Joseph Buckley, Photographer

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I have just come across your web site in the course of researching my family tree.  I have several carte vistes taken by my great great grandfather, Joseph Buckley Joseph was a photographer from Daisy Nook,Ashton-under-Lyne Lancashire from around 1874 till his death in 1903 - Neill Buckley

Joseph Buckley Photographer of Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, UK. - working as a photographer (1874-1903) Joseph Buckley

Between 1861 and 1871, whilst at 53 Hillgate Street, Joseph established himself as a Stationer and began his career as a photographer around 1874. I have one of his earliest photographs taken of a young man printed on card measuring 2�" x 4". On the reverse is inscribed the name "J Buckley, Hurst, Photographic Studios, Photographer, Artist, Picture Framer and Stationer &r". The premises are "51.53 Hillgate Street".

In 1879 the family eventually left Hillgate Street and moved to the small hamlet of Waterhouses in Ashton to begin what was to be a very busy and fruitful venture. The 1888 Slater’s Royal National Directory of Ashton-under-Lyne, Dukinfield, Hyde and Stalybridge makes reference to Joseph Buckley "Photographer and Dining Rooms Daisy Nook". The same Slater’s Directory has their old house at 53 Hillgate Street as a "Post receiving house", home of Samuel Shirt, Stationer.

Waterhouses

The small hamlet of Waterhouses, standing on the banks of the River Medlock in Ashton had been "popularised" through the writings of the Failsworth poet Ben Brierley. Some 30 years before Joseph and his family moved to Daisy Nook, Brierley had written a short story called "A Day Out". The tale was set in a fictitious village that Brierley named "Daisy Nook". It concerned the visit of a gentleman from Manchester out for a walk on 8.9.1855 in celebration of the fall of Sebastopol during the Russian Crimean War. On approaching the area he was told by a village maiden ("and no bad specimen neither") "cannot you see the smoke amongst the trees there?... Daisy Nook is just beyond". A well-known local artist, Charles Potter, is credited with guessing that Brierley's "Daisy Nook" was the hamlet of Waterhouses.

Daisy Nook

Daisy Nook

Daisy Nook remains a local beauty spot to this day and still plays host to the traditional Easter fun fair. The fairground owners, Sillcocks have attended since 1920. The area has featured extensively on early postcards. One of Joseph’s own views is shown here.

Joseph clearly saw the commercial possibilities of the area and he set about converting three cottages in Daisy Nook into refreshment rooms and a photography business. According to his son Walter Buckley, writing some years later in the Ashton Reporter, Joseph rented the cottages at 5s 6d a week converting them into one, naming them "Owd Abs Cottage" after Brierley's pen name "Ab-o'th'-Yate". The row of houses became known locally as Ben Brierley Terrace and such was the success of the business that Joseph became known as "Owd Ab".

Owdabs Cottage

Owd Abs Cottage

Joseph was a very practical man and set about transforming the three storey cottages and adjacent land into a popular tourist attraction. He whitewashed the cottages and erected a sign "J Buckley Photographer" to advertise his studios. Members of his family and customers had their portraits taken sitting in a small rowing boat in front of backcloths depicting scenes from the Isle of Man. One such photograph features my great grandfather, Wilfred Schofield Buckley taken when he was a small boy. The photography business was also advertised on the gable end of the cottages with the splendid slogan "Secure Your Shadow Ere The Substance Fades".

Joseph sold his postcard views of the locality and some of these photographs survive to this day. The photographs in my possession are backed on to stiff card with the name "J Buckley & Sons, photographic artist of Daisy Nook" on the reverse. The Owd Ab’s Cottage in Daisy Nook is shown here. The wooden sign at the right of the photograph advertises BUCKLEY PHOTOGRAPHER.

Winifred M Bowman, in her 1948 book "Five Thousand Acres of Old Ashton", refers to Waterhouses and Daisy Nook with some affection. At the time she is friends with surviving Buckleys through her role on the local councils and adds "you can tell a Buckley anywhere by the fair hair and apple-blossom complexion".

One particular photograph was reproduced in an Ashton Reporter of 1953 depicting Joseph's sons and the Taunton football team. The reverse of the picture apparently carried an advertisement for Daisy Nook and "Owd Abs Cottage":

Owd Abs Cottage, Daisy Nook. A most Interesting and Pleasant Place of Resort for Pic-Nics and Private Parties. Miles of lovely walks with Rustic and Romantic Scenery. Visitors will meet with every accommodation at Owd Abs. Tea, Hot Water &c., provided. Schools, &c., liberally treated on application to the proprietor Joseph Buckley, Photographic Artist. A complete gymnasium is provided for visitors, Swings, See-Saws,

Family Group

Several more of these family group photographs have survived. Wife Mary features on one such family gathering stood third from the left with her son Walter on her right. Walter's wife Annis is seated at the right of the middle row.

