Pictures tell stories but this photo led me on a right merry dance!

Family myths, they can quite often turn out to have some truths in them. Probably 15 or more years ago the MIL showed me a photo and oh the stories that were in that single photo. What she knew though? very little, a family wedding ... and probably Yorkshire. Nothing else to go on. No names, photographer and only the door to an impressive looking house!

14 years ago I posted the wedding photo on a facebook page, before then, it actually got published in a magazine... no leads. THEN I came across this year a FB Unidentified photos of the British Isles page. I tried a photo we had also puzzled over for years... that of Unk .... Francis Elaine Abbott , their partner Audrey , and friends and chauffeurs sitting on a beach. I was blown away when the location was identified as Dale, Pembrokeshire. Even in that small photo there is so much to be told. One of the chauffeurs was called Rapley... and the lady in the visor? She made jigsaws we are told!

Another photo I added... this time my grandfather, playing clarinet ...middle row and second from the right.I had a good idea it was Leeds Metropolitan Police Band and within a short time once again these photo sleuths had pinpointed the building to Park Square, Leeds. The year around 1921.

The super-sleuths did the impossible with a third one... Barden Tower! It was an obscure angle as well. I still need to return to who the people were as it also suggests a wedding. That photo is in my Gt Aunts (by marriage) photo album and the Young family of Leeds. You have to recognised the place to identify it as no amount of searching would I have found it.

Yesterday, I added the wedding photo. It had taken me a while to re-find it and in all honesty I had zero expectations. This was my Mother in Laws photo and she passed away some time ago. There were plenty of comments and a few suggestions in the facebook group, then James came up with a possibility: Birdingbury Hall near Coventry. I have a hunch that I have seen a random place near Coventry come up on a census for one of the family so I must go back and check that. A few looks on the internet and I was staggered to find at last a name for this building!

Oh but the powers of that group didn't end there... before long Caroline in the group had added a possibly marriage, another confirming the likely date to be 1893/4 .

Mr Edward Wallis Nelson married Miss Clare Ellen Blyth. She was daughter of Mr Thomas P Blyth who was a lime and cement manufacturer. Thursday afternoon, July 26th 1894 ! We had the wedding !

Caroline then found a newspaper extract and there among the many many names of the visitors were my husbands family. Mr Henry Foster Shattock , his wife (Charlotte Rice Allerton) and his daughter who would have been Mabel Foster Shattock. The newspaper even went on to give the detail of the fact they had gifted a silver bon-bon dish .

So there we have it .... a story waiting to be told now told.

This seems to be a bit of a theme this summer. I am so amazed that the story of this photo from 132 years ago is once more known.

But look closer ... what other stories do you find? The bride has her foot on a dog, how many servants are peering out of the windows? Whats on the wall inside the hall? Its a photo that is more than a formal wedding photo, more of a practice photo or one where they all relaxed.

Thank you to all that helped solve this mystery and the others too. There is something of a wonderful conclusion in bringing these people and places to life once more.