people in the picture, however the man in the middle of the three men in the back row, bears an uncanny resemblance to my late father. That being the case, it could be my great-grandfather John Larissey (b. 1845) or failing that my great-great-grandfather Thomas Larissey (b. 1810). It would be really useful to try to date the photograph. I still wouldn't be sure of the identity of the man, but it would be interesting to speculate.

Unfortunately, the carte de visite is a little faded, and not particularly clear. From what I can make out of the clothes that the women are wearing, the fashions more or less equate to the late 1870s, say between 1876 and 1880.


The design on the reverse of the card mount is of a style - with text in a banner & stylized ivy - which was popular in the mid- to late 1870s. Roger Vaughan has a similar example on his web site which is accurately dated at November 1878. It is similar to the design on my profile of Frank Simpson profile, except that it has three "Prince of Wales feathers" motifs at the top instead of the coat of arms. I believe this example may have been slightly earlier than the "coat of arms" style, but the latter is not dated so that's not a great help.

The style of the backdrop, the clothes worn by the subjects, the shape of the card and the card mount design all point to a date of around 1877 to 1880, although it is possible that it could have been taken as late as 1881-1882. Older women tended to wear clothes which were perhaps not quite as up-to-date with the latest fashions, and the photographer Simpson, too, being something of an itinerant, may not have possessed the latest amenities in his travelling studio.

If that is the case, then it's possibly the oldest portrait by Simpson that I have yet come across, so I'm very grateful for the opportunity to use it - many thanks, Terry.

All six of the subjects look as they could easily be in their sixties, although the two in the middle, including the man you referred to, is possibly a little older than the others. I think it quite conceivable that he might be Thomas Larissey (1810-1882). Thomas and his wife Ann (née Fawcett) lived in the village of Loversall, near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, where he worked as a gardener from prior to 1841 until his death on 31 December 1882.

I think it quite likely that Thomas Larissey would have travelled to Buxton, together with his wife and perhaps friends or family, for a short holiday in the summer time, as it was a popular tourist resort. I suspect - although I don't yet have good documentation for this - that Simpson spent the summer holiday season in Buxton catering to the tourist trade visiting the Peak District and the hydropathic spas, and went back to Ashbourne for much of the rest of the year. It is also possible, although I believe less likely, that Simpson travelled to or through Doncaster or Loversall taking photographs as he went, as he operated from a caravan. The fact that he lists locations in Leicester, Burslem and London on the reverse of his card mounts suggests to me that he travelled a good deal, perhaps following the village and town fairs.

A landau by "Professor" Frank Simpson

This rather nice cabinet portrait from John Bradley, possibly taken in the early 1880s, shows an single-horse, open carriage with top hatted driver, parked on the street in front of a large building. I have discovered that this type of carriage is called a landau, invented in the German Rhenish Palatinate in the 18th Century, but first produced in England by a coachmaker named Luke Hopkinson in the 1830s. It is an open style of carriage, designed with facing seats so that the two rows of occupants can sit facing each other. However, there are no clues as to the location, the identity of the driver, or the owner of the carriage. If any readers are able to shed further light on the location, please get in touch by email or post a comment.


The reverse of the card mount reveals it to have been taken by "Professor" Frank Simpson. Simpson - although he style himself "Professor," it seems unlikely this was a genuine title - assisted by his wife Elizabeth Ann, claimed to operate from numerous different locations, including Barking Road (London), Humberstone Gate (Leicester), Swan Bank (Burslem, Staffordshire), Spring Gardens (Buxton, Derbyshire) and St. John Street (Ashbourne, Derbyshire). However, it is unclear how many of these were actual branch studios, rather than merely locations at which he periodically parked his caravan and took advantage of passing trade until moved on by the local law enforcers.

The Derby Mercury of 27 February 1867 reported that Simpson,

"a photographer, and having a travelling van situated in the parish of Clifton [was] summoned by Mr. Superintendent Corbishley for exercising his ordinary calling as a photographer on the Lord's-day, on the 17th inst. - Mr. Corbishley said that on Sunday, the 17th. inst., about 3.30 p.m., in company with Inspector Lytle he visited Simpson's van, and saw 16 persons in the van; he saw the defendant take two likenesses while he stayed; he told him he should summon him; there were about 30 persons standing on the highway near to the van. - Mr Wright said he saw no necessity for the defendant following this business on the Lord's-day, and he would fine him the full penalty. - Fined 5s. and costs."

Four years later, in April 1871, Simpson was at Swan Square, Burslem, presumably in his caravan. In March 1874, an employee of Simpson's was convicted of embezzlement from Simpson at Ashbourne, and he is listed at St. John Street, Ashbourne in the 1881 edition of Kelly's trade directory, probably compiled late the previous year. By census night on 3 April 1881 his caravan was parked near the White Lion Inn at Spring Gardens, Buxton, presumably taking advantage of the seasonal visitors to the mineral baths. The 1887 edition of Kelly's shows him listed in both locations - Ashbourne & Buxton - but from 1891 onwards he seems to have concentrated his activities around the latter. Directory entries and census records show him variously at 53a or 53½ Spring Gardens until 1899, and possibly at 53 Market st, Buxton, although I have been unable to locate him in the 1901 Census at all. It is conceivable that he was the Frank Simpson, aged 71, whose death was registered in the Chapel en le Frith Registration District (which includes Buxton) in the first quarter of 1896, and whose will was proved at Buxton in the same year. In this case the 1899 entry may have been for his wife, continuing to operate under her late husband's name.

Update - 5 December 2008

Further to his response in the comments section below, Nigel Aspdin made some enquiries and subsequently found the following photograph in a book at the Derby Local Studies Library:


The Railway Hotel, Buxton, c.1921
Image courtesy of Nigel Aspdin, the Derby Local Studies Library & P. Martin
... and made the following comment,

I am still wondering what the "V..." on the line above "RA...." is on the old landau photo. I wonder if it was called the "Valley Railway Hotel" to differentiate it from perhaps another railway hotel?

Railway Hotel & Steam Lorry by Buxton viaduct
Image © and courtesy of David Seale
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
These photographs by David Seale and Arjen Bax show the Railway Hotel in more recent times, withe railway viaduct forming a backdrop.


Railway Hotel and Buxton viaduct
Image © and courtesy of Arjen Bax
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

References

Indexed 1841-1901 UK Census images from Ancestry
GRO Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes from FreeBMD
Derbyshire Assizes for 1874, on Derbyshire Criminal Records by Jean Durbin
Derbyshire Wills, 1525-1908, by Michael Spencer, and courtesy of John Palmer's Wirksworth web site
Wright C.N. (1874) Directory of South Derbyshire, Third Edition, October 1874, Derby, courtesy of the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, 1881 & 1887, Kelly & Co., London, reprinted on microfiche by the Derbyshire Family History Society
Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, 1891, 1895, 1899 & 1912, Kelly & Co., London, courtesy of the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
Anon (1895) History, Topography, and Directory of Derbyshire, T. Bulmer & Co., Extracts by kind courtesy of Sonia Addis-Smith
Landau (carriage) from Wikipedia
Coachmaking, in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2, p. 193-195, from Victoria County History, ed. William Page, reproduced by British History Online