Pulborough Photographers

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Photographers in Pulborough

Louis Nicholas Corden - William Thomas Maddock

[ABOVE] Lower Street, Pulborough as depicted in an old  postcard (c1905)

Louis Nicholas CORDEN (born 1864, Brentwood, Essex - died  1949, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire) - active in Pulborough between 1888 and 1915.

[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait of a young woman photographed by Louis Nicholas Corden of Pulborough (c1898).
Louis Nicholas Corden was born in Brentwood, Essex, in 1864, the youngest child of Augusta Offin and Walter Greensmith Corden, a stationer and printer. When Louis was 4 years old, his father died. Mrs Augusta Corden, Louis's mother, was left a widow with four young children, but, fortunately, she was well provided for by her husband and derived an income from the ownership of houses.

In 1887, Louis Nicholas Corden married Elizabeth Norris (born 1867, Cowes, Isle of Wight). Shortly after his marriage, Louis Nicholas Corden moved to Pulborough to take over the village's chemist's shop. Early in 1888, Louis's wife gave birth to their first child, Louis Thomas Corden. Another son, Sidney Walter Corden, was born the following year.

When the 1891 Census was taken, Louis Corden and his family were recorded at Arun House, Lower Street, Pulborough. On the census return, Louis N. Corden is described as a twenty-six year old "Chemist & Druggist". William Thomas Maddock, Corden's predecessor as Pulborough's local chemist, occasionally worked as the village's photographer [see below] and it appears that Louis Corden also filled that role.

Between 1888 and 1915, Louis Corden not only ran Pulborough's chemist shop, he also served as the village's resident photographer. In the 1890s, Louis Corden was producing photographic portraits of local people in the popular cabinet card format [see illustration on the left].

Mrs Elizabeth Corden gave birth to a daughter, Dorothy Florence Eva Corden, in 1895, but sadly the little girl died in 1899 when she was only 4 years of age.  The 1901 Census records Louis Nicholas Corden, his wife Elizabeth and their 4 surviving children - Louis Thomas (aged 13), Sidney Walter (aged 11), Arthur Bernard (aged 6) and Gertrude Hilda (aged 2) -  at Arun House in Lower Street. A fifth child, Albert Victor Corden, was born in Pulborough in 1903.

According to Rendel William's Sussex Postcards info website, Louis Nicholas Corden was producing 'real photo' postcards of Pulborough from around 1906 until the First World War. Louis Corden opened a second chemist's shop in West Street, Storrington in 1908 and from this date he was producing postcard views of Storrington.

Louis  Corden retired around 1934 and moved to Buckinghamshire. Louis Nicholas Corden died in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire on 24th October, 1949.

 

William Thomas MADDOCK (born 1849, Kingston, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire) - active in Pulborough between 1875 and 1888.

A Carte-de-visite Photograph of the Grave of William Sinclair (1804-1878), Published by William Thomas Mattock of Pulborough, Sussex

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite photograph of the grave of William Sinclair, the Rector of Pulborough (c1878), published by W. T. Maddock of Pulborough. William Sinclair, who was born in Scotland in 1804, died in Pulborough on 8th July, 1878. [ABOVE] The trade plate of William Thomas Maddock, Stationer & Chemist of Pulborough, as printed on the reverse of a carte-de-visite photograph produced around 1878.
William Thomas Maddock was born in the Kingston area of Portsea in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in 1849, the son of Jane Lydia Geary and Joseph William Maddock (c1807-1882), a Royal Navy Paymaster.

William Thomas Maddock trained to become a chemist, but when the 1871 Census was taken, twenty-one year old William told the census enumerator that he was a "Chemist not in business". In 1874, William Thomas Maddock married Georgina Caroline Pescod (born 1848, Fishbourne, near Chichester, Sussex), a twenty-six year old Governess, the daughter of Mary Ann Eastland, a school teacher, and William Pescod, a former school master and 'Professor of Education' who was working as a 'House Agent' in West Derby when his daughter became the wife of William Maddock.

Soon after their marriage, William Maddock and Georgina moved to Pulborough, where William took over the local chemist's shop. In 1875, at their home in Pulborough, William and Georgina Maddock became the parents of a baby girl, who was christened 'Georgina Eastland Maddock'. By 1880, two more children had been born to Georgina and William Maddock - Arthur William Maddock (born 1877, Pulborough) and Kate Gertrude Maddock (born 1879, Pulborough).

The 1878 edition of Kelly's Directory of Sussex, lists William Thomas Maddock as a "chemist & stationer".  A carte-de-visite photograph dating from around 1878 carries an advertisement on the reverse of the card which describes W. T. Maddock as a stationer, an agent for a rubber stamp company, and a dealer in fishing tackle, toys and sewing machines. Presumably, William Thomas Maddock also worked as a photographer. When Louis Nicholas Corden succeeded William Maddock as Pulborough's 'Chemist & Druggist', he took on the mantle of resident photographer.

The 1881 census describes William Thomas Maddock as a "Pharmaceutical Chemist" residing on the 'South Side' of Lower Street, Pulborough. Thomas Maddock was to work as a chemist & stationer in Pulborough for the next 7 years, during which time he fathered three more children - Ruth Carlyle Maddock (born 1883, Pulborough), Frederick Joseph Maddock (born 1886, Pulborough) and Dorothy Emma Mattock (born 1888, Pulborough). By the time his seventh child, (Marjory Mattock) was born at the beginning of 1891, William Mattock and his family had moved to Leytonstone, Essex. The 1891 Census records 42 year old William Maddock as a "Pharmaceutical Chemist, manufacturing Perfume."

William Thomas Maddock died in Chichester, West Sussex, in 1907.

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