The Glaven Historian
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THE GLAVEN HISTORIAN The Journal of the Blakeney Area Historical Society No. 6 2003 Contents Editorial 2 Richard Jefferson W J J Bolding (1815-1899), Pioneer North 3 Norfolk Photographer. Jonathan Hooton The Ann of Clay Capt Francis Plumb 1841. 15 Monica White Reminiscences of the Glaven Valley: Care of 20 the Dying and the Dead in the First 50 years of the 20th Century. Pamela Peake A Family of Substance: George Brigge of 28 Wiveton and his relatives. John Peake The Glebe Terriers of Cley: Changes in the 43 Landscape during the 17th & 18th Centuries. John Wright Some comments on the Blakeney Census 59 of 1871. Eric Hotblack Further Field Walking at Field Dalling. 64 John Wright Blakeney Eye: some Comments on Current 68 Investigations. Back Pages Snippets; Feedback; Obituary. 72 1 Editorial ew Editor, new format. Or Monica White has been busy rather new Editors since it collecting memories for the BAHS Nseems to need four of us to Oral History collection. This fill John Wright’s shoes. We have Journal is being put together at moved to a two-column layout and Easter so the topic of death is not 12pt type (where possible) to make inappropriate. the text easier to read, while the Pamela Peake has been investi- typeface adopted is intended to be gating the Brigge family of Wiveton, standard across the full range of Lords of one of the Manors, and a BAHS publications and signing. very influential family, while John Any comments on the new format Peake has tackled the Cley Church are welcome. Terriers and tracked down the four, We were hoping to have a report yes four, parsonage sites in the from Chris Birks on the recent dig village. at the ‘Chapel’ site on Blakeney In addition to his Blakeney Eye Eye, but this has been embargoed preview, John Wright has con- by the Environment Agency for a tributed a paper on analysis of the couple of months to give them time 1871 census and makes compari- to assimilate the implications. As it son with figures from 1770 and is such a topical issue, we do how- 1971. ever have an explanatory preview. Eric Hotblack, who led field- It will be interesting to compare the walking classes in 2002 and 2003, NAU’s findings with our own, has collated the results and the strictly non-invasive, investigations findings are recorded here. reported in GH2. There ia also new feature we call Another topical paper is Richard “Back Pages” which we hope will Jefferson’s account of the life and develop into a useful and interest- work of WJJ Bolding, an almost ing collection of miscellaneous forgotten pioneer of photography snippets, feedback from previous from Weybourne. There is to be a articles and who knows what else! major exhibition of work by early A wide range of topics, styles Norfolk photographers, including and periods – from the Stone Age WJJB, at the Castle Museum, to the present day: we hope you Norwich, later this year. enjoy reading the latest Glaven The visual aspect is also covered Historian. If you have an article to by Jonathan Hooton who has contribute, or feedback on pub- investigated the origins of a ‘pier- lished material, please contact the head’ painting of the Ann of Cley. Editorial team. Some notes on pre- The genre is important to marine ferred methods of presentation are historians – even if it’s not great scheduled for the December art. Newsletter. 2 W JJBolding (1815-1899) Pioneer North Norfolk Photographer by Richard Jefferson Synopsis: an introduction to the tuition from an artist or artists of work of a pioneer photographer from the Norwich School, a number of Weybourne. As well as giving his whom acted as drawing masters to family background, the author supplement their income. For the traces connections with members of first forty years or more of the the Norwich School of painters. nineteenth century the accepted method of learning to draw was to illiam Johnson Jennis copy the original work of a profes- Bolding was the great sional artist. A pencil drawing of Wgreat grandson of William Cley Church survives (Fig. 1), Jennis (died 1766), whose account dated 1832 when he was sixteen. It book from the 1720s and 1730s of is an almost exact copy of J B the William & Thomas of Blakeney Ladbrooke’s drawing of the church survives.1 Through marriage in the (Ladbrooke and his father Robert 18th century, the Bolding family drew 677 Norfolk churches, all inherited considerable Jennis prop- published as lithographs). The Cley erty in Weybourne, so in 1847 at Church lithograph is dated 1824. It his father John Bolding’s death is a not unreasonable assumption (aged 67) WJJB, 32 years old, that J B Ladbrooke was WJJB’s found himself the largest resident drawing master in 1832. Three landowner and farmer in the village