Daniel Blagrove has the distinction of being the first person to be recorded as a portrait photographer in Lewes. At the end of May 1851, Daniel Blagrove and his business partner Mr. Moore were taking daguerreotype portraits in a temporary studio near the Brack Mount, an earthen mound, near Lewes Castle. Daniel Blagrove eventually settled in Lewes and by 1855, he was running a tobacconist's shop at 146 High Street, Lewes.

From 1859, Daniel Blagrove was taking photographic portraits at 73 High Street, Lewes, probably in a studio at the top of the building. In the 1861 census, Daniel Blagrove is recorded as living in High Street, Lewes with his twenty-nine year old wife, Eliza, and their three young children - Elizabeth, aged five, Daniel, three, and one year old Edwin. Daniel Blagrove informed the census enumerator that he was working as a "Furniture Dealer". No mention is made on the census return of Daniel Blagrove's photography business. However, when Daniel's son Edwin was baptised at St Michael's Church on 11th December 1859, the parish clerk entered Daniel Blagrove's  occupation in the register as " turner, cabinet maker and photographer". In the trade section of Kelly's 1862 Directory for Sussex, Daniel Blagrove is listed as "Photographic Artist" with a studio at 73 High Street, Lewes.

Daniel Blagrove operated a photographic studio at 73 High Street, Lewes for about 40 years. From the late 1870s, Blagrove was assisted in the Lewes studio by his children and in 1885 his eldest son Daniel Blagrove junior joined his father to form the firm of Daniel Blagrove & Son.

The death of Daniel Cornelius Blagrove was recorded in Lewes during the Second Quarter of 1899. The register gives his age at death as 75, but according to his baptism record Daniel Blagrove senior would have been seventy-seven years of age when he passed away. At the death of Daniel Blagrove, his eldest son Daniel Blagrove junior took over the running of the studio at 73 High Street, Lewes.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Daniel Blagrove, Photographer of 73 High Street, Lewes, taken from the reverse of a carte-de-visite (c1868). Blagrove reminds customers that he had become established as a photographer in Lewes in 1851, when he visited the town as a travelling daguerreotype artist with his partner Mr. Moore.

[ABOVEE] The studio premises of A. M. Bliss & Co. at  34 Lansdown Place, next to the Lansdown Arms public house (c1910). The awning outside Bliss & Co.'s shop advertises "photographic postcards".

Alfred Marsh Bliss married Ellen Eliza Attree (born 1868, Hove, Sussex) in Brighton during the 2nd Quarter of 1890 and set up home in Lewes. Alfred Marsh Bliss had took over the photographic studio at 34 Lansdown Place, Lewes (previously occupied by the Brighton firm of William Hall & Son) around 1890. The studio at 34 Lansdown Place was situated next to the 'Lansdown Arms' public house, a short walk from Lewes Railway Station. Alfred and Ellen Bliss's first child, a son named Alfred Edwin Marsh Bliss, was born in Lewes in 1890. Alfred Marsh Bliss, his twenty-two year old wife Ellen and baby Alfred were recorded at 34 Lansdown Place, Lewes at the time of the 1891 census. The studio at 34 Lansdown Place, Lewes was listed under the name of A. M. Bliss & Co. right through to the end of the First World War. Although the studio carried the name A. M. Bliss & Co., the Lansdown Place studio was not occupied by Alfred Marsh Bliss in 1901. The 1901 census shows the occupier of the Bliss Studio as James Worthington (born c1841, Fleetwood, Lancashire), who was assisted by his son Charles Worthington (born 1872, Fleetwood, Lancashire). 

