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Phil Nichols

Discoveries from a Clevedon Photograph

Posted on 13th November 2020

A portrait of a couple in a farmyard, with the photographer’s name given as Sydney Shaw of Alexandra Road, Clevedon This was a ‘cabinet card’ photograph that my colleague Allan Collier had acquired several years ago, as part of our project on the photographers of Somerset, and published by the Society in 2018 as “Secure the shadow : Somerset photographers, 1839-1939” Based on the format of the photograph, and the style of dress being worn, we estimated this to be somewhere about... more

Finding and dating unknown family photos

Posted on 26th September 2018

As anyone interested in family history will know when facts come to light that enable a name to be added to a family tree it is not long before starting to wonder what this person might have looked like Many of us will have photographs back to our grandparents and some are lucky to be able to go back to the great grandparents but beyond this it may well be much more difficult It is often tricky too to travel out sideways as great uncles and aunts and all the associated cousins are likely to... more

Somerset Photographers 1839-1939

Posted on 25th June 2018

On 31 August 1844, an advertisement in the Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser announced that, during the following week at the Bowling Green, Warwick “Master Augustus Gyngell, only eight years of age, the child with the iron nerve, will make his daring and astonishing flight across the Green, from an immense altitude, surrounded with fireworks, as the Spirit Ariel, travelling at the rate of 200 miles an hour” We’ve not found a report which might have verified the height or the speed of... more

Remembering a Generation

Posted on 1st January 2016

In November 2015 the Society published Remembering a Generation The World War One servicemen of West and Middle Chinnock by Phil Nichols, who describes the origins of his research and new contacts he has made as a result of the publication While writing this book, I came to see how little I had appreciated the significance of the war memorials, both inside and outside of our two village churches, and the names inscribed on those memorials It was very clear, however, that the collective... more

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