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Smaller Sizes of Portrait - Photographers in England - East Midlands Region

We have divided England into Geographical Regions in order to keep the page sizes manageable for our listings of stickyback photographers. All the regions are listed here. Within each regional page, practitioners are listed by location alphabetically. If you are looking for a practitioner by name, start with our page "Smaller sizes of portrait - photographers by name"

East Midlands Region, includes: Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire (including Rutland), Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. Locations listed so far include: Buxton, Derby, Ilkeston, Leicester, Lincoln, Loughborough, Northampton, Nottingham, Skegness, Spalding

BUXTON

Address: 39 Spring Gardens, Buxton
Possible practitioner: Currently not known -
Operating dates: 1906
References: The following advertisement appeared in the British Journal of Photography 13 April 1906 p.ii "Stamp photos. Wanted young man operator etc, must be used to large quantities. Refs etc to Manager, 39 Spring Gardens , Buxton".

DERBY

Address: 2 Litchurch Street, Derby
Possible practitioner: Currently not known - WINFIELD or HARDY
Operating dates: 1905
References: Derby Daily Telegraph - Tuesday 19 September 1905 P1. "Partner wanted for that lucrative branch of photography known as "sticky backs" methods entirely new advertiser's profits last 18 months £40 - £60 weekly; capital about £70 address Winfield 2 Litchurch Street Derby." The Era - Saturday 23 September 1905 p27. Same ad as above, but address shown as "Hardy 2 Litchurch St Derby." Similar advertisements appeared in St. Helens Examiner, Saturday 23 September 1905 p4 and Widnes Examiner, Saturday 23 September 1905 p4. "Wanted partner for "sticky-back" photography: £40 to £60 weekly profits guaranteed; experience unnecessary; small capital. Hardy 2 Litchurch st Derby. "

Address: 66 St Peter's Street. Derby
Possible practitioner: BOULTWOOD, Sidney
Operating dates: 1914-19
References: Derby Daily Telegraph - Friday 06 November 1914 p1." Young man wanted to generally assist in dark room and studios; knowledge of photography not essential. Permanency to smart fellow. Mr Stickyback's Studios 66 St Peter's street." Nottingham Evening Post - Thursday 21 August 1919 p4. "Young lady assistant required about 20 for Ilkeston branch. Wages &c Stickybacks Ltd 66 St Peters Street Derby." Stickybacks Studio, 66 St Peter's Street, Derby, 1915-16. One of Sidney Boultwood's Sticky Back Studios, listed by David Simkin on his excellent site on Sussex Photographers at www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BoultwoodStickyBacksStudio.htm where you will find the full history of Sidney Boultwood (1882-1958) and his family.
The three portraits below, of unknown sitters c.1915-16, are from the personal collection of photo historian, writer and researcher Brett Payne. One of these was used in a post on Brett's Photo-Sleuth blog in 2013 at: http://photo-sleuth.blogspot.com/2013/05/sepia-saturday-175-andy-warhol-looks.html . Brett runs an excellent website on Derbyshire Photographers: http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~brett/genealogy/photos/dbyphotos.html and we are most grateful to him for permission to show these portraits here.

Stickyback portrait from 66 St Peter's St, Derby

xx    xx

Address: Unknown
Possible practitioner: Unknown
Operating dates: -1922
References: Derby Daily Telegraph - Monday 30 January 1922 p2. Advertisement for an auction at Derby included in the list of lots: "Also professional photographers equipment, including stickyback camera, complete with lens and all accessories, (by Billclef), patent printing machine, patent adjustable seat, developing dishes and tanks etc". The "Billclef" mentioned in this advertisement would have been Joshuah Billcliff, a camera manufacturer from Manchester, who patented a revolving camera back in 1885, patent no 13956. Joshuah died in 1898 and his firm, The Billcliff Camera Works, was continued by his sons. There is an example here on the Early Photography site of a Billcliffe camera from around 1906 with a multiposition back, used to produce multiple small photos on a single half plate film.

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ILKESTON

Address: Not currently known - Ilkestone
Possible practitioner: BOULTWOOD, SIDNEY
Operating dates: 1919
References: Nottingham Evening Post - Thursday 21 August 1919 p4. "Young lady assistant required about 20 for Ilkeston branch. Wages &c Stickybacks Ltd 66 St Peters Street Derby." The Derby Studio at 66 St Peters St has been identified as one of Sidney Boultwood's Sticky Back Studios, listed on David Simkin's excellent site on Sussex Photographers at www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BoultwoodStickyBacksStudio.htm where you will find the full history of Sidney Boultwood (1882-1958) and his family. Nottingham Evening Post - Thursday 11 September 1919 p3. " Glass sign for sale. No frame, about 11 ft by 22in £3 cash. Stickyback Ilkeston".

