EARLY NORFOLK PHOTOGRAPHERS – W-Z
WADE, Gurney
Market Street, Wymondham
KN1916
Blackfriars Street, Lynn
HN1877, KN1879
They opened for business on 1st January 1877. HN1879 has the spelling ‘Walles’. 'Blackfriars Street' is also a directory error: the studio was in Blackfriars Road.
WALLIS, Christopher
Wallis is recorded as manager of King's Lynn Photographic Co., 4 London Road, Lynn, KN1879.
WARWICK, William A
St Stephen's Gate, Norwich
KN1865
Cory finds mention of Warwick at Yoxford House, St Stephen's Road, Norwich, in 1864, where he is described as ‘American Photo Artist’. WN1864 identifies William Warwick of St Stephen's Road simply as an artist.
WATSON, Alfred Stacey
2 Regent Road, Yarmouth
HN1863, CY1863, WN1864
68 Regent Road, Yarmouth
KN1865
Watson’s carte mounts mentioned that he had recently come from Virginia, USA. A carte mount from the late 60s or early 70s suggests he may have been active at 2 Regent Road later than the WN1864 entry. (Regent Road studios)
WATT, Peter Cheyne
Hingham, Attleborough
KN1888, WN1890, KN1892, KN1896, KN1900, KN1904, KN1908, KN1912
WAYLING, George
40 Ber Street, Norwich
KN1916
WEALE, Charles E
4 London Road, Lynn
WN1890
A Charles Weale carte, on which the name John Henry Hall (q.v.) is overprinted, must date from 1890-1891.
WEAVER Charles
Opie Street, Norwich
HN1863, KN1865, MN1867, HN1868, KN1869, HN1872
Listed as ‘Charles Weavers’ in all HN entries.
WEAVERS, Charles
See Weaver, above.
WEBB, J
Cowgate Street, Norwich
KN1858
WEBB, W
129 Barrack Street, Norwich
AN1916
WELLER, James Mills
Stratton St Mary, Long Stratton
KN1912, KN1916
WHAYMAN, Lawrence
Noted by Fairground Ancestors as an itinerant photographer who was born in Norfolk, and who was active in Wales in the 1870s and 1880s. But it is not known whether he ever worked in his native county.
WICKHAM, William
Bath Place, Yarmouth
WN1854
WILKEN, William
Shirehall Terrace, New Walsingham
KN1883
Presumably the same as William Wilkin, below.
WILKIN, William
Market Place, New Walsingham
KN1888
Presumably the same as William Wilken, above.
WILKINSON & Co
Listed by Dimond as a Sheringham firm that photographed Queen Alexandra (date unknown). It seems likely to be connected with the Norwich business, below.
WILKINSON, A & Co
2a Rampant Horse Street, Norwich
KN1896, KN1900
1 Royal Arcade, Norwich
KN1904, KN1908
24 The Walk, Market Place, Norwich
KN1908
18 Prince of Wales Road, Norwich
JN1911
18a Prince of Wales Road, Norwich
KN1912
30 Bethel Street, Norwich
KN1916
A Wilkinson cabinet print from the 1890s places the studio at 27 & 29 Rampant Horse Street. Listed by Dimond as a firm that photographed Queen Alexandra. TC1901 adds 'deals in artists' photographers' requisites of all kinds'.
WILKINSON, Edgar
A Norwich professional who photographed Queen Alexandria (date unknown). He seems likely to be connected to A Wilkinson & Co (above) but is listed separately by Dimond.
WILLIAMS, Daniel
High Street, Holt
HN1863, HN1872, KN1875, HN1877, KN1879
Described as ‘currier, photographer, tract depot & insurance agent’, HN1863, HN1872 and HN1877.
WILLIAMS, John Llewellyn
New Buckenham, Attleborough
WN1890, KN1892, KN1896, KN1900, KN1904
WILLIAMS, Robert
Noted by Fairground Ancestors as a travelling photographer and showman who, with his picture gallery, attended Great Yarmouth Fair in 1891.
Noted by Cory at 20 St Giles Street, Norwich, in the early 1870s.
