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Chaveney Road, Quorn - then and now
This photograph was taken in the back garden of what is now 61 Chaveney Road (just by Buddon Lane). The house was built in 1904 by Edwin Neal, and at that time was called Woodhouse Lodge.
The photographer was William Shuttlewood who lived in Quorn with his wife and three children for a relatively short period - from about 1905 to about 1909. However he obviously enjoyed photography and Quorn owes him a great debt for the wonderful pictures he took at this time. Many examples of his work can be found in the collection and his full story is told elsewhere on the site. All photographs that William took were printed as postcards, but some were designed for resale and others (such as this), were simply taken as family pictures.
The location of this card was unknown until it was published in The Quorndon village magazine in 2009 with an appeal for more information. The current residents of the house replied and identified the house as theirs. From a photograph they provided it was amazing how easy it was to recognise. There was even the original drainpipe and the original windows in the front bay!
Because the Neal family were the first residents in 1904 and because the house was sold after Edwin Neal's death in 1922, it would seem reasonable to assume that the people in the photograph are the Neal family. The Neal's did not appear to be living in Quorn in 1901, but they are here (from the census), in Woodhouse Lodge in 1911. Edwin and Nellie (his wife) were 41 and 40 years old at that time and had been married for 16 years. They had a one year old son, Geoffrey Paul Palmer Neal and it was noted that a previous child had died. Edwin and Nellie were both born in Leicester, Edwin was an 'Incorporated Accountant' and classed as 'an employer' on the census. They must have been reasonably well off as they had two live-in servants. It would seem almost certain that the gentleman on the left in the postcard is Edwin and that one of the women is Nellie.
The museum team were very grateful to the residents for getting in touch and thereby enabling life and detail to be added to another otherwise anonymous Quorn postcard.
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