Cuckfield Photographers

 Click here to return to Home Page

Professional Photographers in Cuckfield

Rubens Anscombe - Albert Burtenshaw - John Craig - Edwin Dann - Albert Dumsday - Edward Gilly - Thomas Tester- Frank Wilkins

Rubens Thomas ANSCOMBE  (born c1848, Cuckfield, Sussex)

A Dealer in Photographic Materials and  Photographic Apparatus in Cuckfield between 1899 and 1905

Rubens Thomas Anscombe was born in Cuckfield around 1848. Rubens Anscombe was a plumber and glazier by trade and in advertisements he states that his business was established in 1845. This suggests that Rubens was the son or close relative of Joseph Anscombe, who is listed in local trade directories as a plumber and glazier in Cuckfield between 1851 and 1866. From the mid 1890s, Rubens Thomas Anscombe is recorded as a plumber, painter, glazier and sign writer with business premises in High Street, Cuckfield. In 1899, Rubens Thomas Anscombe is also listed in Kelly's Post Office Directory under the heading of "Photographic Material Dealers". In 1896, Rubens Anscombe married Clara Ann Beeny (born c1864,Worthing). At the time of the 1901 census, Rubens Anscombe was living in Cuckfield with his wife Cara and baby daughter Marjorie (Marjory). In the census return, Rubens Anscombe is described as a "Plumber & Decorator", aged 52. Between 1905 and 1911, Anscombe is entered in trade directories as a plumber in Cuckfield's High Street, yet advertisements from around 1905 mention that he was a "Photographic Materials & Apparatus Dealer" with his own "Dark Room for Clients".
R. ANSCOMBE. Practical Sanitary Plumber & Decorator. Photographic Materials & Apparatus Dealer. Dark Room for Clients

[ABOVE] An advertisement detailing the services provided by Rubens Thomas Anscombe of High Street, Cuckfield  ( Entry under Cuckfield, Sussex,  in Bennett's Business Directory of 1904-1905 ).

 

Albert BURTENSHAW  (born 1848, Cuckfield, Sussex)

Active as a photographer at St John's Common, Clayton, around 1870 and in Cuckfield between 1873 and 1877

[ABOVE] Albert Burtenshaw, previously a photographer and a former butler to Sir Walter Wyndham Burrell M.P. of West Grinstead Park,  relaxes with his second wife in the garden of their home at Ockenden Cottage, South Street, Cuckfield. (c1905)

 Albert Burtenshaw was born in 1848 at Cuckfield, Sussex, the son of Sarah (born c1815 Wivelsfield, Sussex) and Edward Burtenshaw (born c1816, West Grinstead, Sussex), an agricultural labourer.[ Albert Burtenshaw 's birth was registered in Cuckfield during the September Quarter of 1848]. At the time of the 1861 Census, Albert Burtenshaw was living with his parents at Ludgate Farm, Cuckfield.

Albert Burtenshaw was married before he was twenty. His first child, Edith Mary Burtenshaw was born in Lewes, Sussex during the June Quarter of 1868. When Edith Mary was baptised in Lewes on 14th June 1868, Albert gave his occupation as "servant". Albert, his wife Elizabeth (born c1841, Balcombe, Sussex ) and baby Edith then moved on to the Hurstpierpoint area of Sussex, where the couple's second child Lily Maude was born around 1870. It is in 1870 that Albert Burtenshaw is first recorded as a photographer in a local trade directory. In the 1870 edition of Kelly's Post Office Directory for Sussex, Albert Burtenshaw appears under the heading of 'Photographers' with an address of St John's Common, Clayton, Hurstpierpoint. By 1872, Albert Burtenshaw had returned to his home town of Cuckfield. Albert Burtenshaw appears as a photographer in Cuckfield in the trade section of the 1874 edition Kelly's Post Office Directory for Sussex. Albert Burtenshaw and his family settled in Cuckfield and remained in the town for at least five years. Albert's wife Elizabeth gave birth to four more children during their stay in Cuckfield - Blanche Louise (birth registered, June Quarter, 1872), Guy Percy (birth registered, December Quarter, 1873), Hugh Maurice (birth registered, December Quarter, 1875) and Henry Digby Burtenshaw (birth registered, June Quarter, 1877).

