The photograph arrived in the same package as Bessy Ling. All we were told is that it recorded a marriage on Little Hallam Hill near the Bull’s Head. The gentleman’s frock coat and topper were used on formal occasions from the end of the 19th century into the 1920s, but the wedding gown and the large hat suggests that it is between 1905 and 1915. There were three or four eligible bachelors in Little Hallam at the time and two weddings.
The first likely candidates are Samuel Parker and Miriam Cole Hinchley. His family ran Little Hallam Farm; she was from Newthorpe, the daughter of a charwoman and worked as a bottle maker at the Eastwood Brick and Pottery Company. While involved in the farm, George also trained as a butcher and later had a shop on Nottingham Road. At the time of their wedding in 1914, he was 27 and she was 20.
Alternatively, it could be Benjamin Tatham who was the licensee at the Bull’s Head. He had started his working life as a lacemaker in Ilkeston. His wife, Edith Mary Hallam, was the niece of the hosts at the Gladstone Inn in Market Street. Another aunt was a draper and milliner. They were married in 1909 when he was 39 and she 23.
But it could be an entirely different couple. If anyone knows any better, please let us know.