LEICESTER

Leicester appears on a print listing the studios of Mr Stickyback (The Lloyd Family) who also operated from Dublin, Glasgow and Birmingham. To date we have not found any evidence of the location of this studio. We have pulled together all the current information on this firm and have given them their own page. Please contact us if you have any information about the firm.

LINCOLN

Address: 311 High Street, Lincoln
Possible Practitioner: The Texas Photo Co
Operating dates: c. 1902
References: See the entry for The Texas Photo Co under Bristol in the SW Region

LOUGHBOROUGH

Address: 6A Market Place, Loughborough
Possible practitioner: Linked in 1915 with the studio at 66 St Peters St Derby, who is believed to have been SIDNEY BOULTWOOD.
Operating dates: 1915 - May 2015
References: The following entry suggests that there was a stickyback photographer in Loughborough in January 1915. Loughborough Echo - Friday 29 January 1915. " Lost - will the lady who found purse containing Stickyback ticket no 301 kindly send her address to Box 703 Echo Office".
Loughborough Echo - Friday 26 February 1915 p4; "Warning!. The original Mr Stickyback's Electric Studios, 6 Market Place, Loughborough 66 St Peters St Derby. The proprietors beg to inform the Public that under no circumstances whatever do they employ door to door canvassers for photo enlargements. Such persons falsely representing that that they are in any way connected with our studios are endeavouring to obtain money by false pretences. We would most strongly warn the public against such unscrupulous persons."
Loughborough Echo - Friday 5th March 1915 and 19 March 1915 p1: WARNING! WHEREAS it has been falsely stated that the Proprietors of "The Original Mr. Stickyback's Electric Studios," of 6a, Market Place, Loughborough, and of 66, St Peter's Street, Derby, are Germans, we, the undersigned, have been instructed to take proceedings against all persons circulating such falsehood, as the Proprietors are British subjects of British birth. A REWARD of £10 will be paid for information enabling a conviction to be obtained. HOBSON & MARSDEN, Solicitors. 14, Corn Market, Derby. It is difficult to see where this rumor originated. If the proprietor was Sidney Boultwood he and his father were both born in the UK. It is possible that Sidney had a manager installed in Loughborough who aroused these suspicions.
Loughborough Echo Fri 7 May 1915. "Positively last two weeks. Now don't forget to visit Mr Stickybacks Electric Studios. Cinematographic snapshots of yourself, enormously popular. "They've all got stickybacks". The original Stickyback's (From Strand London etc, etc) 6A Market Place Loughborough (Opposite Town Hall). Ask to see specimens of our popular enlargements." Below is a stickyback photograph of an unknown young girl. The photo has been trimmed by hand and measures 1.6 x 1.2 inches and along the bottom of the image is a sign board with the text "Market Pl Loughboro"

Market Place Loghborough stickyback photo

Address: Market Place, Loughborough
Possible practitioner: Not currently known
Operating dates: 1917
References: Loughborough Echo - Friday 23 February 1917 p1. "Wanted at once young lady to assist in cash desk and counter. Apply Sticky Back's, Market Place, Loughborough". This could be a continuation of the above entry, but that seems unlikely given the advertisement in March 1915 suggesting the studio at 6A Market Place was there for only another two weeks.

NORTHAMPTON

Address: 5, Horsemarket, Northampton
Possible practitioner: ? HENRY: REYNOLDS, WILLIAM HENRY (1872-) or possibly DUDLEY, HORACE HENRY (1877- 1945)
Operating dates: 1903
References: Bedfordshire Times and Independent - Friday 27 March 1903 P8."24 Stamps or 12 Victoria's (sticky backs), for 1/-. send carte or Cabinet Photo (which will be returned uninjured) with 1/- P.O. and Id. stamp to Henry’s, 5, Horsemarket, Northampton". Robert Pols in his excellent site on Northants photographers www.early-photographers.org.uk has this address occupied by photographer William Henry Reynolds (1872-) in a Kelly's Northants trade directory entry for 1903 (pub in May 1903). Reynolds was also at the Horse Market address in the 1901 census, recorded as a photographer and an employer. Robert Pols has the address occupied by another photographer, Horace Henry DUDLEY from local trade directory entries between 1906 and 1912. In the 1901 census Horace Henry Dudley was living with his parents in Dudley, Worcs, where he was a photographer working on his own account. According to Kelly's 1910 Northampton Directory, photographers Wilkinson and Bean were at 5 Horsemarket, Northampton in 1910. In the 1911 census, Horace Henry Dudley was a photographer and an employer living at 26 Birmingham Road, West Bromwich. From surviving cartes de visite, H.H.Dudley had a string of studios in the Midlands at: 94 High St West Bromwich, Jenkinson's Buildings Gold St Kettering, 46 Liverpool Rd Stoke, 20 Granby St Leicester, 113A Station Rd Burton, 170 Edleston Rd Crewe and 46 Broad St Worcester. By 1939 Dudley had retired, but was still living in West Bromwich where he died in 1945. In 1914 the Horsemarket address was occupied by The Elite Photographic Co, proprietor George Evans.

