Document of the month

Snapshots of Wellow

Not many villages can claim extensive pictorial evidence of houses and inhabitants from before the main era of photography but Wellow is one of the lucky few. An album of 109 drawings survives and its depictions of picturesque houses and people going about their daily business shines a bright light on Wellow of the l840s. The identity of the gifted amateur artist is not known for certain but we do know it was a lady and that she was closely connected to the Revd William Henry Empson, who was vicar of Wellow from 1844.

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office 124A11/1 - is the first drawing in the album showing a view of Wellow Church. It looks rather unkempt but also wonderfully romantic with its overgrown trees and tombstones sloping at all angles. Contrast this with a 20th century photograph of the same church shown in our photograph of the month