Mystery Wedding Photographs Found In Chiswick
Help needed to identify the owners of album left on wall
A Chiswick resident has appealed for help to trace the owners of a wedding album left on the wall outside his house. Readers of the ChiswickW.com forum have also taken up the challenge to find the owners of the photographs.
The album, entitled ‘Wedding’ contains pages of black and white photographs of the bride/groom, ushers, parents and friends. There are no captions and no indication of who they might be.
The photographer listed is Mr. Hardwick of Weston-super-Mare.
The album was left on the wall outside a house in Riverview Grove, near Strand-on-the Green last Sunday (Nov 18).
Chiswick website reader and regular contributor to the Forum, Jim Lawes has also taken up the challenge of tracing the family involved.
Jim says; "They were married at Corpus Christi Church in Weston-Super-Mare and from the fashions worn we believe the wedding took place in the late 1960s (maybe 1968 ish) or the 1970s. We think that perhaps a brief case or document case was stolen from a residential property and the thief (kindly) decided to abandon the Family Wedding Album in the street."
On the local website Forum (www.chiswickw4.com) readers dealt with a similar case just four weeks ago and the search ended successfully using the Forum, Flickr and Twitter. The case reunited the owners of a photograph album which was abandoned on the street after thieves had stolen a car in which the album was left overnight along with other property. The Chiswick sleuths used social media to identify a graduate and her parents in one of the photographs.
Here is a picture of the interior of the Church with the couple at the Altar, provided by Jim.
www.flickr.com/photos/finlandia_175/8204796343/
The Church keeps a Register of all marriages and during the 1960s/1970 when there could have been 600 or more such services. The photographer is listed in the Album as Mr Hardwick of Weston-Super-Mare. It’s likely that the Bride was a local girl and the Bridegroom could be from anywhere. Here is the Wedding Party on the steps of Corpus Christi Church again provided by Jim Lawes.
www.flickr.com/photos/finlandia_175/8204144986/
Jim and his fellow forum readers have contacted the Weston Mercury Newspaper who may run the story, and have been in touch with the local Family History Society. Regarding Mr Hardwick the photographer, they plan to contact Hardwick Engineering in the town and there may be other photographers to seek leads.
"We believe the couple or their children moved to West London, maybe Chiswick and we are spreading the word in this area. We plan to approach local Roman Catholic Churches and their congregations. So, we are endeavouring to hand the historic Family Album back to its owners if we can find them and we all plan to enjoy the journey to solve the mystery," he commented.
If anyone wants to join in the hunt, they can tweet the links to the pictures and ask followers to re-tweet.
Any emails with information can be sent to Jim Lawes at jimlawes@hotmail.com
Or post a message on ChiswickW4.com Forum on the Wedding Album topic thread.
November 20, 2012