WILSON, William
Noted by Fairground Ancestors as a travelling photographer and showman (1829-1893) who attended Great Yarmouth fair in 1861.
WINTER, A J
St Peter's Road, Yarmouth
KN1865
WINTER, Cornelius J W
Regent Street, Yarmouth
WN1854, CN1856
Southtown, Yarmouth
CY1863
High Street, Yarmouth
HN1868
Cattle Market Street, Norwich
HAM1879
Winter is described as ‘photographic artist & animal painter’ in WN1854, and as ‘photographic portrait painter’ in CN1856. In KN1853 a Cornelius Winter of Yarmouth appears simply as an artist.
‘Romilly’s Cambridge Diary 1848-1846’ (ed. M A Bury & J D Pickles, Cambridgeshire Records Society, 2000) records a visit by Joseph Romilly to Winter’s studio on 29th August 1860: “A coloured photograph taken of my phiz by a man named Winter … I thought I remained perfectly still, but he declared I did not, and the 2 first sittings he declared failures: the 3d he thought would do:- he put my head in a sort of pillory – a ½ Collar at the back of the chair – his prices varied from 6d to a Guinea: I paid 7/6. – The number of photographers here is prodigious.”
WODEHOUSE, William
7 Blackfriars Road, Lynn
WN1864
The entry represents a variant spelling of William Woodhouse, below. ‘Wodehouse’ was the spelling associated with John Wodehouse, who fought with distinction at the battle of Agincourt. (Hence the photographer’s choice of ‘Frappe Forte Agincourt’ as a motto on his mounts.)
WOODHOUSE, William
Blackfriars Road, Lynn
HN1863, KN1865
Blackfriars Street, Lynn
HN1868, KN1869, HN1872, KN1875
'Blackfriars Street' is a directory error: the studio was in Blackfriars Road. According to the 'Lynn Advertiser', Woodhouse opened his Blackfriars Road studio on 19th December 1859. At the beginning of 1866 he hired J A Prout (q.v.), who took over the studio in April of that year. Woodhouse reacquired the business in December 1867 or January 1868. He announced his retirement on 23rd December 1876 (Lynn Advertiser), to be succeeded by Wallis & Manders. See also Wodehouse, above.
WORTS & Crews
Itinerant photographers, located by Heathcote at the Wheat Sheaf Inn, Norfolk Street, Lynn, in February 1854.
WRIGHT, Frederick
7 Broad Street, Lynn
KN1916, AN1916
WRIGHT, G T V
Castle Meadow, Norwich
KN1858
WRIGHT, H
Orford Place, Norwich
JN1914
WRIGHT, James F
Wells Road, Fakenham
WN1883
WRIGHT, Jasper James
East Anglian Studios, 125 London Road, Lynn
LNA1887, LNA1888, KN1888, LNA1889, WN1890, KN1892, TAL1895, KN1896, LR1896, LR1897, LR1898, LR1899, KN1900 LR1900, LR1901, KN1904, SL1904, SL1905, KN1908, SL1909, SL1910, SL1912, KN1912, SL1913, SL1914, SL1915, KN1916
Station Road (opposite the Bell Inn), Fakenham
LNA1887, LNA1888, LNA1889, TAL1895, LR1898, LR1899, LR1900, TC1901, LR1901, KN1904, KN1908
Opposite the Corn Exchange, Long Sutton, Lincs
LNA1889
Bennett Street, Downham
KN1892
126 London Road, Lynn
KN1896, KN1900, TL1901, KN1904, KN1908, KN1912, KN1916
Norwich Road, Fakenham
KN1896, KN1900
Market Place, Swaffham
LR1898, LR1899, KN1900, LR1900, LR1901, KN1904
Esplanade, Hunstanton
KN1900 KN1904
The Pier, Hunstanton
LR1900, LR1901
London Road, Lynn
TC1901, AN1916
Fakenham
SL1904, SL1905, SL1905, SL1909
Swaffham
SL1904, SL1905
Hunstanton
SL1904, SL1905
Wisbech, Cambs (opposite Selwyn Hall)
SL1904, SL1905, SL1909
The less precise addresses (such as Fakenham and London Road, Lynn) probably refer to the same studios as are more precisely located in earlier directories. Not all studios operated on a full-time basis: Hunstanton’s Pier Studio is listed on both occasions as open ‘during the season’, and KN1900 and KN1904 append ‘attends Saturdays’ to the Swaffham entry. Lynn’s 126 London Road address appears to have been an extension to the studio at number 125 rather than a separate operation. (Carte mounts, apparently dating from the 1890s, give just the 125 London Road address.)