Around 1880, Albert Burtenshaw gave up his career as a professional photographer to take up employment in the household of Sir Walter Wyndham Burrell (1814-1886), Member of Parliament for New Shoreham and owner of West Grinstead Park. Albert was employed as the butler to Sir Walter Burrell at his large house on the West Grinstead Park estate. In the 1881 census, Albert Burtenshaw is recorded as a 32 year old butler, one of fifteen servants in Sir Walter Burrell's household at West Grinstead Park. Albert's wife and family are shown living at South Lodge, West Grinstead. Mrs Elizabeth Burtenshaw, is described as a "butler's wife", aged 40. To the six Burtenshaw children previously mentioned, we can add Basil Frederick Burtenshaw, who was baptised in West Grinstead on the 25th March 1881.

In the 1901 census, Albert Burtenshaw is recorded as living in South Street, Cuckfield with wife Elizabeth, aged 60, and three of his children - Blanche, Guy and Basil. Albert Burtenshaw is described as a "Farmer & Waiter", aged 52. It appears that Albert's first wife, Elizabeth died in 1903 and he subsequently married a former lady's maid to Lady Dorothea Burrell, the wife of his late employer. Albert Burtenshaw and his second wife made their home at Ockenden Cottage, South Street, Cuckfield*. Albert Burtenshaw was still living in Cuckfield in 1927 when the author Robert Thurston Hopkins paid him a visit. In his book, The Lure of Sussex (1928), Hopkins describes Burtenshaw as " a fine, grand old gentleman ... a good figure of a man", who provided him with "very potent home made cider", reputedly made from apples and animal bones.

 

* Robert Thurston Hopkins described Albert Burtenshaw's home in South Street, Cuckfield in his book The Lure of Sussex (1928) : "Ockenden Cottage ...Mr Burtenshaw drew us into a cottage with heavily timbered rooms. Ockenden Cottage was once the White Horse Inn ... The old bottle-glass windows in the interior doors, which date from the 17th century, and the deep hewn cellars suggest its former career."

 

[ABOVE] Carte-de-visite view of Cuckfield by Albert Burtenshaw of Ockenden Lane, Cuckfield (c1875). [LEFT] The reverse of the above carte by Albert Burtenshaw, showing the trellis and vine design that was popular in the 1870s. (Photocopies of the Burtenshaw cdv kindly provided by Roger Packham ).

[ABOVE] Sir Walter Wyndham Burrell (1814-1886), Baronet and M. P. for New Shoreham. Sir Walter Burrell employed Albert Burtenshaw as a butler at West Grinstead Park in the 1880s.
 

 John CRAIG (c1816-1855)

Itinerant photographer in Cuckfield in 1855

[ABOVE] A daguerreotype portrait of a young girl taken by John Craig at Saffron Walden, Essex, in 1853.

John Craig was born around 1816 and worked as an itinerant daguerreotype artist in the 1850s. There is some evidence that Craig was originally from Yorkshire. (Bernard and Pauline Heathcote in their comprehensive survey of early portrait photographers in the British Isles mention an itinerant photographer named Craig who was taking daguerreotype portraits in Holmfirth in 1850). By 1853, John Craig was taking daguerreotype portraits in Essex at Saffron Walden. From Essex, Craig appears to have travelled to the seaside towns of Kent. By 1854, John Craig had visited Dover, Margate and Ramsgate with his photographic equipment. It is clear that John Craig used his camera to capture views as well as portraits. A notice in a Sussex newspaper mentions Craig's splendid "sketches of scenery" and a photographic view he made entitled "Dover Pier and the Ship Hotel".

