By the end of December,1853, Charles Cave Ayles had opened a stationery and bookselling business at 35 Robertson Street, Hastings. At his business premises in Robertson Street, Ayles established a Reading Room, where he supplied newspapers and magazines and operated a "Subscription Library".

From the mid 1850s, Charles Cave Ayles was showing an interest in photography. By October 1856, Ayles had become an agent for the London Stereoscopic Company and a newspaper advertisements in December 1856 announced that Ayles' Library of 35 Robertson Street, Hastings had just received "a fresh assortment of beautiful (stereoscopic) views". In the 1850s, Robertson Street was already a popular location for photographic portrait studios. In 1856, there were only four permanent photographic studios in Hastings & St. Leonards, yet two of these were situated in Robertson Street. In 1856, Thomas Mann junior (1838-1874), the son of Thomas Mann senior, a carver & gilder, had opened a photographic studio at his father's business premises at 20 Robertson Street, Hastings. Around the same time, John Tredray (1801-1880), an artist and teacher of drawing and painting, began to produce "portraits taken by Photography on glass or paper" at his residence at No 3 Robertson Street, Hastings.

The presence of competitors in Robertson Street did not deter Charles Cave Ayles from his plan to set up a photographic portrait studio in the same street. In March 1857, Charles Ayles sold his bookstore and stationery business to George Lindridge and with the resulting capital established a photographic studio at Trinity House at No 44 Robertson Street. By this time, his mother Mrs Mary Elizabeth Bonniwell had been widowed for a second time and she, with her twenty-two year old son, William Cave Bonniwell, had come to live in Hastings.( Mrs Mary Bonniwell was a woman of independent means. In the 1861 census, Mrs Bonniwell is described as a "Landed Proprietor" ).  Mrs Bonniwell and her son William took up residence at 11 Claremont, Hastings, a house not far from the proposed studio in Robertson Street. Charles Cave Ayles invited his half brother William Cave Bonniwell to enter into a business partnership and by October 1857, the photographic studio of Messrs. Ayles & Bonniwell had opened at Trinity House in Robertson Street, Hastings.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of  Messrs Ayles & Bonniwell of  Hastings, printed on the reverse of a carte-de-visite (c1865).	[ABOVE] A portrait of  a seated woman by Ayles & Bonniwell of Trinity House, Hastings. Carte-de-visite (c1863)

The photographic studio of Ayles & Bonniwell at Trinity House, Hastings ran successfully for the next ten years. The photographic portraits taken by Ayles & Bonniwell were generally of high quality and the studio attracted wealthy sitters and members of the nobility. In advertisements published early in 1865, Ayles & Bonniwell claimed to be "PHOTOGRAPHISTS TO H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES". From this date, the trade plate of Ayles & Bonniwell carried the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales, three ostrich feathers rising through a coronet, to indicate royal patronage.

Photographic portraits formed the major part of Ayles & Bonniwell's business, but the photographers also produced views and enlarged portraits coloured in oils. For instance, the firm of Ayles & Bonniwell are known to have made photographs of Hollington Church after its restoration. Over a two day period on 26th and 28th December, 1865, Ayles & Bonniwell reportedly produced "38 portrait studies - coloured in oils" of members of the cast who had appeared in a theatrical production of Sheridan's play "The Rivals".

The quality of the photographs which were produced at the studio of Ayles & Bonniwell would lead one to assume that the two brothers employed skilled operators from top London studios. However there is evidence that the studio proprietors were actively engaged in the creation of the photographic portraits. In the 1861 census, Charles Ayles and William Bonniwell are recorded at 11 Claremont, Hastings, the home of their mother Mrs Mary Bonniwell and both Charles and William give their profession as "Artist". In a newspaper advertisement published in April 1865, the two brothers declared "Portraits taken daily in the highest style of Art, from "Carte de Visite" to life size, under Messrs. AYLES and BONNIWELL'S personal care"

[ABOVE] An advertisement which appeared in Melville & Co.'s Directory & Gazetteer of Sussex of 1858. Trinity House was at No 44 Robertson Street, Hastings. Charles Cave Ayles had previously operated a stationery and bookselling business at No. 35 Robertson Street, Hastings. In 1857, he entered into a business partnership with his half  brother William Cave Bonniwell to form the firm of Ayles & Bonniwell, Photographic Artists.

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of two men produced at the studio of  Messrs Ayles & Bonniwell, Photographic Artists of Trinity House, Hastings. Charles Cave Ayles entered into a business partnership with his half  brother William Cave Bonniwell to form the firm of Ayles & Bonniwell in 1857.

[ABOVE] An an advertisement for Messrs Ayles & Bonniwell, Photographic Artists of Trinity House, Hastings, which appeared in The Hastings & St Leonards News in July 1858. Early studios could only operate during daylight hours and so the business opened at 10 am and closed at four o'clock in the afternoon.

[ABOVE] A portrait of George Lindridge by Ayles & Bonniwell of Trinity House, Hastings. (Inscribed "G. Lindridge" in pencil, on the reverse of the cdv). George Lindridge (c1815-1882), was a "Professor of Music" and organist who purchased Charles C. Ayle's bookselling and stationery business in 1857. Lindridge added a Music Repository to the bookshop at 35 Robertson Street and later set up a pianoforte warehouse in premises he shared with Ayles & Bonniwell at No.44 Robertson Street.

[ABOVE] A portrait of  a woman in black, possibly a young widow, by Ayles & Bonniwell of Trinity House, Hastings. Carte-de-visite (c1863)

In 1868, Mrs Mary Elizabeth Bonniwell died in Hastings at the age of 69. Charles Ayles and William Bonniwell began a new business venture by becoming wholesale beer merchants in Brighton's Queens Road. Around 1871, Charles Cave Ayles married for a second time. Charles Ayles' new bride was a young woman named Lucy, from Bradford in Yorkshire. When the 1871 census was taken, Charles Cave Ayles and his twenty-two year old wife were living at a house called "Sunnyside" in Haywards Heath. Also residing with Charles Ayles at "Sunnyside" was fourteen year old Lizzie Ayles, the daughter from his first short-lived marriage, and his unmarried half-brother William Cave Bonniwell, then aged thirty-five. Charles C. Ayles is entered on the census return as the Head of Household and he is described as a "Wholesale Beer Merchant", aged 46.

[ABOVE] A report on the death of Charles Cave Ayles, from the Sussex Express of 2nd January 1872.

Charles Cave Ayles' second marriage, like his first, was brief  - Ayles dying suddenly on 26th December 1871 at the age of 47. According to a local newspaper report, Ayles was staying in Brighton for the Christmas celebrations. The day after Christmas he became unwell and died after being seized by a series of epileptic fits.

William Cave Bonniwell disappeared from Sussex after the death of Charles Cave Ayles. I cannot trace William Bonniwell in the 1881 census and I know nothing of his subsequent career. William Cave Bonniwell died in London, early in 1884, at the age of 49. [ Death registered in the Holborn district during the March Quarter of 1884 ].

Click below to view photographs from the studio of Ayles & Bonniwell, Trinity House, Hastings :

Photographs produced by Ayles & Bonniwell of Hastings