AN APPULDURCOMBE House historian is looking for the owner of this photograph.

Chris Gardner photographed the picture when it was loaned to Appuldurcombe’s guardian, English Heritage, in the late 1980s and early 1990s when he was a schoolboy guide.

The photograph shows eight of Appuldurcombe House's domestic servants, as they took time out of their daily schedules to pose for a picture in the shadow of the mansion.

Mr Gardner said: "I would like to get a better copy for the history of Appuldurcombe I am completing, but there is no record of the owner.

"The photo was most likely taken in the 1890s when Appuldurcombe was a college, as the servants gathered in front of the dining room.

"The identities of three of the servants are known, and the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses are useful for dating the photo.

"Footman Frederick T. Smith, 24 in the 1891 census, took a break from admitting visitors and waiting at tables to turn out in the back row in his livery, top hat in his right hand.

"He lived in the Laundry with his wife, Ann Selina Smith, 29, whose shoulder he may be resting his left hand on.

"The couple had a two-year-old-son, Frederick J. Smith, but his mother would not live to see him become an adult.

"Ann died at The National Cottage Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Ventnor, in 1895, aged 33.

"Coachman William A. Wright, 26, in 1891, looks like he would rather be driving a horse-drawn carriage than posing for a photograph, or possibly wrestling the photographer who had him standing still for so long.

"In 1891, Mr Wright lived in Station Road, Wroxall, with his wife Alice and their two children.

"By 1901, he ran Wroxall Post Office and Tobacconist in Station Road, which stayed in the family until at least the 1950s.

"Appuldurcombe’s gardener was distinguished in the English hat created by London milliners Thomas and William Bowler in 1849.

"Maybe it's gardener George Billingham, 56 in 1891. He lived at Appuldurcombe Lodge, Lord Yarborough’s north entrance lodge, with his wife Mary, 55, and their single daughter Theresa, 20, and three-year-old Esther J. Caswell.

"Or it could be jobbing gardener Charles Parnell, 46, who also shared Appuldurcombe Lodge with his laundress wife and daughter Mary, 48, and Susan, 16, and schoolboy son Charles, 10."

Anyone with any information about the photograph can contact Mr Gardner by email at c.e.gardner@outlook.com

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