In January 1855, John Craig, arrived in Cuckfield with his camera and photographic apparatus. Craig was either making a tour of Sussex towns and villages or was making a break in his journey to the seaside resorts on the Sussex coast. During his stay in Cuckfield, Craig made a number of daguerreotype portraits and a report of his photographic work appeared in a local newspaper. The following item was published in The Sussex Express on 20th January, 1855 :

Mr Craig, of Margate, is paying us a visit with his photographic apparatus. Several gentlemen have had their portraits taken, and the specimens we have seen show a truthfulness and faithfulness almost impossible to surpass, while the new daguerreotype system practised by Mr Craig bring out the light and shade to perfection, especially in his sketches of scenery which are splendid. We may call the view of Dover Pier and the Ship Hotel as the top of the art.

Craig's sojourn in Cuckfield lasted less than a fortnight. On 10th February, 1855, The Sussex Express printed the following notice :

DEATHS ... At Cuckfield, on the 31st ult., Mr John Craig, of Ramsgate, photographic and daguerreotype professor, aged 39. Mr Craig had only been staying at Cuckfield a few weeks.

John Craig was probably just one of a number of itinerant photographers who visited Cuckfield in the 1850s. The names of most of these photographers are not known as their visits were brief and unheralded. ( Occasionally, the details of a travelling photographer are preserved by chance in a census return - see, for example, Edward Gilby, below ).
 

Edwin DANN (1831-1896)

Active as a photographer in Cuckfield from 1862 to around 1872

Edwin Dann was born around 1831 in Cuckfield, the son of Ann and Edward Dann (c1797-1851), a master cooper. Edward Dann, Edwin's father, was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, but as a young man he settled in Cuckfield, Sussex. In Pigot's Directory of Sussex published in 1832, Edward Dann is listed as a cooper in Cuckfield. Edwin was trained as a cooper by his father. In the 1851 census, Edwin Dann is described as a "Cooper Journeyman", aged 20, and is shown living at Back Lane, Cuckfield. Edward Dann died in the Summer of 1851 [ Death registered in Cuckfield during the September Quarter of 1851 ], and his widow Ann took over his barrel-making business. In 1855, Mrs Ann Dann is listed as the resident cooper in Cuckfield, but by the time the Melville's Directory was published in 1858, the business was in the hands of her son, Edwin. In the 1861 census, thirty-year old Edwin Dann is described as a master cooper, employing one man. According to the census return, Edwin Dann also worked as a "Hardware Dealer" in Cuckfield.

Edwin Dann had married Mary Daffurn Wilson (born 16th May 1826, St Pancras, London, Middlesex) in 1856 [ Marriage registered in the Islington district of London during the June Quarter of 1856 ]. At the time of the 1861 Census, Edwin Dann was living in Cuckfield Town with his wife Mary and his three sons - William, aged 4, Edwin Joseph, aged 3, and one year old George Henry Dann. What is particularly interesting is that on the evening of the census, Edwin and Mary Dann were sharing their home with a young photographer named Edward Gilby (born c1834, Walworth, Surrey). Edward Gilby, (entered as Edward Gilly on the census return) gives his profession as "photographer" and was staying at the home of Edwin Dann with his twenty-five year old wife Sarah and their baby son, Edward. The young family from Walworth, Surrey are entered on the census return as "visitors" and it is likely that Edward Gilby was working as a travelling photographer. During his stay with the Dann family, it is possible that Edward Gilby gave Edwin Dann some instruction in the rudiments of photography.

If Edward Gilly did instruct Edwin Dann into the art and science of photography, Cuckfield's resident cooper made good progress. On the 8th February 1862, the Sussex Agricultural Express reported :

Mr Dann, our native photographist, has been taking some very pretty views of the interior of the church, that are well executed. His sketches and portraits are really admirable, and we are pleased to see him so well patronised.

