Glimpse of Wirral family’s idyllic life ... in pictures

Oct 28 2009 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

A GLIMPSE of an idyllic Wirral family life, before the outbreak of World War One, has gone on show in a Wirral art gallery.

A collection of more than 500 glass plates were discovered in a cupboard under the stairs at a house in Mill Brow, Bebington.

The photographs cast light on an era long forgotten ... a tale of innocence, showing steps along a path to modernity.

Entitled An Edwardian Family Album, the exhibition is now on show at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

Each image was taken by draughtsman, Jack Urton, an amateur photographer of some skill, who surely had no idea a century later his work would feature in Wirral’s most eminent gallery.

Nearly all the pictures are taken outdoors and show the Edwardian zeal for activity, family, nature and idolisation of the child.

The photos found the light after being handed to enthusiast, David Price, who died in 2008.

His wife, Heather picked up the mantle to bring the exhibition to fruition.

Heather told Wirral News: “I think the pictures are lovely and show how much family life drove things.

“You think of that era as one in which children were seen and not heard but they were obviously doing a lot of things together.”

A photograph of a draughtsman’s office is a fascinating study of the Edwardian workplace, while other images of leisure give real insight into those living on this cusp of modernity.

Beach trips involve huge volumes of kit; a tent, model sailing boat, kites, crockery, flags, a kettle.

A 1908 shot on Wallasey sandhills brings this into sharp relief, as the idealised family mingle in front of the abstract shapes of boxkites, resting behind them against the dunes.

Jack Urton died in 1940, his wife, Biddy in 1958, while the girls, Lois and Mary, remained in their Mill Brow family home until their deaths in 1968 and 1979 respectively.

l An Edwardian Family Album is on show at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight from October 23 to May 3, 2010.

l Wirral Arts – Page 24