Hailsham Photographers
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Professional Photographers in Hailsham |
Edwin Isaac Baker - Edwin & Lela Chell - Charles Hollamby - James Lawrence - Herbert J. Unwin |
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Edwin Isaac BAKER (1837-1912) - Active as a photographer in Hailsham from 1868 to 1896. |
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For a more detailed account of the life and photographic career of Edwin Isaac Baker. click on the link below: |
Cartes-de-visite produced by Edwin Isaac Baker of High Street, Hailsham |
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[ABOVE] The trade plate Edwin Isaac Baker, 'Bookseller & Photographer' of High Street, Hailsham which he had printed on the reverse of carte-de-visite portraits produced between 1868 and 1872. | [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a young girl photographed by Edwin Isaac Baker of High Street, Hailsham (c1868). The reverse carries the hand-written inscription "Sister Emma aged 12 years". | [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a young woman by E. I. Baker of Hailsham (c1890). Publicity on the reverse of the carte states that Edwin Baker produced "Portrait, Landscape and Equestrian Photography." | [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of an unknown man by Edwin Isaac Baker, Photographer, Bookseller, Stationer and Librarian of High Street, Hailsham (c1892). |
Edwin CHELL (c1851-1927) & Lela CHELL (1870-1937) Active as photographers in Hailsham from around 1897 to 1913. |
Edwin Chell was born around 1851 in Cheddleton, near Leek, Staffordshire. In the 1881 Census he is described as a "Farmer's Son" aged 29 and is shown living with his mother and elder brother John Chell (born c1848, Dilhorn, Staffordshire) at Basford Grange, Cheddleton. Edwin's mother Mrs Ann Jane Chell (nee Steele - born c1828, Cheddleton) is recorded as a widow farming 200 acres. George Chell, Edwin's father, had died in 1865. In 1893, Edwin Chell married Lela Constance Godfrey (born 1870, Pokesdown*, near Christchurch, Hampshire), the twenty-two year old daughter of Lavinia Lansley (born c1837, Kimpton, Hampshire) and William Godfrey (born c1837, Egham Surrey ), a cabinet maker of Christchurch. [ * NOTE : Pokesdown is now within Dorset ] Edwin and Lela Chell moved to Hailsham, where their first child, Godfrey Chell, was born in 1894. A second child, a girl named Lily, was born around 1896. Three more daughters followed - Ivy (born c1897, Hailsham), Nellie (born c1899, Hailsham) and Mollie (born 1901, Hailsham). At the time of the 1901 Census, the four daughters are shown living with Edwin and Lela Chell at their home in Hailsham. (The couple's first-born son, Godfrey Chell, had died in 1899 at the age of four ). Two more children were born in Hailsham after the 1901 Census - a son named Leslie Steele Chell in 1902 and a daughter, Norah, in 1905. Edwin Chell and Lela Chell, had been taking photographs from their home at 9 Alexander Terrace, High Street, Hailsham since about 1898. Like other Hailsham photographers, Edwin Chell could not initially earn a living by photography alone. In the 1901 census, Edwin Chell gave his main occupation as "Life Insurance Agent". Sometime before 1905, however, Edwin Chell and Lela Chell set up a photographic studio at 64 & 65 High Street, Hailsham, which they operated until 1913. Edwin Chell ended his days working as a milkman in Hailsham. He died on 17th December 1927 at the age of 76. Mrs Lela Chell died ten years later in 1936, aged sixty-six.