From 1862, Edwin Dann worked jointly as a photographer and cooper in Cuckfield. In the local trade directories which were published in the 1860s, Edwin Dann is listed as "cooper & photographer". ( Dann is also entered as an insurance agent for the Royal Fire & Life Insurance Company ). When the 1871 census was taken, Edwin Dann is recorded in Cuckfield's High Street with his wife Mary and six children - William junior, aged 14, George , aged 11, John, aged 9, Emily, aged 8, Fanny (Annie), aged 6, and four year old Thomas. ( Edwin and Mary's second son Edwin Joseph Dann , had died in 1864 when he was about six years of age ). Edwin Dann, now aged 40, is described by the census enumerator as "Photographer, Cooper, etc.", which suggests he was still dealing in hardware and was still employed as an agent for the Royal Fire & Life Insurance Company. Significantly, for the first time, his profession as photographer is listed ahead of his trade as cooper.

Edwin Dann is not recorded as a photographer in Cuckfield in Kelly's Post Office Directory of 1874. In the 1878 edition of Kelly's Post Office Directory for Surrey, Edwin Dann is entered as a "Landscape Photographer" at Brighton Road, Redhill. In 1879, Edwin Dann lost two more  children - George Henry Dann, who died before his twenty-first birthday, and Emily, who was only sixteen at the time of her death. In the 1881 census, Edwin Dann, his wife Mary, and three of his children are shown living above his studio premises in Brighton Road, Redhill under the registration district of Reigate Foreign in Surrey. Edwin is described in the census return as a photographer employing one girl and one boy. Nineteen year old John Dann was working as a grocer's assistant and Thomas Dann was still at school, but Edwin Dann's sixteen year old daughter Annie might have been assisting her father in his photography business. William Dann, Edwin's eldest son, had left home and was lodging in Guildford, where he was working in a grocer's shop.

After he left school, Thomas Dann (born c1866, Cuckfield) joined his father in the photography business. From 1884, the studio in Redhill went under the name of "Edwin Dann & Son". In 1885, Edwin's wife Mary died at the age of 59. When Edwin Dann died in 1896* at the age of 64, his son Thomas took over the running of the Redhill studio. In the 1901 census of Redhill, Thomas Dann is recorded as a photographer, aged 34.

* Edwin Dann's death was registered in the Reigate District during the June Quarter of 1896 .

[ABOVE] An engraving showing the interior of Cuckfield Church. In February 1862, a local newspaper reported that "Edwin Dann, our native photographist, has been taking some very pretty views of the interior of the church".

1871 Census : High Street, Cuckfield

NAME

  

AGE

 OCCUPATION

 PLACE OF BIRTH
Edwin Dann Head

40

 Photographer, Cooper, etc  Cuckfield, Sussex
Mary D. Dann Head

44

    St Pancras, Middlesex
William Dann son

14

   Cuckfield, Sussex
George H. Dann son 11   Cuckfield, Sussex
John Dann son 9   Cuckfield, Sussex
Emily Dann daughter 8   Cuckfield, Sussex
Fanny Dann daughter 6   Cuckfield, Sussex
Thomas Dann son 4   Cuckfield, Sussex
Lucy Thorpe lodger 22 Milliner & Dressmaker Guildford, Surrey

[ABOVE] Details of the Dann Family in the Census Return of 1871

To view examples of the photographic work of Edwin Dann, click on the studio link below

The Redhill Studio of Edwin Dann
 

Albert DUMSDAY  (1844-1903)

Active as a photographer in Cuckfield around 1874

[ABOVE] An advertisement for the Talbot Family Hotel , Commercial and Posting House. Cuckfield in the mid 1850s when it was owned by the brewer Thomas William Best. Ambrose Dumsday, Albert Dumsday's father, took over the Talbot Hotel in 1859.

