Derbyshire Photographers Profiles : Frank N. & Randolph C. Nield of Ripley & Bakewell
Derbyshire Photographers' Profiles
by Brett Payne, of Tauranga, New Zealand
Frank Newton & Randolph Calton Nield

of Ripley & Bakewell

F.N. and R.C. Nield operated a studio in Ripley from 1906 until at least 1932.


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Frank Newton Nield was born at Littleborough, near Rochdale, Lancashire, in 1877, while his younger brother Randolph Calton Nield was born in 1888 at Crewe in Cheshire.  They were sons of a Free Methodist clergyman James William Nield and his wife Hannah née Stott.  In 1891, the family were living in Louth, Lincolnshire, but by 1901 had moved to Ripley in Derbyshire.

Frank Nield had left home and was working as an "operator and retoucher to (a) photographer."  He also moved to Ripley, and appears to have opened a studio in Oxford Street in 1906.  He also had a branch studio at 83 Middleton Road in Loughborough (Leicestershire) in 1908.  Randolph Nield joined his brother in the business prior to 1912, and Frank appears to have withdrawn in 1913.  Run by Randolph, the studio continued operating in Oxford Street, Ripley, with a possible branch in Bakewell, until at least the early 1930s.

Portfolio
Image © & courtesy of Roy Sims
Unidentified young woman
by Randolph C. Nield of Oxford St, Ripley
Date

Format: Post Card
Size:

Images © & courtesy of Roy Sims

Notes by RS: Several portraits (of whom only one was identifed) were all taken late twenties to early thirties. My mother, prior to her marriage in 1934, was employed at Strutt's cotton mill in Belper.  It seems the practice amongst the girls was to have photographs taken and then hand copies to friends in the mill.  This is undoubtedly how she aquired so many.  I hope someone might even identify the subjects who I feel probably come from the Belper/Heage/Milford area.

Image © & courtesy of Roy Sims

References
Images kindly provided by Roy Sims
1841-1901 UK Census - online from Ancestry.com
FreeBMD
International Genealogical Index - online from the LDS church
North East Midland Photographic Record - Picture the Past
Anon (1912) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire 1912, Kelly's Directories Ltd., London.
Anon (1932) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire 1932, Kelly's Directories Ltd., London.
Adamson, Keith I.P. (1997) Professional Photographers in Derbyshire 1843 - 1914, The PhotoHistorian, No. 118 Supplement, September 1997, ISSN 0957-0209. Courtesy of John Bradley.

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