Samuel Hiley and his unknown friends

This photo shows Samuel Hiley, a great grandfather, second from the left, with three gentlemen whose names are unknown.

Samuel was born in 1853 and died in 1939. This photo was probably taken towards the end of his life when he was in his 80s. His wife Elizabeth died in 1931. The couple lived in Sunny View, part of the property on Top o' th' Hill Road in Walsden which Samuel had bought in about 1923. Later he moved in to a one room dwelling in the same property.

Embossed in the bottom right hand corner of the photo is the name 'Jesse Bontoft'. Jesse Bontoft was a photographer who had a business in Ilkley. After his death in 1925 his son Francis carried on the business.

In his memoirs 'HH remembers', Samuel's grandson Henry recalled his grandfather's trips to Ilkley: 

Sam Hiley (Grandfather Hiley) had found a nice billet at Ilkley. I think they called it the Semon's Home but it wasn't the sailors, that kind of seamen, it was Semon, and he found that he could have a week's holiday there at Ilkley for very little more than 10/-. That was the amount of his weekly old age pension. Anyway he went off to Ilkley for the week and Grandmother Hiley came to stay with us in Victoria Street...........

Semon's Home, Ilkley (left) Bench at top of drive (below)

The bench shown above looks as though it could be the one in the photo of Samuel and his friends. So it seems likely that the photo was taken on one of Samuel's visits to Ilkley. But who were the other three gentlemen sitting on the bench? They may have been other visitors to the Semon's Home at that time, or maybe friends from Walsden who went there to spend a week together.

Although he started his working life as a Cotton Weaver, by 1891 Samuel had become the manager of the Co-operative Stores in Walsden. The other men in the photo might have been former work colleagues.

Samuel was an influential member of the Lanebottom Wesleyan Chapel in Walsden and one of the Chapel's Trustees for many years. The men in the photo may have been fellow Trustees or other leading figures in the life of the Chapel.

The men look to have been a similar age to Samuel and may have been family members. Two possibilities are a younger brother Joseph and a brother-in-law Frank Morris.

It is unlikely that we will ever know the identity of Samuel's three friends. It is always a good idea to label old photos, or write (carefully) on the back of them, or make a separate note of who is on them and where and when the photo was taken. If the photo has been scanned and a digital copy created, a note can be added to the file information details. This way future generations will not need to guess the identity of unknown people in a photo!