The Timbercombe Friendly Society Passing School House, by Alfred Vowles, c. 1910-1914
Title
The Timbercombe Friendly Society Passing School House, by Alfred Vowles, c. 1910-1914
Subject
Description
An Alfred Vowles photograph of the Timberscombe Friendly Society in the procession known as the Timberscombe Club Walk. The photograph has been identified as being taken in 1908--which might be a bit early. Mr. Vowles was born in 1882 at Stone Allerton, near Axbridge Somerset. When he was fourteen, Vowles attended the Royal Navy College in Greenwich, only remaining a few months. Nevertheless, he stayed in London working various jobs (1). By 1901, aged eighteen he was tea merchant's clerk (2), eventually beginning work at Eastman Kodak Company on Farringdon Road, London. Again, he was a clerk, not a photographer. The company relocated him first to Berlin and then to Russia, but unhappy being in an office, by 1904 he had returned to Somerset. In 1905 he was interviewed at Watchet as a photographer's assistant (3). Here is where he began learning his true trade.
In his autobiography, after purchasing his own half plate camera, Alfred Vowles describes riding his bike into Porlock on 10 April 1910, where he found lodging at a cottage where R.D. Blackmore supposedly wrote part of "Lorna Doone". Vowles writes of this time as "that was the beginning of a very busy and interesting career in Exmoor Country...."
His earliest professional work is often labeled "VOWLES PORLOCK", written in a late loose manner, as this is on the lower right. By 1914 and the outbreak of World War 1, he left Porlock to volunteer for military service. Unable to fight because of a deformity of his left thumb, he worked photographing at military camps in Wiltshire and Sutton Veney (4).
The Friendly Societies arose throughout Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries as local associations. In the days before governments pensions, social security or credit unions, the societies endeavoured to help the ill or mentally unstable, provide burial services, offer loans or pensions and provide cooperative banking (5). An example of the latter would be the first UK mutual savings bank, which began in Scotland in 1817, the Savings and Friendly Society Bank (6).
The Timberscombe Friendly Society was founded in 1827 (7). On the first Tuesday or Thursday in June (8), all healthy members (all males) within a 15 mile radius of Timberscombe would meet in the morning, often at Bickham Manor on the southwestern edge of the village (9). That is where the marchers pictured here likely began, as they are walking up the road known to them as Addison's Folly (later renamed Bemberry Bank), from which they would have come from Bickham. They are passing School House Cottage, which was built starting in 1805 when the foundation stone was laid (10), as housing for the head teacher of Timberscombe School. The original schoolroom was a semi-detached wing on the left rear of this building. At the time of this photograph, School House was likely occupied by Head Teacher Henry John Griffin and his wife, Edith, who both taught until 30 November, 1910 or Headmaster Herbert Shephard and his wife and fellow teacher, Gladys, who left 24 June 1914 (11).
School House looks much the same in modern time, although the metal arched porch is gone, knocked off in the later mid-1900's by Tommy Heard, the proprietor of Timberscombe's Lion Inn while driving his converted Red Deer coach that he used to drive guests staying at the inn and to deliver the newspapers (12).
The gentlemen are carrying staffs adorned with flowers and ribbons, a feature of the Timbercombe Processions, as well as a flower in their labels. They are followed by women (one pushing a baby carriage) and children. The men, traditionally would be headed to St. Petrocks Church, for a late breakfast. What they paid for the meal, would help fund the Friendly Society (13). Other stops might be made at a village fair, perhaps to play some sport at the club field (14) and certainly visits to the Lion Inn and pre 1915, the Rose and Crown, before it lost it's license in that year (15). The Rose and Crown was located along the old Dunster Road, on the way to the farmhouse Duddings, where the Club Walk often finished (16). The final Timberscombe Club walk is remembered as being in 1939 (17) and the Timberscombe Society disbanded around 1948 (18).
After the war, Alfred Vowles lived in Brendon, North Devon (19) and around 1927 purchased a house on The Avenue in Minehead (20) that he used as a studio until about 1935 (21). Circa 1940 Vowles left Exmoor and in 1947 he married a woman he had known in the 1920's, the poetess and author, Dorothy Una Phillips (nee Clough, then Ratcliffe) at Chelsea, London. Alfred took Phillips as his surname. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips settling in Edinburgh, where Alfred died on 22 February 1965 (22).
The photograph is labeled, "MEMBERS OF TIMBERSCOMBE CLUB IN THE PROCESSION".
In his autobiography, after purchasing his own half plate camera, Alfred Vowles describes riding his bike into Porlock on 10 April 1910, where he found lodging at a cottage where R.D. Blackmore supposedly wrote part of "Lorna Doone". Vowles writes of this time as "that was the beginning of a very busy and interesting career in Exmoor Country...."
His earliest professional work is often labeled "VOWLES PORLOCK", written in a late loose manner, as this is on the lower right. By 1914 and the outbreak of World War 1, he left Porlock to volunteer for military service. Unable to fight because of a deformity of his left thumb, he worked photographing at military camps in Wiltshire and Sutton Veney (4).
