Sherwood Foresters at Clumber Park

Some time ago, I found this image of a postcard on the net, but I've unfortunately mislaid all record of where it came from. I believe that it's well out of copyright, so there shouldn't be any problem with reproducing it from that point of view. However, if any reader knows anything about it, please get in touch by email - I'll be very happy to acknowledge and attribute the source.


The photograph is of a group of about forty, mostly young men in a variety of military uniforms, arranged in the middle of a tented camp, with a backdrop of large trees. The word, "CLUMBER," and number, "606.," were obviously inked in pen on the negative, as they appear in white at the lower right and lower left of the front of the postcard, respectively.


The photograph has a standard divided back postcard format, with the photographer's name printed on the reverse, "Photo by H.P. Hansen, Ashbourne." H.P. Hansen operated a studio in Ashbourne, Derbyshire from the late 1890s until at least 1922. He travelled fairly widely to produce general views of popular Derbyshire attractions, as well for commissions such as group portraits tailored for particular clients. This appears to be an example of the latter.

I'm not particularly strong on uniforms, but I am aware that the regiment commonly known as the Sherwood Foresters drew heavily for its ranks from the young men of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. A simple Google search using the terms "Clumber" and "Sherwood Foresters" hit the jackpot!


"C Coy", 6th Battalion Sherwood Forester at Clumber Park, 1913
Image courtesy of Mike Briggs Chesterfield Sherwoods on the Somme
On Mike Briggs' excellent tribute to the men of Chesterfield (Derbyshire) who served with the Sherwood Foresters during the Battle of the Somme (Chesterfield Sherwoods on the Somme) he includes two photographs of 6th Battalion, "C" Company (Ashbourne and Buxton), Sherwood Forester Regiment at Clumber Park in 1913. He explains the formation of the unit prior to the Great War as follows:

Following the 1909 reorganisation of the Derbyshire Volunteers into the Territorial Force, the 6th Battalion Sherwood Foresters comprised the following eight companies :-
"A" - Chesterfield
"B" - Chapel-en-le-Frith
"C" - Ashbourne and Buxton
"D" - Bakewell, Tideswell and Stoney Middleton
"E" - Wirksworth and Matlock
"F" - Staveley and District
"G" - Clay Cross and District
"H" - Whaley Bridge, New Mills and Hayfield

An enlarged view of this more formal group portrait shows a very similar range of uniforms and tents. There are plenty of trees around, which is understandable if the location is indeed Clumber. According to the web site of the National Trust, which owns it, Clumber Park is near Worksop in Nottinghamshire and comprises "peaceful woodlands, open heath and rolling farmland, with a superb serpentine lake at its heart and the longest avenue of lime trees in Europe." It was a country park partly designed by Capability Brown, and owned by the Dukes of Newcastle. This image also has a number, "637," suggesting that was also by Hansen, from the same sequence, and possibly taken on the same occasion.

The Portland Photo Company, Bramble Street, Derby

This cabinet card of a young child and a dog is an intriguing one, not only because of the anonymity of the subject. It appears to have been taken in an unknown rural location - on a fairly smooth, but stony track with a rough stone wall and a hillside in the background - but the studio location is in Bramble Street, Derby.

I have never come across any reference to the The Portland Photo Co. previously - that's why you'll currently find no entry for it in my Index to Derbyshire Photographers & Studios. From the style of the card mount and the clothing worn by the child, I would venture a guess that it was taken in the late 1890s or early 1900s, say between 1895 and 1905.

The only photographer that I know of who worked in Bramble Street, Derby during this period was Frank Birch, who was probably there from late 1894 until c.1898, after which he removed to premises located at Nag's Head Yard, 64 St Peter's Street. It was during this period that the cabinet card presented in a previous article about Frank Birch was produced. Then, in 1903, Birch became manager of the Derby Stereoscopic Company, located at 36 Victoria Street.

I wonder if Frank Birch also traded for a short while as The Portland Photo Company? There was, and still is, a Portland Street in Derby, but this is situated some distance away in the suburb of Litchurch.

