Matron Sarah Turner

More from our camera club outing in Saltaire...

This is 'Matron Sarah Turner', the first matron of Sir Titus Salt's Hospital, which was set up in 1868 to provide medical services to workers at Salts Mill who were injured at work. It later expanded to provide treatment for those in the local community. Matron was a 'Nightingale Nurse', trained at St Thomas' Hospital in London in accordance with the philosophy and practice of the founder of nurse training there, Florence Nightingale.  She seemed a very no-nonsense character, as you might imagine an old-style matron to be. She says her mantra is 'to purge or not to purge'! She was quite willing to dole out the laudanum, as you can tell! 

In real life, Sheila is an actor and singer, and also plays historical roles as 'Mrs Moore', the mill manager's wife at Bradford Industrial Museum, and 'Frances Tempest', wife of Sir Richard Tempest, Colonel in the Royalist Army during the English Civil War 1642-1649, who lived at Bolling Hall in Bradford.  

More information on Saltaire Village Experience and the Walks can be found HERE. 

Pollie Toothill

I organised a summer outing in Saltaire for my camera club. We were joined by two of the local costumed guides from Saltaire Village Experiences and we all had a lot of fun, trying out different locations in the village for photos. The guides are well used to conducting groups of people on walks around Saltaire and sharing its history, mostly real but occasionally somewhat 'embellished', I think. So not only did we get some photos but we also got a few interesting snippets of info. 

This is 'Pollie Toothill', wife of Sylvester Toothill. If she'd known what a rum character her husband would turn out to be, she may not have married him. His father, Edward, was the curator at the Saltaire Institute (now Victoria Hall) so they lived in the basement flat there, with her in-laws. Sylvester was often mentioned in the local press; seems he led Pollie a bit of a dance, living in different locations and having several scrapes with the law! She seemed cheerful enough though, and was apparently a bit of a chanteuse, entertaining villagers with performances at the Institute.

In real life, Joanne is also a bit of a chanteuse, working as a singer (aka Lucienne de Ville) specialising in French chansons, jazz and swing. She also works in schools promoting science and engineering via exciting and fun projects. She's a lovely, bubbly character and I'm happy that I caught some of that life in my portraits of her. 

More information on Saltaire Village Experience and the Walks can be found HERE. 

Happy birthday

Happy 10th birthday to my beautiful granddaughter. She was sweet enough to pose for some photos last time she visited me. I was grateful both for her patience whilst I fiddled around with my camera and for her amazing ability to strike poses like a real model. I wanted somehow to capture a glimpse of who she is at this significant milestone, as she moves into the 'pre-teen years'. I think I got it! 

She loves Minecraft and Lego (and builds some amazing houses), reads a lot (particularly fond of comic books and graphic novels for kids). She's physically strong and brave, enjoying walking and climbing and yet she's sensitive too, concerned - like a lot of children - about the state of the world and the plight of people less fortunate than herself. She's also a brilliant 'big sister' and it warms my heart to see how well she and her little sis get on, and how kind and thoughtful she can be. 

It seems ages but also bizarrely only like yesterday that she made her appearance in the world, rather suddenly and 8 weeks early. If I'd known then how healthy, strong, brave and bright she would be by the age of ten, I wouldn't have worried nearly as much! 

I love you to the moon and back, my precious first granddaughter, and I always will. ❤︎