The Friendly Societies arose throughout Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries as local associations. In the days before governments pensions, social security or credit unions, the societies endeavoured to help the ill or mentally unstable, provide burial services, offer loans or pensions and provide cooperative banking (5). An example of the latter would be the first UK mutual savings bank, which began in Scotland in 1817, the Savings and Friendly Society Bank (6).
The Timberscombe Friendly Society was founded in 1827 (7). On the first Tuesday or Thursday in June (8), all healthy members (all males) within a 15 mile radius of Timberscombe would meet in the morning, often at Bickham Manor on the southwestern edge of the village (9). That is where the marchers pictured here likely began, as they are walking up the road known to them as Addison's Folly (later renamed Bemberry Bank), from which they would have come from Bickham. They are passing School House Cottage, which was built starting in 1805 when the foundation stone was laid (10), as housing for the head teacher of Timberscombe School. The original schoolroom was a semi-detached wing on the left rear of this building. At the time of this photograph, School House was likely occupied by Head Teacher Henry John Griffin and his wife, Edith, who both taught until 30 November, 1910 or Headmaster Herbert Shephard and his wife and fellow teacher, Gladys, who left 24 June 1914 (11).
School House looks much the same in modern time, although the metal arched porch is gone, knocked off in the later mid-1900's by Tommy Heard, the proprietor of Timberscombe's Lion Inn while driving his converted Red Deer coach that he used to drive guests staying at the inn and to deliver the newspapers (12).
The gentlemen are carrying staffs adorned with flowers and ribbons, a feature of the Timbercombe Processions, as well as a flower in their labels. They are followed by women (one pushing a baby carriage) and children. The men, traditionally would be headed to St. Petrocks Church, for a late breakfast. What they paid for the meal, would help fund the Friendly Society (13). Other stops might be made at a village fair, perhaps to play some sport at the club field (14) and certainly visits to the Lion Inn and pre 1915, the Rose and Crown, before it lost it's license in that year (15). The Rose and Crown was located along the old Dunster Road, on the way to the farmhouse Duddings, where the Club Walk often finished (16). The final Timberscombe Club walk is remembered as being in 1939 (17) and the Timberscombe Society disbanded around 1948 (18).
After the war, Alfred Vowles lived in Brendon, North Devon (19) and around 1927 purchased a house on The Avenue in Minehead (20) that he used as a studio until about 1935 (21). Circa 1940 Vowles left Exmoor and in 1947 he married a woman he had known in the 1920's, the poetess and author, Dorothy Una Phillips (nee Clough, then Ratcliffe) at Chelsea, London. Alfred took Phillips as his surname. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips settling in Edinburgh, where Alfred died on 22 February 1965 (22).
The photograph is labeled, "MEMBERS OF TIMBERSCOMBE CLUB IN THE PROCESSION".
Creator
Alfred Vowles
Source
Date
c. 1910-1914
Contributor
Language
English
Identifier
Timberscombe Club Walk, c. 1910-1914 / Timberscombe / west Timberscombe
Acquisition Date
2020
Acquisition Method
Gift
Category
PEOPLE: Organizations / Timberscombe
EVENTS: Timberscombe Club Walk / Timberscombe
EVENTS: Timberscombe Club Walk / Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
Entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2020
Dimension Type
W X L
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
12.5 X 20
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) "AROUND MINEHEAD FROM OLD PHOTOGRAPHS", by Joan Astell, Amberly Publishing, Stroud Gloucestershire, 2020 (2) 1901 England Census and "Secure the shadow: Somerset Photographers 1839-1939", by Robin Ansell, Allan Collier and Phil Nichols, The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society. 2018 (3) "AROUND MINEHEAD FROM OLD PHOTOGRAPHS" (4) "AROUND MINEHEAD FROM OLD PHOTOGRAPHS" (5) Encyclopedia Britannica, www. britannica.com (6) Encyclopedia.com (7) Victoria County History News Letter, Spring/Fall 2014 (8) Tuesday is proposed by Victoria County History.ac.uk and it is recalled as being on Thursdays (and later on Whit-Mondays) by B. L. K. Henderson and G.O.E. Henderson in "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND IT'S CHURCH, printed by E. Goodman & Son, Ltd.,The Phoenix Press, Taunton, 1955 (9) VCH (10) VCH (11) Timberscombe School LOGBOOK, 4 April 1910- 25 March 1945, pages 13 and 94 (12) as recalled in 2020 by Bernadette Brunker, the current owner of School House (13) VCH (14) "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND IT'S CHURCH" (15) VCH (16) as photographed at SP-113 and recalled at Duddings Holiday Cottages in 2018 (17) "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND IT'S CHURCH (18) VCH (19) "EXMOOR CENTURY", by Hilary Binding, Brian Pearce and Steven Pugsley, Exmoor Books, 2001 (20) "AROUND MINEHEAD FROM OLD PHOTOGRAPHS" (21) "Secure the shadow: Somerset Photographers 1839-1939" (22) artisan harmony.com, England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriages Index, 1916-2005, "Secure the shadow: Somerset Photographers 1839-1939"and Web: UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2014
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2020
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
Item Reference
SP-107
Technique
Copy
Collection
Citation
Alfred Vowles, “The Timbercombe Friendly Society Passing School House, by Alfred Vowles, c. 1910-1914,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 2, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3213.
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