Derbyshire Photographers Profiles : George Henry Chell of Belper
Derbyshire Photographers' Profiles
by Brett Payne, of Tauranga, New Zealand
George Henry Chell

of Belper

George H. Chell worked as a photographer briefly in Belper in the late 1890s.


Go straight to Portfolio


George Henry Chell was born in Belper, Derbyshire in 1868, only son of an iron foundry millwright William Chell and his wife Harriet. As a young man, George followed his father into the foundry trade, and in the 1891 Census described himself as a pattern maker.  A year later, he married Alberta Susannah Morrell at Belper; they had two children, Clarence William in 1893 and Gladys in 1895.  By the time of the 1901 Census, They had moved to Eccleshall Bierlow, near Sheffield, where George had become a foundry foreman.

Several cabinet cards by G.H. Chell of Belper, probably taken in the late 1890s, are known.  The George Henry Chell described above is the only candidate found, and it seems likely that he spent a short time working as a photographer in Belper in the mid- to late 1890s, before moving to Sheffield.  Trade directories for 1895 and 1899 show his father William Chell working as a picture frame maker.  In 1881, the Chell family had lived next door to chemist and druggist named William Burkinshaw, whose son Harold also became a photographer in Belper in the late 1890s.  It is possible, although speculative, that George Chell and Harold Birkinshaw worked together.  Alternatively, one or both of them may have worked at another Belper studio, run by Norman J. McAuslan (1861-1905).

Portfolio
Image © & courtesy of Cynthia Maddock
Unidentified young boy
by G.H. Chell of Belper
Undated, but probably taken in the late 1890s

Format: Cabinet Card

Image © & courtesy of Cynthia Maddock

Notes: It is possible that this photograph is a copy


Image © & courtesy of Cynthia Maddock Unidentified child
by G.H. Chell of Belper
Undated, but probably taken in the late 1890s

Format: Cabinet Card

Image © & courtesy of Cynthia Maddock


Notes:

Image © & courtesy of Adrian Farmer Unidentified family group, woman, child and man
by G. Chell of Brook Terrace, Belper
Undated, but probably taken in the late 1890s

Format: Cabinet Card

Image © & courtesy of Adrian Farmer


Notes:

Image © & courtesy of Cynthia Maddock Unidentified group of women, possibly dressed in Mikado costumes
by G. Chell of Brook Terrace, Belper
Undated, but probably taken in the late 1890s

Format: Cabinet Card

Image © & courtesy of Cynthia Maddock

Notes:

References
Images kindly provided by Adrian Farmer and Cynthia Maddock 
1841-1901 UK Census - online from Ancestry.com
FreeBMD
Anon (1891) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland & Nottinghamshire, Kelly & Co., London. University of Leicester's Digital Library of Historical Directories
Anon (1895) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, Kelly & Co. Limited, London.
Anon (1895) History, Topography, and Directory of Derbyshire, T. Bulmer & Co. - by kind courtesy of Sonia Addis-Smith
Anon (1899) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland & Nottinghamshire, Kelly & Co., London. University of Leicester's Digital Library of Historical Directories
Anon (1912) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire 1912, Kelly's Directories Ltd., London.

Home Page
Index to Photographers
Photographer Profiles
Contribute an Image
South Derbyshire Genealogy

Back to the Top


© 2002-2008 Brett Payne All Rights Reserved