Wright’s mounts and advertising often incorporated the motto ‘Preserve the Shadow ere the Substance fade’ – a slightly adapted quotation from a couplet that had been popular since the age of the daguerreotype. In 1889 he was offering cartes at 3/6 per dozen and cabinet prints for 8/- a dozen. By 1895 his carte prices had been raised by 6d a dozen, at which level they were maintained well into the 20th century. He was also at pains to remind the public that children’s portraits were a speciality for which there was no extra charge. In 1897, one of his advertisements made a major selling point of his personal supervision of all the work undertaken in his studio; but by 1910 he was promoting his outdoor services, describing himself as ‘the photographer for football, wedding and family groups’.
Jasper Wright's other talent was for music, and a photograph taken in 1894 shows him holding his string bass as a member of King's Lynn's first Town Band.
Heather Holdgate reports that Wright was born in Lynn in 1861, married Emma Purdy in 1885 and died in 1940. She adds that 125 London Road was destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War.
For additional information about Wright’s business, supplied by JohnFrearson, click here.
WRIGHT, John W
Recorded in the 1881 census as a photographer, aged 15, born in London, and staying at the Temperance Hotel, King's Lynn.
WRIGHT, Jonas Fidgett
Wells Road, Fakenham
KN1883, KN1888 W1890, KN1892, KN1896
Norwich Street, Fakenham
KN1896
According to a mount dating from the late 1870s or early 1880s, the Wells Road studio was also known as the Rembrandt Studio.
WRIGHT, Mrs N
7 Broad Street, Lynn
KN1904
WRIGHT, Percival Frank
7 Broad Street, Lynn
KN1908, KN1912
WRIGHT, Robert
Providence Street, Lynn
KN1865, HN1868, KN1869
125 London Road, Lynn
HN1872, KN1875, HN1877, KN1879, WN1883, KN1883
HN1863 shows Robert Wright simply as a shopkeeper, in Providence Street. HN1872 and HN1877 describe him as running a china & glass warehouse as well as being a photographer. WN1883 describes him as 'photographer and draper'. In the late 1860s he was charging 2/- for six cartes.
He was the father of Jasper, above.
WRIGHTSON, Stanley Hay
Local historian Christopher Pipe reports evidence of Wrightson working in Cromer around 1901: his name appears as an embossed stamp on the mount of a local school photograph (which is now in America, in the possession of a descendant of the school's founder). Wrightson is also listed by Dimond as a Cromer professional who photographed Queen Alexandra (date unknown).
WURR, James
Upper St Giles Street, Norwich
WN1864, KN1865
YALLOP, Alfred William
198 High Street, Gorleston
KN1896, TC1901, IDT1906/7
107 High Street, Gorleston
KN1900
17 Harbour Quay, Gorleston
KN1900, KN1904
197 High Street, Gorleston
KN1904
14a King Street, Yarmouth
KN1904, KN1908, KY1911/12, KN1912, KY1913/14, KY1915/16, KN1916
It is tempting to wonder whether KN1900’s ‘107 High Street’ could be a mistake for ‘197’. Some Yallop mounts are marked ‘Miller’s Royal Studio’. These must originate from the 14a King Street premises, which were occupied by Mrs E Miller until about 1900 or a little later. (King Street studios; Miller studios). Photographic historian Paul Godfrey reports that the Harbour Quay studio was initially housed in a wooden shed, which was later replaced by a bricks-and-mortar building. The business continued under the direction of Alfred's son, Sydney, until the 1960s.
YOUNG, Frederick
27 Northgate Street, Yarmouth
TC1901