Esther Hinckley Baker (1812-1850) of Massachusetts

In September I featured an ambrotype of an ironmonger's shop in Bakewell sent to me by Nino Manci. At around the same time, I received the following email from Nino:

I have just been doing some research into a Boston USA family called Baker Hinckley. Is this just a bizarre coincidence, because the link given on family history site is you again!

I confirmed that I had indeed purchased a small gem tintype album on eBay a few years ago, containing numerous named portraits from the BAKER and HINCKLEY families of Massachusetts. Having researched the album in some detail, I published the results as a series of web pages, The Hinckley Album : Henry Hersey Hinckley's Gem Tintype Photograph Album, which Nino had stumbled across, presumably as the result of a Google search. He replied with more detail:

I am never successful with good [daguerreotype] images on Ebay but I was determined and successful this time ... the Daguerreotype was of a named woman, "Esther Hinckley Baker out of Providence"! I had no idea at this point that this would lead me back to you! Now Providence is 40 miles from Boston and the daguerreotypist is named on the plate as Hale. Although there were several Hale daguerreotypists there was one established in Milk Street, Boston about 200 yards from the [more famous] studio of Southworth and Hawes in Tremont Row ... The first thing that drew me to this image was that is is so typical of the fine portraiture of Southworth & Hawes.

"Esther Hinckley Baker out of Providence," c. 1846-1850
Ninth-plate daguerreotype by Hale of Boston
Image © and courtesy of Nino Manci
Nino subsequently sent me a scanned image of what I agree is a lovely portrait of a attractive young lady. The daguerreotype measures 53 x 66 mm, which is commonly referred to as a ninth-plate size. It appears to have lost its case, but still has the matt and pinchbeck surround. The most exciting discovery for me was the identity of the subject.


A few years ago, I purchased this small (82 x 91 mm) green faux-leather album because I was looking for a relatively inexpensive example of a gem tintype album, and this one appeared to have several of the subjects identified which, from a genealogical point of view, endeared me to it immediately.


The album contains 35 photographs, 27 of which have been annotated. In addition, the front inside cover of the album has what appears to be the original owner's name, "Henry H. Hinckley," written diagonally across the page. I used census and other records to identify the owner of the album and build up a detailed picture of his family, eventually succeeding in identifying portraits of fourteen different members of the extended family.


Family Tree of Henry H. Hinckley & Esther May Baker née Hinckley
Click on image for full tree
These included a daughter and a grandson of Henry H. Hickley's paternal aunt Esther May Hinckley (1812-1850), who married Captain Ezra Howes Baker (1811-1876) in 1832. It appears that she is the subject of Nino's daguerreotype! Esther was born on 7 August 1812 at Nantucket, Massachusetts, the fourth of ten children of Lot Hinckley (1782-1852) and Rebecca Cobb. Her family moved to Barnstable in the mid-1820s and that is where she was married, but she then settled with her husband, a sailor and merchant, in South Dennis or Yarmouth Port, Barnstable County. A few years later, in 1838, they moved to Boston where Ezra was in partnership with various individuals, owning ships and engaging in domestic and foreign trade.


1850 Census, Boston Ward 12, Suffolk, Massachusetts
Roll M432_339; Page 288; Image 115; Sch. 762
Image © and courtesy of Ancestry.com
Click on image for more details
Esther is reported to have died on 25 July 1850, a few months after the birth of her fourth child. However, the federal census of that year, enumerated on 24th August, shows the family living in Boston Ward 12, including Ezra, Esta [sic] and all four surviving children, so her actual date of death is not clear.


Ezra Howes Baker (1811-1876)
from History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts,
1890, (ed.) Simeon L. Deyo, Courtesy of David Kew
An 1890 history of Barnstable County, reproduced online by David Kew, contains a detailed biography of Ezra Howes Baker, including a fine portrait of him, and which repeats Esther's July 1850 death date.

Luther Holman Hale (1823-1885) operated photographic studios in Boston, first on Milk Street and later at 109 Washington Street, from 1845 until 1862, the earlier years in partnership with his brother Charles E. Hale, who had started as a daguerreotypist around 1842. It seems likely to me, therefore, that this portrait of Esther May Baker nee Hinckley was probably taken in the mid- to late 1840s, say between 1846 and 1850. [Sources: Craig's Daguerreian Registry & Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography by John Hannavy]


Unidentified woman, by Southworth & Hawes, c.1850
Sixth plate daguerreotype, 70 x 83 mm
Image © and courtesy of the George Eastman House Photography Collection
Accession Number: 1974:0193:0642
By way of comparison, the selection of Southworth & Hawes daguerreotype images made available on Flickr by George Eastman House includes a similar style portrait of an unidentified young woman with an almost identical hairstyle, shown above, tentatively dated c.1850.