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Charles HOLLAMBY (1817-1891) Active as a photographer in Hailsham from around 1865 to 1882 |
Charles Hollamby was born in Hailsham around 1817. Charles Hollamby had been working as a shoemaker in the town since at least 1841. In the 1841 Census for Hailsham, Charles Hollamby is described as a "Shoe Maker - Journeyman" and is shown lodging in Hailsham's High Street, at the home of John Holman, the town's School Master. In 1843, Charles Hollamby married Mary Hook (born c1821, Withyham, Sussex). By 1859, Charles Hollamby had established a boot and shoemaking business in the High Street of the town. In 1861 Charles Hollamby was employing two men and one boy in his shoemaking business. Mrs Mary Hollamby, his wife, had her own "Straw Bonnet and Tuscan Hat" manufacturing business in the High Street. Around 1865, Charles Hollamby purchased some photographic apparatus and set up a portrait studio attached to his business premises in Hailsham's High Street. When the Post Office Directory for Sussex, was published in 1866, Hollamby is listed under the heading of 'Photographers' in the Trades section. An advertisement in The Hailsham Commercial Advertiser of 1869 declared: " Charles Hollamby, Boot & Shoe Maker, High Street, Hailsham . PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS TAKEN DAILY." The 1871 Census records Charles Hollamby as a 54 year old "Shoemaker Master, employing 2 men". No mention is made of Hollamby's photographic activities on the 1871 census return, but Charles Hollamby is listed as a professional photographer in Hailsham in the Sussex trade directories published between 1870 and 1874. According to the census, Hollamby's home and workplace in Hailsham's High Street was situated next to Alfred Bread's Printing Office, near Alma Place, Hailsham. Sharing Charles Hollamby's home was his wife Mrs Mary Hollamby, who is described as 49 year old "Straw Bonnet Maker", and a 12 year old servant girl named Epsy Billing.
When the census was taken on 3rd April 1881, Charles Hollamby was again recorded as a "Boot Maker, employing 2 men" with premises in Hailsham's High Street. His work as a photographer is not recorded under the heading of "Occupation" on the census form, but the 1882 edition of Kelly's Directory of Sussex lists Charles Hollamby as a "Photographer" at 2 Alma Place, High Street, Hailsham. Charles Hollamby is listed as a photographer at Hailsham in local trade directories from 1866 until 1882. He was still working as a boot-maker at the time of the 1891 Census, when he was seventy-four years of age. Charles Hollamby died in December 1891 at the age of 74 and he was buried at the Hellingly Union graveyard on 28th December 1891 ( Grave No.411 ). |
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James LAWRENCE (born c1828). Active as a photographer in Hailsham in 1861
James Lawrence was born at Bethlem Green (Bethnal Green) in East London, around 1828. In the 1861 Census for Hailsham, James Lawrence is described as a "Photographic Artist", aged 32 and is shown lodging with sixty four year old Mary Tutt in the High Street of Hailsham. He was probably an itinerant photographer without a permanent studio. James Lawrence is not recorded as a photographer in the Sussex Post Office Directory of 1862 and makes no appearance in later Sussex directories |
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Herbert John UNWIN (born 1873). Active as a photographer in Hailsham from around 1897 to 1899.
Herbert John Unwin was born in 1873 in Folkestone, Kent. He was the son of Uriah John Unwin (born 1851, Folkestone, Kent), a bricklayer, and Sophia Jane Martin (born 1847, Rye, Sussex). At the end of 1896, Herbert John Unwin married Florence Chittenden (born 1868, Elmsted, Kent) at Folkestone. Shortly after his marriage, Herbert Unwin moved to Hailsham in Sussex, where he took over the bookselling and photography business of Edwin Isaac Baker, who had been Hailsham's leading photographer between 1868 to 1896. Baker had sold his photographic studio and bookshop in Hailsham's High Street to Herbert Unwin before emigrating to the United States in December 1896. Naming the bookshop "The Library", Unwin operated the photographic studio in Hailsham's High Street until around 1899. By the time the 1901 census was taken, Herbert John Unwin was working as a photographer and living in Tupsley, near Hereford, with his wife and young daughter Gladys Winifred Unwin (born 1898, Hailsham). Listings in The British Journal of Photography and Kelly's Trade Directories show that Herbert John Unwin was operating a photographic business at 42 Commercial Road, Hereford from1901 until at least 1909. One of Unwin's pictures (a photograph of Hereford's All Saints' Church, depicting steeplejacks at work on the spire) was registered for copyright purposes on 1st January 1907. The copyright registration form gives Herbert John Unwin's business address as 42 Commercial Road, Hereford. I cannot trace Herbert John Unwin in the 1911 census, but I found his wife and daughter residing with his mother-in-law, Mrs Emma Chittenden, at a house named 'Clovelly' at 56 Stanhope Street, Hereford. On the census return, Herbert's 41 year old wife, Mrs Florence Unwin, indicates that her husband is still alive and declares that she had been married 14 years and had given birth to one child. Gladys Winifred Unwin, Mrs Unwin's daughter, is described on the census return as a 12 year old schoolgirl. |
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Click here to go to A History of Professional Photography in Hailsham
Click here to go to Directory of Photographic Studios in Hailsham 1860-1910