remarkable brown monochrome employing eleven labourers, owner drawings from the following year of the maltings, the brewery were almost certainly executed (employing three men) and the under the direction of his drawing watermill. His father had pur- master. Later WJJB painted in oils, chased public houses right across mainly scenes in and around North Norfolk, to be supplied by Weybourne, but his favourite medi- the family brewery. WJJB’s last um was watercolour: brown mono- business deal, in 1897, was to sell chrome, grey wash and pencil. It is fourteen to the Norwich brewers recorded that in 1849 and 1853 his Steward & Patteson. In 1846 with pictures were exhibited at the his brother-in-law William Norfolk & Norwich Fine Arts Monement, a cork merchant from Association annual exhibitions. King’s Lynn, he became the joint Before her marriage to William owner of the schooner Enterprise of Monement in 1845, WJJB’s sister Blakeney, thereby continuing the Esther kept a journal in which she ship owning tradition of the family. recorded that in May WJJB usually Evidence on William Johnson went away with his fishing gear Jennis Bolding’s early life is sparse, and sketching things. At this dis- but he showed considerable talent tance in time it is difficult to recon- as an artist from a young age. In all cile how WJJB managed his busi- probability he would have received ness affairs, along with the cultur- 3 Figure 1. Pencil drawing of Cley Church, after J B Ladbrooke, executed in 1832 when Bolding was just 16 years old. al, sporting, scientific and artistic Archaeology (1857) WJJB pub- activities he indulged in. For the lished, with sketch and diagram, best part of ten years after his his excavation of a Romano-British father’s death he was very active pottery kiln discovered on his away from Weybourne, particularly Weybourne land. In 1850 he was in during the summer months. In the Switzerland sketching, and taking 1851 census his mother, ‘old’ in Antwerp and Rouen either on Esther, is described as “Land and the way out or the way back. House Proprietor”. From her photo- Undated drawings survive of graph (fig. 3) she looks a formidable Land’s End and Ben Nevis, show- person and it seems likely that she ing that he really did travel the ran the businesses during her length and breadth of Britain. son’s absences. As an artist he had a great abili- In 1848 he was away sketching ty to capture atmospheric effect in in Wales, an extensive trip includ- his landscapes, and his artistic eye ing Tintern, Harlech and certainly influenced his photo- Llangollen. In August 1849, with graphic work. his friend Henry Harrod, the secre- tary of the newly formed Norfolk & nd so to William Johnson Norwich Archaeological Society, Jennis Bolding the photog- and other members, he took part in A rapher. It was certainly a survey of Castle Rising castle, through his connection with the producing two drawings; one of artistic, archaeological, scientific these etched by Norwich School and cultural set in Norwich (some- artist Henry Ninham appeared in times colloquially referred to as the Volume IV of Norfolk Archaeology Norwich Brotherhood) that he was (1855). In Volume V of Norfolk introduced to photography. 4 However it happened, he took to The majority of WJJB’s photo- the newly invented art form like a graphs are albumen prints from duck to water. In Marjorie collodion negatives. Allthorpe-Guyton’s book on The first photographic processes Norwich School artist Henry were extremely complicated. Bright2 WJJB is described as Exposures were often measured in being one of the most important minutes, coating and processing nineteenth century photographers. the plates took time (and a portable That is praise indeed. darkroom) and involved numerous, It was in 1839 that Louis often dangerous, chemicals such as Jacques Mandé Daguerre in France potassium cyanide, potassium perfected his photographic process iodide, and gallic and nitric acids; (the Daguerreotype), but the image collodion itself is gun-cotton dis- produced could not be multiplied. solved in ether. Despite wearing Later in the same year in England protective clothing the photogra- William Henry Fox Talbot went phers’ skin would be stained and public with his own process (the they would reek of the chemicals. Calotype), where there was a nega- The toner used to give the popular tive and multiple copies could be sepia effect was particularly noi- produced. This process, however, some. gave a soft image and was liable to There were few amateur photog- fade. raphers in the early days as pho- Photography came early to tography was an expensive exercise Norwich, and by 1843 there were – fortunately, WJJB was extremely professional photographic studios well off. As we have seen he was a in the city.