Another Chance to See Tyler Photographs of Edwardian Villages
By popular request, Claire Ryley and Ann Symons are repeating their presentation of selected black and white photographs of Edwardian Villages from the Tyler Collection at Gold Hill Museum at 6.30p.m. on Wednesday 06 August. (Please note this is an evening event.) This is the sequel to their phenomenally successful Edwardian Shaftesbury show, this time focussing on the remarkable images captured by Albert Edward Tyler of surrounding villages and their inhabitants between about 1899 and 1916. As ever, Claire and Ann will welcome observations from the audience about exactly what is visible on screen.
Albert Tyler (1873-1919), a butcher’s son from Shropshire, first became a photographer’s apprentice in Market Drayton. By the time of the 1901 Census he had set up as a photographer at 53 Salisbury Street, Shaftesbury. In September 1902 he married Flora Ellen Biddlescombe at St Michael’s and All Angels in Stour Provost, and a daughter Muriel was born in March 1903. In 1911 the family was at an address between 4 Blandford Road and Boyne Farm, Cann, before moving to 5 Bell Street. There is no record of Albert’s having done military service in the First World War. Not all records have survived and by the time conscription was introduced in 1916 he was already older than the upper age limit of 41. It is possible that his health was impaired as he died in January 1919 of cancer at the Middlesex Hospital in London. By today’s standards he was a youthful 45. There are more family details, researched by our speakers and Chris Stupples, here
As Ann points out, many of Tyler’s photographs show evidence of careful planning and artful arrangement. The 1907 image of a frozen Ashmore Pond (above) is taken from an elevated viewpoint – a stepladder or the back of another conveniently placed cart? There are at least 30 children on the ice, well spaced out so that they are safer but also all clearly in view. Presumably that guarantees more sales of the final print. On the far side of the pond, there are men attending three horse-drawn carts, one with an enormous load of timber requiring three horses to draw it. This is a recognisable view of a well-known Dorset landmark, but it is showing a different world, where a village pond could be reliably expected to freeze over during the winter months, and health and safety were not prime considerations.
Claire and Ann will be taking a look at the surviving evidence of Tyler’s contemporary photographic rivals in December. Please click here for details of the forthcoming 2025-26 Lecture programme.