Address: 18 Henry Street Northampton
Possible practitioner: Not currently known
Operating dates: 1904
References: Northants Evening Telegraph - Tuesday 01 March 1904. "Stickybacks medallion ovals 18 Henry Street (Northampton) are taking the above at 4d per dozen. Brooches or pendants. 4d Why pay more". Robert Pols does not pick up this address in his listing of Northamptonshire photographers, suggesting this firm may not have operated there for very long.

NOTTINGHAM

Address: Exchange Walk
Possible practitioner: RYLEY, JOHN WILLIS (1875-1927)
Operating dates: 1923
References: Nottingham Evening Post - Tuesday 30 October 1923 p2. " Wanted young lady for cash counter, Stickybacks, Exchange Walk". Kelly's and other Nottinghamshire Directories list photographer John Willis Ryley at 3a Exchange Walk from 1912 to 1925. In 1901 Ryley was a photographer working from home on his own account at 14 Welbeck Street, Sutton in Ashfield. Other addresses for him were 8 Berkley St Nottingham in the 1911 census and 1912 Kelly's and 124 Mansfield Rd as his home address in 1920.

Address: 20 Long Row, Nottingham, Greyhound Street, Nottingham
Possible practitioner: FRED ASH (Frederic Joseph Ash 1861-1929)
Operating dates: c,1907-1912 at this address
References: See the main entry for Fred Ash above Advertising for staff at a studio at 20 Long Row, Nottingham (Notts Evening Post 30 Nov 1907 p7) and by 1912 had a studio at Greyhound Street, Nottingham (which may actually have been the same premises).

Address: 30 Pelham Street, Nottingham, in 1908
Possible practitioner: William Cottier Cubbin
See entry in NW England listed under Isle of Man.

SKEGNESS

Address: The Midget Studio, Skegness
Possible practitioner: FARMER, Charles John (1872 - 1944)
Operating dates: c.1911
Information and references: Attention was drawn to this studio through the purchase of the real photograph postcard portrait illustrated below. This shows a mother seated on a deck chair flanked by two standing children. The portrait is taken in front of a painted coastal scene back-cloth. The image is printed with a soft edge and half inch border. On the reverse of the postcard is printed "Chas. J. Farmer, The Midget Studio, Skegness." The postcard and name of the studio clearly illustrate that this was a postcard and midget shop. Census returns show that Charles John Farmer (1872-1944) was a chimney sweep in 1901, but by 1911 he had become a photographer working on his own account. In 1939 he was described as a retired photographer. However, none of the Kelly's Directories, 1909 to 1926, list either Charles or this studio, nor are they listed in "Professional Photographers in Lincolnshire" by Keith I.P.Adamson, published by the RPS or in local newspapers. Taken together this suggests that Farmer's Midget Studio may have operated for a relatively short period.

Postcard format portrait by Charles John Farmer, The Midget Studio Skegness.

SPALDING

Address: 16 New Rd Spalding 1870-72, 5 New Rd Spalding 1881-1910
Possible practitioner: BEALES, George and Sons
Operating dates: 1859-1910
References: George Beales b: 1837 Hepworth Suffolk, was a photographer and fancy shop keeper employing 2 men and 1 boy at 5 New Rd Spalding Lincs in 1881. He had a son, George A Beales b: 1865 at Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, who assisted in the shop. Lincolnshire directories show that George Beales photographers in Spalding operated from around 1868 to at least 1895. Some mounts used by the studio claim the firm originated in 1859, and George Beales may have been a travelling photographer in that earlier period. See below a midget carte de visite by Beales and Sons, Spalding of an unknown lady, c.1890, the mount measures 1.8 x 2.7 inches. The reverse of the mount is blank. Keith I.P. Adamson MSc FRPS, "Professional Photographers In Lincolnshire" lists the firm at 5 New Rd until at least 1910.

Midget carte by Bealse and Sons, 1890s

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www.stickybacks.uk is a non-commercial web site for local and family historians, exploring smaller sized portrait photographs and those who worked in this trade.
This page was last modified: 20 March 2022, 11:21

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