To attract visitors Joseph constructed an aviary, monkey house, shooting gallery and seven swings in the gardens behind the cottages. People came from miles around to visit "Owd Abs Cottage" and to sample breakfast of Lancashire cheese and muffins. In 1887 Joseph and several local subscribers contributed towards the cost of �175 for the building of the first cart bridge over the Medlock. Other subscribers included Jeffrey Andrew licensee of Red Bills and John Andrew of the Hen Cote, a neighbouring refreshment room. The original footbridge had been washed away by floods on Wakes Sunday in 1886. A local Woodhouses wheelwright and blacksmith Benjamin Ashworth completed the ironwork on the bridge. In later years one of Benjamin's grandchildren, Alice Ashworth, was to marry a grandchild of Joseph's, Wilfred Schofield Buckley (my grandfather).

The Animals

Joseph kept three monkeys, Sally, Jenny and Frank. Frank was the children's favourite, sitting on their shoulders, whilst a donkey, also called Jenny, gave rides along the riverbank up to the bridge near Medlock Hall Farm. The donkey is photographed along with one of Joseph's sons. The Ashton Reporter of 26.2.1898 carried an article about the death of Sally whose burial was attended by the local children:

We have in the past noticed the demise of more than one of the monkeys belonging to Mr. Joseph Buckley, of Daisy Nook, a place celebrated for one particular stuffed of the simian family that will go down to posterity in the literature of Lancashire. Another of Mr Buckley’s monkeys died on Friday last, and was honoured with a decent burial on Saturday. As usual all the young children of the hamlet, good staunch friends of poor "Sally" came out and walked in procession from its last abode to the little meadow adjoining Mr. Buckley’s place. There a nice new grave had been made alongside others of her kin. Owd Ab’s bell was toiled whilst the mournful cortege proceeded to the graveside. A solemn ceremony was gone through, the sad children placing flowers on the coffin lid, which bore the following:-"Sally. Died February 19th, 1898: age not known; interred February 19th. May she rest in peace." All the children were afterwards regaled with monkey nuts, &c., and were evidently very sorry to lose such a merry little friend.

The article reveals that Joseph had a stuffed monkey on display that must have been referred to in some literature preserving its memory! Also that the cottage had a bell known as "Owd Ab’s bell". Mrs Jessie Ratcliffe, the daughter of John Arthur Buckley told me in 1994 that the children that cried the most were rewarded with more sweets, or perhaps more monkey nuts. The unmarked grave of one of the monkeys could still be seen in 1994 on the hillside immediately behind the site where "Owd Ab’s" cottages once stood, marked by a rough rectangle of large stones.

The Dancing Board

Opposite the cottages, across the River Medlock, was the "Dancing Board" where visitors danced for 3d. Joseph's grandchildren were apparently not allowed on the Dancing Board but were encouraged by Auntie Polly Andrew to look under the boards for any money or hairgrips that may have fallen through from above!

The 1881 Census

Joseph and his friends

Joseph and his family are recorded in the 1881 census (RG11/4042 53/55 Page 6) in Waterhouses though no specific addresses are given.

Age last birthday Occupation Birthplace
Joseph Buckley 44 Photographer Ashton-under-Lyne
Mary - wife 44 Photographer Ashton-under-Lyne
Samuel - son 22 Photographer Ashton-under-Lyne
John Arthur - son 11 Scholar Ashton-under-Lyne
Walter - son 9 Scholar Ashton-under-Lyne

During the time Joseph and Mary lived in Daisy Nook they made two trips to the United States, which must have been quite a feat in those days. A reminder of one of their visits remains in the form of a Bible given to Mary and inscribed with the name of a Mr Dennison, Mission Chapel, New Bedford, Massachusetts 1884. In 1987 I wrote to "The Local Newspaper" in New Bedford asking for any information of a Mr Dennison and his Chapel but without reply.

The 1891 Census

The family, minus Samuel who had married Hannah Schofield, is recorded in the 1891 census. Held on 13.4.1891 (RG12/3281 146 Line 163), the census lists the family in houses numbered 22, 24 and 26 Waterhouses, the first reference in the census of house numbering. Joseph's wife was now a "housewife" from being a "photographer" in 1881. Son John Arthur was recorded as aged 19 instead of 21 and had an indecipherable occupation. Youngest son Walter was now employed as a Carter. Both were still "single".

