Directory of Early Photographers in Norfolk, Sources and Conventions

Coverage:

Though appearing in some Suffolk trade directories, Great Yarmouth and Thetford were and are in Norfolk, so they are included in this listing. Lowestoft is in Suffolk (in spite of the fact that some trade directories added it to Norfolk), so it is not covered by this listing. Gorleston and Southtown Yarmouth were part of Suffolk and appeared in Suffolk directories. But some photographers worked both in Great Yarmouth and in its southern extensions, so their full careers appear both here and in the Suffolk list.

Abbreviations:

The following abbreviations are used for Norfolk sources:

AN Aubrey's Norfolk

CLN Colman’s Norwich

CN Craven's Norfolk

CY Cobb's Great Yarmouth

EN Eyre’s Norwich

FP Finger Post (Great Yarmouth)

GY Godfrey's Great Yarmouth

HAM Hamilton’s Norwich

HN Harrod's Norfolk & Norwich

IDT Ipswich & District Trades Directory

JN Jarrold’s Norwich

KL Kelly’s Directory of King’s Lynn

KN Kelly's Norfolk

KY Kelly's Great Yarmouth

LNA Lynn News Almanack & Diary

LR King's Lynn Red Book

MN Mathieson’s Norwich

MS Morris' Suffolk

NH Norfolk Handbook

NTC National Telephone Company Directory

SL Sconce's Illustrated Almanack, King's Lynn

SY Steer's Great Yarmouth

TAL Thew & Sons' Almanac Companion, King's Lynn

TC Town & County's Eastern Counties of England

TL Turner's King's Lynn

WN White's Norfolk

WS White's Suffolk

Evidence has been drawn from:

AN 1916

CLN 1877

CN 1856

CY 1863

EN 1883

FP 1859

GY 1874

HAM 1879

HN 1863, 1868, 1872, 1877

IDT 1906/7

JN 1911, 1914

KL 1928, 1930/31, 1932/33, 1934/35, 1936/37, 1938/39

KN 1858, 1865, 1869, 1875, 1879, 1883, 1888, 1892, 1896, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1922, 1925, 1929, 1933, 1937

KY 1911/12, 1913/14, 1915/16

LNA 1885-1889, 1891, 1892

LR 1894-1901

MN 1867

MS 1868

NH 1866

NTC 1909

SL 1904-1910, 1912-1915

SY circa 1878

TAL 1895, 1908

TC 1901, 1932

TL 1901

WN 1854, 1864, 1883, 1890

WS 1874, 1885, 1892

(Post-1916 editions of trade directories have been used only to follow the later careers of photographers already established in Lynn by 1916.)

Abbreviations, as indicated, are also used for the following additional sources of information:

Adamson: More Early Studios (2), K P Adamson, The Photographic Journal (Royal Photographic Society), July 1988

Adamson 2: Professional Photographers in Lincolnshire, K P Adamson, Royal Photographic Society, 1993

Appleby: The Magic Boxes: Professional Photographers and their Studios in North Essex, 1845-1937, David & John Appleby, Essex Record Office, 1992.

Austin: The Search for Eugenia Fynch. The Story of Norfolk's Unknown Victorian Photographers, Janis Austin, Jayne Greenacre & Brtian Grint, Acle Community Archive group, 2011

Cory: Norwich Carte-De-Visite Photographers, David Cory, in Bygones 5, edited by Dick Joice, Boydell Press, 1980

Dimond: Developing the Picture: Queen Alexandra and the Art of Photography, Frances Dimond, Royal Collection Publications, 2004

Everitt: Norfolk Through a Lens, Clare Everitt, Norfolk Library and Information Service, 2012

Fairground Ancestors: UK Fairground Ancestors website at http://members.shaw.ca/pauline777/Visual.html

Hallett: Professional Photographers in Cheltenham, 1841-1914, Michael Hallett, Royal Photographic Society, 1986

Heathcote: A Faithful Likeness, The First Photographic Portrait Studios in the British Isles, 1841-1855, Bernard & Pauline Heathcote, Heathcote, 2000

Hepworth: Victorian & Edwardian Norfolk from Old Photographs, Philip Hepworth, Batsford, 1972

Linkman: The Victorians – Photographic Portraits, Audrey Linkman, Tauris Parke, 1993

Pritchard: A Directory of London Photographers 1841-1908, Michael Pritchard, PhotoResearch, 1994

Savin & Holden: The Streets of Cromer, notes by A S Savin and C C Holden in the Cromer Museum

Locations:

Certain Norfolk town names are commonly abbreviated, and the shorter form is customarily used in the record of entries. It should therefore be noted that:

Dereham is the same as East Dereham.

Downham is the same as Downham Market.

Hunstanton is the same as Hunstanton St Edmunds & New Hunstanton. (‘Hunstanton St Edmunds’ tends to appear up to the mid-1890s and ‘New Hunstanton’ thereafter, but ‘Hunstanton' may be found at any time.)

Lynn is the same as King's Lynn.

Wells is the same as Wells-next-the-Sea (or Wells-on-Sea, as it was sometimes called in the 19th century).

Yarmouth is the same as Great Yarmouth.

Lost Information

In 1994 a disastrous fire at the Library and Norfolk Record Office in Norwich destroyed almost the entire range of trade directories held in the Norfolk Studies collection. Other libraries in the county fortunately had good holdings of Norfolk directories, but some information covering the city of Norwich was lost. Some years before the fire, however, David Cory made the study of Norwich photographers listed above, and his work includes details not found in the sources used for this listing. So it is with relief and a strong sense of indebtedness that a number of references to his findings have been added to this Norfolk directory.

The following conventions have been adopted for the ordering and presentation of entries:

Individuals are listed before any partnerships that include them.

Partnerships appear under the names of both (or all) partners.

Where a photographer embarked on more than one partnership, those partnerships are listed in alphabetical order of the partner who is not the focus of the entry.

Addresses are listed in order of their earliest appearance.

Imprecise addresses (those which name only the town/village, or those which give a street but no number) are recorded separately. They may, of course, refer to a studio listed more precisely elsewhere in that photographer’s entry.

Additional notes are set in italics.

Emerson and Martin

Two famous professionals with Norfolk connections (Emerson and Martin) have been included in the listing, despite their lack of a commercial base in the county. A work covering Norfolk photographers would have seemed incomplete without them.

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