Christleton revisited
During June, 201 I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr & Mrs Hill from Wimbledon and of taking them around our beautiful village. So what was so special about that you might ask? Well Mrs Hill was formerly Gillian Morgan, the daughter of Reg Morgan the village photographer from the early 1900s. We met after being put in touch by a mutual friend. She had no idea that her father had taken and published so many photographs of the village, and that we have built up a fine collection of them. Many were used in the publication Christleton 2000 Years of History, and several more of his photographs new to me, are on the walls of the “Cheshire Cat” Heritage Inn.
Mrs Hill also brought up photographs for me to see, and several are of interest. They include a photograph of The Garth in Windmill Lane being built for the family, a shot of the old Post Office Store on the corner of Windmill Lane & Pepper Street owned by the Morgans, and taken down and rebuilt around 1880, a Mrs Ravenscroft standing outside Rock House, and two prints of the old Newgate Street in Chester, one showing an advertisement for Jas Storrar, former Village Vet.
It was delightful to meet Mr & Mrs Hill and to be able to show them the work of her father, that I have collected. I am constantly amazed that new examples of his work still turn up from time to time, and yet from the numbers on the photographs I know that there must be even more examples out there in the village. I would be very pleased if I could borrow and copy any more of his work that might be in existence, to add to the village collection. The photographs all usually postcard size, have TRM and hand-written subtitles on them, and date from between 1905 and 1930. Please let me know if you are able to help. Thank you.
David Cummings