In January this year, I was contacted by Sam Hinckley, a great-grandson of Henry Hersey Hinckley, owner of the gem tintype album. He sent me some more photographs of the Hinckley family which I hope to feature in a future Photo-Sleuth article, and I'm sure will be excited to hear of the discovery of this early photograph of another family member. Many thanks to Nino for bringing this remarkable coincidence to my attention, and for supplying the engaging image of his recent purchase.

References

Indexed 1840-1930 US Federal Census images, from Ancestry
International Genealogical Index (IGI) at FamilySearch from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, (ed.) Simeon L. Deyo, 1890, New York: H. W. Blake & Co., CHAPTER XVIII. pages 507-577, reproduced on David Kew's Cape Cod History, Literature & Genealogy web pages
Craig's Daguerreian Registry
Hale, Luther Holman (1823-1885) American daguerreotypist, by Bob Zeller, in Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography, (ed.) John Hannavy, courtesy of GoogleBooks
Judah Baker, in Ancestral Anecdotes by B. Pahlow
Barbarowa Genealogy: Brooklyn Village, Ohio - An Exploration of a Neighbourhood's Family History
Ezra Howes Baker in Van Houtte - Descendants of Thomas Burgess 1601-1685, by C. Sutherland
Ezra Howes Baker, in Wing Family of America, Inc.

The Buck Inn (Hempton, Norfolk) by Alfred Seaman

John Bradley recently sent me this intriguing image of a mounted albumen print (202 x 134 mm) of two carts in front of a large stone and brick building with a tiled roof which had previously been framed. The reason for his - and my - particular interest is that on the back is the nice clear stamp of Chesterfield photographer Alfred Seaman.



ALFRED SEAMAN
Portrait, View & Landscape
- PHOTOGRAPHER -
BREWERY STREET
Opposite the Railway Station
- CHESTERFIELD -
In view of the fact that the name states only Alfred Seaman, not his sons, and the Brewery Street studio address only is listed, this suggests that it was taken early in his career, perhaps between 1879 and 1882. A carte de visite with identical studio address from my profile portfolio of Seaman photographs is shown below.


Elizabeth Fox née Green (b. 12 April 1846)
by A. Seaman of Brewery Street, Chesterfield
Undated, but probably taken c.1880
Image © & courtesy of Jeanne Fox
Although John Bradley's mounted albumen print does not have a caption, he was able to deduce the approximate location as being near to Fakenham in Norfolk from a detailed examination of the signs in the photograph.


An enlargement of the signpost visible on the right hand side reveals the destinations, Sculthorpe, Shereford and Raynham.


View Larger Map
The most suitable location for a signpost with this particular configuration would be at the junction of current A1065 (Raynham Road) and the Shereford Road, in the small village of Hempton, as shown in the GoogleMaps satellite image below.


View Larger Map
It appears that the building shown in the old print may even still exist - the long building, or series of connected buildings, oriented roughly east-west and situated directly to the east of the crossroads in the image above - although there may have been some modifications, particularly in the roof line.


The sign which hangs from a post situated prominently at the corner of the building clearly states, "The Buck Inn," unfortunately with little in the way of decoration or further embellishment.


However, another sign above the doorway reveals considerably more:

GEORGE GATES
LICENSED TO SELL
WINES[?] ... BRITISH SPIRITS[?]
ALE PORTER & TOBACCO

This was the classic sign seen above licensed premises, probably required by law. A similar sign from Goole, possibly in the 1880s or 1890s, reads, "William Ross Cattanach, licensed to sell British and foreign spirituous liquors, ale, porter and tobacco." (Source: Boothferry Road, Goole - A History by Susan Butler)


In the doorway stands a middle-aged or elderly woman wearing a white apron, apparently with her left hand on the door latch, and a large bonnet in her right hand. Directly in front of her stands a boy, perhaps in his early teens, dressed in a suit and bowler hat, holding in his left hand the bridle of a pony which is harnessed to an empty two-wheeled cart.


