Brislington Community Museum

Walter Hepworth

This photographer produced real photographic postcards of Brislington and elsewhere in the Bristol area.

Walter Hepworth was born in the late summer of 1885 at Milnsbridge west of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, to Hannah and Lewis Hepworth. The 1891 census shows Lewis had already died, and Walter's mother and older brother were living with her mother in nearby Lockwood. Hannah was employed as a cotton reeler (her late husband had been employed as a cotton twiner).

The 1901 census shows the family at their own address in Lockwood. Walter worked as an apprentice thread and slay maker (slays are wooden pegs or reeds used to separate threads).

In November 1906 Walter married Margaret Davison, a 21-year old spinster working as a lady's companion. They were married by certificate at the Wesleyan Methodist Church, Crosland Moor (near Lockwood). He was a bachelor and working as a twine merchant's traveller. Her father, who had worked as a farmer, was deceased.

Margaret was born in Scagglethorpe, Yorkshire, in or around 1885. The 1891 census shows the family of seven living at Westow (Yorkshire) - her mother was Jane and father was Francis who worked as a self-employed farmer. A decade later the 1901 census shows her parents and nine children were living at nearby Firby. Margaret was now working as a domestic servant, and her father was still working as a self-employed farmer.

The 1911 census shows the couple living in St Paul's, Bristol, with two sons (the elder born at Westow, and the younger born in St Paul's) and his mother. Walter now worked as a commercial traveller for a fine art publisher.

In the spring of 1923, having journeyed from her home in the Gloucester Road, Bristol, to Manor Farm, Westow (where, in 1911 her siblings and her mother farmed), Margaret died.

From 1928 Walter Hepworth was advertising in at least one Bristol directory as a photographer at 66 Church Road, Horfield. He didn't advertise between 1932 and 1934 but then did so again until 1947 (Vaughan 2012).

In 1939 the register shows Walter, having married again, working as a commercial photographer and living at 66 Church Road, Bristol with his son Walter (born in 1913, working as a schoolmaster) and Laura Hepworth, two years younger than Walter senior, and also married - presumably his wife.

Laura's death was registered in Bristol in the last quarter of 1953. It appears Walter returned to his native Yorkshire, and died - it's thought - in 1970.


Brislington postcards

St Anne's Wood - Three Pools. St Anne's Wood. Series number 113.

St Anne's Wood - Three Pools. St Anne's Wood. Published online at Bristol Archives. Published in print by Fisher, Janet & Derek undated, page 40. Series number 114. Earliest known picture: 2 Jul 1926.

St Anne's Wood - Rustic Bridge, St Anne's Wood. Published online at Bristol Archives. Series number 115.

St Anne's Wood - Rustic Bridge, St Anne's Wood. Series number 116.


Ken Taylor


Bibliography

Vaughan, Roger 2012, Bristol Photographers UK (1852 1972), Lehi (Utah, USA), Ancestry, https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~victorianphotographs/history/search/bristolphotographers.htm (accessed 17 Mar 2023).


We can't exhibit these postcards until we have permission from the copyright owner, and regrettably we don't yet know who that is.