 Albert Dumsday was born in Cuckfield, Sussex, on 26th February, 1844, the eldest son of Harriet Prescott* (c1810-1873) and Ambrose Dumsday (1812-1895), a victualler and hotel keeper. Ambrose Dumsday, who was born in Cuckfield on 14th October 1812, married Harriet Precott in London in 1841 or 1842. The couple's first child, Emma Eliza Dumsday, was born in London on 6th July 1842 [ birth registered in the Strand district of London in the September Quarter of 1842]. Albert, their second child, was their first son. Another six children followed - Agnes (born 1845 - died 1852), George (born 5th December 1846), Ambrose (born 12th March 1848), Edwin (born 27th February 1850 ), Traiton (born 7th February 1852) and Charles (born 1853 - died 1860).

In 1859, Ambrose Dumsday took over the running of the Talbot Family Hotel & Posting House in Cuckfield. The Talbot Hotel was previously in the hands of Thomas William Best, a brewer and maltster of Cuckfield, and was an important building in the town, hosting the weekly petty sessions as well as providing accommodation for visitors to the town. In the 1861 census, Ambrose Dumsday, his wife Harriet, and their six surviving children are shown residing at the Talbot Hotel. Ambrose Dumsday gives his occupation as "Victualler".

In 1866, Albert Dumsday married Emma Reynolds (born 6th November 1843, East Bergholt, Suffolk), the daughter of Jacob and Eliza Mary Reynolds. [ Marriage registered in the Samford District of Suffolk in the December Quarter of 1866 ]. Albert Dumsday returned to Cuckfield with his new wife and in the June Quarter of 1868, a daughter, May Reynolds Dumsday was born. May Dumsday died in 1869 before she reached her first birthday. Albert Dumsday's wife died the following year, aged 26.

When the 1871 census was taken, Ambrose Dumsday, described as a 58 year old "Hotel Keeper", is shown living at the Talbot Hotel with his wife and three of his children - twenty-nine year old Emma, her younger brother Traiton, aged 19, and twenty-seven year old Albert Dumsday, who is recorded in the return as a "Bailiff" to the County Court. The enumerator originally entered the word "widower" against Albert Dumsday's name, but it has been scrawled out and replaced with the abbreviation for "Married". Albert Dumsday had recently married Norah Jannette Davids (born 20th June 1841, Bexley Heath, Kent) in London [ Marriage registered in the Islington District of London during the March Quarter of 1871 ]. Norah was the daughter of Albert and Janet Davids.

Albert Dumsday is recorded as a County Court Bailiff  in Cuckfield from 1871 to 1881, but in the Trades Section of Kelly's 1874 Post Office Directory for Sussex, Albert is also listed as a photographer. In the late 1870s, Albert Dumsday worked as a "Colonnial Merchant" with a shop on the Brighton Road, selling tea, coffee, tobacco, nuts, fruit and other imported goods. At the time of the 1881 census, Albert Dumsday is recorded at 30 South Street, Cuckfield, with his wife Norah and six children - Leonora (born 1872), Rosa (born 1873), Lionel (born 1874), Harold (born 1875), Viola (born 1877) and Stella (born 1879). In the census return, Albert Dumsday is described as "Bailiff County Court, Tax Collector, &c". [ By 1881, Ambrose Dumsday had retired and the Talbot Hotel was being run by two of his unmarried children - Edwin Dumsday and Emma Dumsday ].

Albert Dumsday decided to emigrate to Australia and before the end of 1881 the Dumsday family were at Dover, where Albert's son Ralph was born. The Dumsday family made a new life for themselves in Melbourne, Australia. When Ambrose Dumsday, Albert's father, died in September 1895, his obituary mentions that "two of his four sons were living in Australia".(Ambrose's son George Dumsday died in Western Australia on 18th July 1926).

 Albert Dumsday died in Melbourne, Australia in 1903.