Age Occupation Birthplace
Joseph Buckley 54 Photographer Ashton-under-Lyne
Mary - wife 54 Housekeeper Ashton-under-Lyne
John Arthur - son 19 ?? Ashton-under-Lyne
Walter - son 19 Carter Ashton-under-Lyne

Joseph's Letter of 1896

The most remarkable surviving artefact is a letter written by Joseph to one of his sons from the Isle of Man on his 60th birthday. The letter, given to me by his grand daughter Annis Thompson in 1988, reads:

Sweet Mona the Isle of the Sea September 10th 1896
Dear Son and Daughter
This is from your Pa and dear old Grandad (word unknown) and as the above is my Birthday of 60 years I do myself the honour of addressing you a few lines from a far off Country. I am pleased indeed I am hearty and strong and at the age of 3 score years am stronger than when I made my first appearance on this
stage of so varied and so changeable scenes. Oh what ups and downs in the past some of which I don't want even to recall. Others I should very much like to see over again. As I write these lines memories of the sweet and bitter past are flitting through my minds eye. Oh sweet and happy moments of the sweet days gone by. Days fraught and full to the brim with pleasures I have had in this most beautiful Island and the oftener I come the more I seem to treasure its beauty. My first visit to Sweet Mona was in the year 1860 36 years ago. What great changes since that time. I think I am the only one left of a party of young men who came out with me in that year so you see how most fortunate I have been. What sailings too and fro on this big globe of ours crossing the mighty main for the far off shores of Australia and after many years of great hardship and incessant toil braving the dangers of so varied a life as the bushmans yet through all these changeable and varied scenes some of which were fraught with very great danger - But thankful indeed I am that through them all brought home to other scenes of another kind. Thus it is through them all I am getting to be an old man and every year feel myself some little worse. You know all kinds of machines wear out. Well now this I feel is my lot and what little time I have left I hope to make the very best of it. What I have herein written you is very simple but true nevertheless and as this is my natal day please do me the honour of drinking me a good bumper (?) to my jolly good health for which I most cordially enclose you a sixpenny piece. You can if you like drink either English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, Welch or Manx Whisky but don't get blind drunk now mind that.

Ever your Pa and Grandad

Rhenass Falls

Early in 1996 I wrote to the Isle of Man Examiner asking for help in tracing two of the photographs. One photograph showed Joseph along with members of his family on the Isle in front of an impressive waterfall. The paper printed my letter and the pictures on 5.3.1996 under the title "Have you any of Owd Ab’s photographs?". One reader, Mrs Freda Cain replied the same day and identified the waterfall as Rhenass Falls and the area as Glen Helen. She enclosed a photograph of her family taken in 1986 at the exact same location!

I visited Freda in December of 1997, travelling on a Friday by train to Heysham and ferry to Douglas. I hired a Ford Fiesta for the weekend and stayed with Freda at her bungalow in Port Erin. Before returning by ferry to Liverpool on the Sunday, we visited the Laxey Wheel, the Groundle Glen Hotel and walked to the very spot at Rhenass Falls where Joseph had visited, nearly one hundred years earlier. Unfortunately I was not able to sit on the actual rocks shown in the photograph as the torrent of water from the swollen river prevented me from clambering over the rocks.

Overseer of Littlemoss

Joseph was clearly a well-respected member of the small Daisy Nook community and was appointed an Overseer for the district of Littlemoss. It was carrying out these duties that saw him assaulted by a neighbour, James Hitchens. The court case was covered in the Ashton Reporter of 14.8.1897 under the heading:

  • Assaulting an Overseer at Daisy Nook

    On Wednesday, at the Ashton County Police Court, James Hitchens was charged with assaulting Joseph Buckley. Mr Eaton Solicitor appeared for the complainant. He stated that Mr Buckley was appointed an Overseer for the district of Littlemoss and the defendant resided in the same row at Daisy Nook and was therefore in the district of Littlemoss over which Buckley had jurisdiction. The defendant for some time past had kept a quantity of poultry in the house, and Buckley had to write to the Sanitary Inspector, who came down and ordered their removal and the house stoved. The defendant had nevertheless continued to keep the poultry. On Bank Holiday the defendant got drunk, and having the letters rankling in his breast, he came down to the complainant and threatened violence. The complainant quietly and respectively asked him to go away, but the defendant spat in his face and struck him a violent blow, causing his spectacles to fall off - the defendant was asked to plead and he said he was guilty. The complainant then gave evidence. He said he was seated outside his house and the defendant came up towards him. He was in a drunken state and used bad and disgusting language. He quietly asked the defendant to go away, and the defendant then spat in his face and struck him with his fist. He was only just recovering from a black eye and a bruised nose. The defendant had among other things alleged that the complainant had threatened to shoot his hens if he did not keep them up. He also said that he put his hands on Buckley's palings and Buckley knocked them off. The complainant said he did not give the slightest provocation. Mr Ralph Bates the presiding magistrate told the defendant he had committed a foolish and dastardly assault on a respectable member of Society. He might possibly have some grievance but this was altogether wrong. He would be fined 10s with costs, or in default 14 days. Mr Eaton applied that the defendant might be called upon to pay the advocate's fee, but the magistrate declined to make an order on the ground that Mr Buckley could have proved the case thoroughly himself without an advocate.