William Shelley Branch was born in Hastings, Sussex on 4th July 1854. He was the son of William Branch and Elizabeth Shelley (born c 1826, Lewes). Elizabeth Shelley had married William Branch in Lewes in 1853 [marriage registered in Lewes during the third quarter of 1853]. The newly-weds moved to Hastings, where Mrs Elizabeth Branch started a dressmaking business. William Shelley Branch was born in Hastings in 1854. William's brother Henry Edward Branch arrived some six years later [ the birth of Henry Edward Branch was registered in Hastings during the third quarter of 1860 ]. When William Branch senior died, Mrs Elizabeth Branch returned with her two young boys to her home town of Lewes, where she set up a haberdasher's shop in the High Street ( Mrs Elizabeth Branch is listed as a haberdasher in Lewes High Street in an 1866 trade directory ).

Some time before 1878, when he was in his early twenties, William Shelley Branch established a photographic studio which spanned No. 47 and 48 High Street, Lewes. Around 1879, William S. Branch sold this studio to Daubigny Hatch (Henry D'aubigny Hatch) and set up a photographic studio at his mother's fancy goods store at 16 High Street, Lewes.

At the time of the 1881 census, Mrs Elizabeth Branch and her sons were living at 16 High Street, Lewes (also known as 16 School Hill), the location of the fancy goods shop and studio. Elizabeth Branch is described in the census return as a 55 year old widow, working as a dealer in wool, toys and other "fancy goods". Henry E. Branch, aged 20, gives his occupation as "News Reporter", while his older brother William is entered on the census return as a "Photographer", aged 26.

Around 1888, Mrs Elizabeth Branch and her two sons moved to Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. William was then aged about thirty-four, Henry was in his late twenties. William Shelley Branch established a photographic studio in Suffolk Road, Cheltenham, where he remained in business as a professional photographer for the next five years. Henry Branch, William's younger brother, worked as a journalist for the local newspaper.

From around 1895, William S. Branch appears to have abandoned photography for journalism. When the 1901 census was taken, forty-six year old William S. Branch gave his occupation as "Journalist". His brother, Henry E. Branch, is described on the 1901 census return as a "Journalist, SR Editor & Reporter". Henry Branch is remembered today as the author of a study of Gloucestershire entitled "Cotswold and Vale: or Glimpses of Past and Present in Gloucestershire", which was published in Cheltenham in 1904. A keen chess player, William Shelley Branch is known mainly as a chess historian and the author of an historical survey of the game entitled "A Sketch History of Chess", published in the British Chess Magazine in 1911. Between 1901 and 1932, William Shelley Branch wrote regular articles on the game of chess for the Cheltenham Chronicle and the Cheltenham Examiner. Recognised as an authority on the game, William S. Branch wrote articles on chess and other board games for newspapers at home and abroad. Between 1911 and 1912, William S.Branch wrote a series of articles for the American newspaper The Pittsburg Leader under the general heading of "The  history  of checkers from the earliest known date. Its  evolution and growth ".

William Shelley Branch died in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on 22nd January 1933, at the age of 78.

[ABOVE] Portrait of William Shelley Branch (1854-1933), professional photographer in Lewes and Cheltenham and writer on the game of chess.

[ABOVE] An early copy of the journal "The Chess Amateur" issued in December 1906. William Shelley Branch wrote regularly for "The Chess Amateur" up until the 1920s.

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a family group by W. S. Branch of 16 School Hill, Lewes "(c1884). Branch advertised the fact that he photographed groups "by the Instantaneous Process" (dry plates that had exposure times of a fraction of a second).

[ABOVE] The reverse of a carte-de-visite portrait by W. S. Branch of 16 School Hill, Lewes, advertising Branch's studio as an "Instantaneous  Permanent Photographic Establishment". W. S. Branch's publicity on this card back mentions that his carte photographs could be "enlarged to life size and finished in oil or water colour"  (c1887).

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Cathleen Fowler for providing the portrait of her great grandfather George William Hinkley, photographed as a young boy by William Shelley Branch around 1881. George Hinkley's mother died and he was brought up by an uncle and aunt, Daniel and Mary Ann Carey. George Hinkley trained as an engineer and emigrated to the United States in April 1907. George Hinkley became a naturalized American citizen on 9th July 1909. George William Hinkley died in the United States in his seventies on 12th June,1950.