 

[ABOVE] A view of Cuckfield High Street, showing the Talbot Hotel and Posting House on the left (c1875) [RIGHT] A view of the High Street in Cuckfield from the opposite direction, showing the Talbot Hotel on the right. (c1880)

Edward GILBY (GILLY)  (1834-1895 )

Active as a photographer in Cuckfield around 1861

Edward Gilby was probably an itinerant or travelling photographer. Edward Gilby was born in Walworth, Surrey around 1834.( Edward Gilby was baptised at Holy Trinity Church Newington, Surrey on 31st August 1834, the son of William and Ann Gilby ). At the time of the 1861 census, Edward Gilby, his wife Sarah, and their baby son Edward, were residing in Cuckfield, staying at the home of Edwin Dann (1831-1896), a Cuckfield cooper who was later to work as a professional photographer in the town. ( See Edwin Dann above ). In the census return, Gilby is entered as "Edward Gilly" and is described as a photographer, aged 27. Little is known about Edward Gilby's career as a photographer, but circumstantial evidence suggests he toured the country in a caravan with other travelling showmen. At the time of the 1881 census, Edward Gilby was living with his wife and son, together with two servants, in a caravan parked on a towpath in Putney, Surrey. In the 1881 census return, Edward Gilly gives his profession as a "Traveller - Hawker". The death of Edward Gilby was recorded in the Greenwich district of London during the June Quarter of 1895. In 1901, his son Edward Alfred Gilby (born 1861 Walworth, Surrey) was operating a travelling exhibition in London and was camped with his wife and children at a fairground near Deptford's High Street. In a neighbouring caravan was his sixty-six year old mother, Mrs Sarah Gilby, the widow of Edward Gilby senior, one of Cuckfield's earliest photographers.  

 

Thomas TESTER (1819- 1890)

Active as a photographer in Cuckfield around 1862

Thomas Tester was born in 1819 at Balcombe, Sussex, the son of George and Elizabeth Tester. (Thomas was baptised in Balcombe in February 1819). Thomas Tester was a victualler and inn-keeper by profession and by 1861 he was running the Rose & Crown Inn on the London Road in Cuckfield. The 1861 census records Thomas Tester as a 42 year old victualler living in Cuckfield Town with his wife Jane (born 1830, Brighton) and their one year old son, George. The 1862 Sussex Directory lists Thomas Tester as a photographer in Cuckfield as well as the licensee of the Rose & Crown Inn. At the time of the 1871 census, Thomas Tester was still the landlord of the Rose & Crown Inn. The 1871 census return records Thomas Tester residing at the Rose & Crown Inn with his wife Jane, and six children - George (born 1859), Mary Jane (born 1861), Thomas (born c1864), Charles (born 1866), Frances Ann (born 1867), and Frederick (born c1869) . ( A seventh child, John Tester, was born later in 1871). Thomas Tester is described in the census return as an "Innkeeper & Farmer of 8 acres", aged 51.  By 1878, Thomas Tester was an Assistant Overseer and Collector of Poor Rates for the Cuckfield Union. In an 1879 directory, Thomas Tester is recorded as a Rate Collector at High Street, Cuckfield. When the 1881 census was taken, sixty-two year old Thomas Tester was living at Sergison's Cottages in Cuckfield's High Street and gives his occupation as "Assistant Overseer". Thomas Tester died in Cuckfield during the September Quarter of 1890, at the age of 71.  

Frank WILKINS

Active as a photographer in Cuckfield between 1911 and 1915

Frank Wilkins is listed as a photographer at 1 Richmond Villas, Cuckfield in Kelly's Sussex Directory of 1911. Frank Wilkins is still entered as a photographer in the Trades Section of Kelly's 1915 Directory, but this time his business address is given as Little London Lane, Cuckfield. There is a photographer named Frank Wilkins in the 1901 census. This Frank Wilkins was born in Dover in 1873 and in the 1901 census return he is described as a twenty-eight year old "Photographer's Assistant". It is not known whether the Dover-born photographer is identical to the Cuckfield photographer. Frank Wilkins was born in Dover, Kent during the March Quarter of 1873, the son of Hannah and Charles Wilkins, an engine driver. Frank Wilkins of Dover married Emily Augusta Peake (born c1862, Dover), the daughter of Henry Peake, a Dover chemist, during the September Quarter of 1900.  

Click here to return to Home Page