  • Joseph's Death

    Joseph’s rather sombre prophecy in his letter of 1896... "this I feel is my lot and what little time I have left...." was a little premature because he lived a further 7 years until aged 66. His obituary in the Ashton Reporter of 13.6.1903 recorded that Joseph fell ill shortly before Easter and gradually grew worse until the end came somewhat suddenly on Whit Friday morning. The report said that on 5.6.1903 "he had just asked for his breakfast and in a few minutes afterwards he expired".

    Joseph Buckley was buried on 8.6.1903 in the graveyard attached to the Methodist New Connexion Church, Queen Street, Hurst that is no longer standing. The funeral was attended by Mary and their three sons and 19 grandchildren, the youngest at the time being son Walter's fourth child, Lena who was born only 6 weeks earlier on 22.4.1903. Lena Simpson was the last surviving grandchild of Owd Ab. Before she moved to a Nursing Home in Millbrook, Stalybridge, Lena and her husband Harold lived at no1 Garden Walk in the same Hillgate area of Ashton where Joseph and his family had lived over a hundred and ten years before.

    Joseph’s obituary also appeared in the Ashton Herald dated 18.6.1903 reporting that he succumbed to heart failure at seven o’clock. His remains were enclosed in an oak coffin with brass mountings, the engraved plate bearing the inscription "Joseph Buckley, died 5th June, in his 67th year".

    The Herald reported that there were five mourners’ coaches which were occupied as follows - First coach, Mrs Joseph Buckley, Mr and Mrs Samuel Buckley, Mr and Mrs John Buckley, Miss Edith Buckley, Mr John Arthur Buckley. In the second coach were Mr and Mrs Walter Buckley and Masters Arthur, Albert, Stanley, Wilfred and Willie Buckley.

    The third coach carried Miss L?? Buckley, Miss Jane Buckley, Miss Annie Buckley, Masters Samuel, Sydney and Harold Buckley, M?? Herbert and J Schofield. The fourth coach had Mrs Wm. Garth, Mr and Mrs H Taylor, Mrs Simpson, Mr J Cropper. The final coach had Mr and Miss Greaves, Mr H McCluskey, Mrs Walker, Mrs Cheetham, Mr Wm. Greenwood, Mr John Turner.

    The route taken was down Newmarket Road, Oldham Road, Wellington Road, Katherine Street and Whiteacre Road to the chapel on Queens Street, Hurst. Several wreaths were received including an anchor "With greatest love" from his dear doves. Another anchor was sent from Mary, his widow. Mrs Andrew and Family from the Hen Cote also sent a wreath.

    Joseph's Will

    Joseph had made his will seven years earlier on 2.3.1896 appointing his three sons to be his Executors. Mary and the three sons were bequeathed all the Estate and effects, real and personal, which were to be divided equally amongst them. The will was signed in the presence of James Garth of Evans Street, Hurst (Mineral Water Manufacturer) and Joseph Cropper, 44 Bridge Street, Hooley Hill (Railway clerk). James Garth was most likely Joseph's brother in law. Both men were clearly family friends as they attended Joseph's funeral and were guests at son Walter's marriage.

    The Greater Manchester Records Office has details of the will of BUCKLEY Joseph, Photographer of Waterhouses Ashton-under-Lyne where the effects were �265.10s. Probate was granted on 2.10.1903 at Manchester to:

    Samuel Buckley Gas rate collector
    John Arthur Buckley Cashier
    Walter Buckley Herb-beer manufacturer

    Photo of Joseph's grandsons, Harold (born 20.9.1894) and Herbert (born 25.4.1896)

    After Joseph's death the cottages passed out of the family's hands. I have discovered in the Reporter of 14.12.1907 a short notice announcing the death of Mary Buckley on 10.12.1907, aged 71, widow of Joseph Buckley; Union Road, Hurst. This fits her age so appears to be Joseph’s wife. There were no traces of Buckley’s in Hurst in the 1891 census, the most recent available.


    Back of Cabinet Card





    Email Contributor: Neill Buckley: [email protected]



    Abridged by R.F.Vaughan using notes from Neill Buckley April 2002


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