To the left of the building is another two-wheeled cart, piled high with barrels. Initially, I thought that it was parked at the side of the building, but a closer look shows the legs of a horse, and perhaps a boy leading the horse, and I now believe that the cart is heading north along the main road. A wall is visible in the background, and there are some more buildings in the distance.

Examination of census records, trade directories and data provided by the Norfolk Public Houses database shows that George Gates was proprietor of the Buck Inn in the village of Hempton from 1865 until 1881. He was born in Hempton in 1818 and was a bootmaker before taking over the Buck Inn from Robert Brundle in the early to mid-1860s. He died at the age of 64 in 1882, and his widow Mary Ann Gates continued to run the inn until she, too, died in 1897. It seems likely that it is she who stands in the doorway in John's photo. Their son Robert Gates (1859-) took it over before 1900 and was the landlord for a few years, but appears to have sold the business to a William Howe by November 1908. It is interesting to note that there were no less than three inns in Hempton for a population of just 566 inhabitants in 1881 - the other two were The King's Head and The Bell - but I suppose they were coaching inns and relied mostly on passing trade.


Hempton village, with the tower mill (center) and the Buck Inn right), taken in 1910
Image © & courtesy of Jonathan Neville & Norfolk Mills
Jonathan Neville's web page devoted to the Hempton towermill has a number photographs of the mill, several of which include the building of the Buck Inn, over a period from 1905 to c.1930. The photograph reproduced above is dated 1910, and shows the Buck Inn building at the right, largely unchanged from the days of John Bradley's albumen print thirty odd years earlier.

John Bradley posed the question as to why Alfred Seaman, a studio photographer based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, should be taking photographs, even if they were commissions, over a hundred miles away in rural Norfolk. Both of us are well aware of Seaman's Norfolk connections. He was born in the village of East Lexham, married a young woman from Walsingham, and first settled in the town of Fakenham, before moving several times and ending up in Derbyshire by the mid-1870s. Family members have provided photographic evidence that Seaman did return to Norfolk in the 1890s to visit family members and take their portraits, so it is quite conceivable that he was making such visits in the early 1880s too. Whether he was related to George Gates or his wife Mary Ann (maiden surname Loads) in some way is not known.

References

Trade Directories from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
- Pigot's Directory of Norfolk, 1839
- Craven & Co.'s Commercial Directory of Norfolk, 1856
- Post Office Directory of Cambs, Norfolk & Suffolk, 1869
- Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Norfolk & Lowestoft, 1877
- History, Gazetteer & Directory of Norfolk, 1883
Francis White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk 1854, pp. 698-699, by Paddy Apling
Buck, Hempton on Norfolk Public Houses, A listing by Richard Bristow
Hempton Towermill, by Jonathan Neville
Indexed 1841-1901 UK Census images from Ancestry
GRO Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes from FreeBMD

Elizabeth Potter (1903-1993) of Wirksworth

I previously posted an advert by Wirksworth photographer James Watterson (1878-1953).


This carte de visite from Graham Robinson is the only example that I have seen of Watterson's work, although he and his father George were in business as photographers from the early 1890s until at least the early 1920s. Stuart Flint claims (Source: Hackett the author 1843-1900 on John Palmer's Wirksworth web site) a much earlier start to the photographic business of the 1870s at Baileycroft Pingle, but I haven't yet seen any evidence for this. James Watterson emigrated to Canada and died in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1953.

The portrait is of Elizabeth Potter (1903-1993), probably taken around 1906, when she was three years old. She was a daughter of Edward Robinson Potter and Annie Maria Street, and married Ernest Butlin in 1925.

The photograph and card mount are typical of the early 1900s. While the use of larger cabinet cards tended to dominate medium price range of the market, and postcards and larger format mounted prints were becoming more popular for the lower and higher priced ends of the market, respectively, cartes de visite were still commonly used until c.1908-1910. The CDV mounts generally had square corners and were blank on the reverse, but the borders of the mount were often embossed with varying patterns and designs, and were regularly made with coloured card (although not in this particular case).