May Day was celebrated at local schools by dances around the maypole and election of the May Queen and her attendants. Picture:
Dacorum Heritage Trust
His father died suddenly in 1903. The bereaved family eventually settled at Oxford Villa in St John’s Road, Boxmoor, (opposite Parry’s Newsagents today). Edward continued working for Mr Smith as a cabinet maker for a further three years and during this time he made contacts with the local gentry which stood him in good stead later. After a short stay in Kilburn, he returned to Boxmoor in 1907 to work for Fred Gower, ironmonger, of 83 St John’s Road. The Gower Brothers were well-known local builders, with premises in Sebright Road.
A snowy scene near the old Star Cottages on Blackbirds’ Moor, looking towards Wharf Road, on 24 April 1908. Picture:
Dacorum Heritage Trust
Photographers were still fairly rare in the early 1900s. People would be in no hurry for the completion of an order and they would understand that images did not always ‘take’. In the Boxmoor area there was another commercial photographer, Mr H. Margrave of Catlin Street, who encouraged the young Edward in this field.
Edward himself had no special premises nor studio, but used the box-room over the front door for day-work and the scullery for developing and printing after the family had gone to bed. By 1910, he appears to have standardised the production and sale of postcards, with his name on the back. They would have been taken on a half plate stand or field camera, which he would have transported, together with his tripod, on his bicycle.
Getting ready for the Hospital Parade on the Moor (opposite the former Baptist Church on London Road). Local people regularly contributed to the West Herts. Hospital and processions were a popular part of their fundraising efforts. Picture:
Dacorum Heritage Trust
Sadly, in a subsequent move to Hendelayk, (above Boxmoor Station), all his negatives were lost. Edward and his family returned to Hendon in December 1931. When he eventually died in 1969, he left behind a legacy of 200 photographs of the Boxmoor area for the period 1898 – 1912. The people he photographed loved to dress up and they loved their sports, fetes and processions – providing a wonderful social record of the turn of the century, which is now preserved at the Dacorum Heritage Trust’s Museum Store in Berkhamsted.
Edward Sammes at the door of his workshop on the corner of Wharf and Kingsland Roads. There is a daylight printing frame on the steps. This photo was taken by his fiancee, Ella Sharp
Dacorum Heritage Trust
By Joan and Roger Hands
3rd November 2010