Museum no: 2022.1.35.4
Date: 1881-1898
Photographer: Michael Horner
Object type: Wet plate collodion glass plate negative (digitally inverted)
Location: Market Square, Settle
This photograph of Settle Market Square shows several of the businesses operating in the Market Square in the late 1800s, and zooming in we can see that this included an abattoir. The Shambles, in the centre of the image, is a hive of activity, with washing drying and a woman caring for a baby – in contrast to the quiet of the square. The trees and shadows indicate it was likely taken on a late summer afternoon.
There is no date on the photograph itself, but we do have a few clues. Firstly, it must be pre-1898, when the Shambles cottages had a second storey added. Secondly, the Market Square fountain is shown in its current position, where it was relocated around 1870.
The Horner’s own history in photography provides further clues. ‘The Horner photographic studio’ is visible just to the left of the fountain monument, next to Dr Buck’s House (a property recently acquired by NCBPT). The precise date the Horners set up business in the Market Place is unclear but was unlikely to be before 1867. Michael Horner first advertised his services as a photographer in 1864, operating initially from his father’s painters and decorators shop, on the other side of the Market Square (just visible in the far right of this picture).
Anthony Horner (who took over the business after his brother’s early death) is listed in the Post Office Directory in 1877, and in the 1881 Census, as a photographer, again in the Market Place but by this time in his own studio/shop. The sign on the photography shop in this image ‘Horner’s Photographic Studio’, differs from the one shown on the Horner studio/shop in later photographs from the 1890s, which simply reads ‘Horner Photographer’, in a plainer script. Anthony relocated the business to New Street (now Station Rd.) in 1898, shortly after the upward extension of the Shambles.
The photo also contains lots of information about other businesses in Settle at the time and these may also help to date the picture more accurately. As well as the two Horner family businesses—the photographic studio and father Thomas’s painting and decorating business. There is evidence of several businesses operating from the Shambles, including ‘Rowlandson Tinner and Brazier’ and ‘S Taylor Clog and Patten Maker’. A tailor’s shop signed ‘Walker’ and ‘Thistlethwaite’s Tea and Coffee Rooms’ are also just visible behind the fountain monument.
Photography Notes
An early print of this view of Settle has survived to modern times, so this photograph may look familiar to some readers. However, we have created the above positive image by scanning the original glass negative at a high resolution, and so it is possible to see details that are invisible on the original positive printed picture. Early positives were made through contact printing, and so are always the same size as the negative (in this case just 7¼ x 4¾ inches). They therefore can’t always show all the detail that is captured in the glass negative.
By zooming in on the shop to the right of S Taylor’s sign, we can clearly see evidence of an abattoir, with several hanging animal corpses. We can even just make out the sheep horns!
References
Michael Pritchard, 2010. The development and growth of British photographic manufacturing and retailing 1839-1914. PhD thesis, De Montfort University, UK
Read more about the Horner family in the North Craven Heritage Trust journal (Slater, 2005).