Matlock and Matlock Bath Images: Mrs. Wildgoose's Servants

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Mrs. Wildgoose's Servants : Life in Domestic Service

People who lived in the Matlocks : Photographs, Postcards, Engravings & Etchings

The series of five photographs below are from the album of Mrs. Robert Wildgoose and are of the female staff she employed. They were taken when Mrs. Wildgoose lived at The Gables on Chesterfield Road, but all the women were employed after 1901 as Mrs. Wildgoose was employing different staff at the time of the 1901 census. Dating the pictures exactly is harder as Mrs. Wildgoose did not always include a date for her photos.

The album now belongs to the Ash family and was in the possession of Ray Ash's step-grandmother Ash (Dora May Wheeldon before her marriage). The images published here with kind permission of Ray Ash

General Info

1 Florence Johnson was a favourite subject and here she is photographed standing in front of the house wearing her best dress, probably taken between 1905 and 1907.

1. Florence Johnson, photographed at The Gables by Mrs. Robert Wildgoose. Image Scan © Ray Ash

2 Another photograph of Florence, but this time in the garden, also probably taken between 1905 and 1907.

2. Florence Johnson wearing a hat, photographed at The Gables by Mrs. Robert Wildgoose. Image Scan © Ray Ash

3 Florence again, this time wearing her maid's uniform and shown with "Rags", the dog. Mrs. Wildgoose took quite a few photographs of her pets.

3. Florence Johnson and "Rags", photographed at The Gables by Mrs. Robert Wildgoose. Image Scan © Ray Ash

4 Three female servants: Minnie is standing at the back, with the maids Selina and Florence seated. Unfortunately, the surnames of two of the girls aren't recorded in the album but it is nice to see Mrs. Wildgoose used their Christian names.

4. Minnie, Selina and Florence, photographed at the Gables by Mrs. Robert Wildgoose. Image Scan ;copy; Ray Ash

5 The final one of the set shows Selina holding baby Arthur Edward, Florence's first child after she married Walter [Arthur] Roddis in the September quarter of 1908 in Belper District. This photograph was taken in 1909; the baby could have been in christening robes but this isn't certain. Baby Arthur's birth was registered in Sheffield in the June quarter. Florence kept in contact with Mrs. Wildgoose, at least in the early years of her marriage, as there is another photograph (not published here) of Florence, Arthur and his slightly younger brother Archie that was taken in 1912. Archie's birth was registered in the Belper District in 1910 (September).

5. Selina and Baby Roddis, photographed at The Gables by Mrs. Robert Wildgoose. Image Scan © Ray Ash

Information and image scans Ray Ash and are intended for personal use only.
If you have any further information about the identity of anyone in the photographs we would really appreciate knowing ourselves. Please contact both the webmistress and Ray Ash