❤️To celebrate Valentine’s weekend, I have chosen this beautiful Wedding cabinet card to tell you about.

❤️I added this photo to my collection back last summer from eBay. As always, it was brilliant to see the information written on the back.

My initial research was looking for a Walter Blake marrying a Lily with the possible surname of Wilson.

But first, I had to date the cabinet card.

Looking at the wonderful outfits, you can see that this family had money, so they would likely have had very fashionable wedding outfits. The women’s dresses show full upper sleeves, but not the very large ‘leg-of-mutton’ sleeves that were at their peak around 1895 to 1897, so maybe a bit earlier than that. Smaller hats, too, matched the early 1890s.

The other clue I had was that the Groom looks much older than the Bride. So that will be interesting to research when I look into their family history.

First, I looked for marriages on FreeBMD for a Walter Blake in 1894, with 2 years before and after that. I had several possible choices. When I added Lily as a spouse, I had no matches at all, so I took Lily out and added Wilson as a spouses surname, and there was just one! There was a Walter Frederick Blake who married in Alton, Hampshire, in 1894. But the spouse’s name was Agnes Lydia Wilson. Was she known as Lily?

I started a tree for this couple on Ancestry. Over a couple of days, I gradually filled in more about the couple and their families.

I found that Walter was a very interesting and well-known chap in Alton with several occupations that I’ll come back to later. Agnes also looked interesting, as she grew up in the Alton Workhouse, but not as an inmate; her parents were the Master and Matron.

One of the key things that I learned about the couple was that Walter was 48 years old, a widower, and Agnes was just 24 years old when they married.

The more I found out about them the more I was convinced that I had the correct couple.

As Walter was so well known in Alton, I decided my next step before writing about the couple was to see what I could find in the newspaper archives about him or maybe even if their wedding was reported in the local newspapers at the time.

What a surprise I had! The third report I read through said Miss Agnes Lydia (Lily) Wilson! So she was known as Lily; this is the right couple; it was good to have confirmation.

Walter Frederick Blake.

Walter Frederick Blake was born on 1 February 1846 in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, the son of William Henry Blake and Betsy Bezer, and was baptised on 22 March 1846. By his teens, he was living in Alton, Hampshire, where his father died in 1863.

Walter married Maria South on 14 August 1869 at St James, Clerkenwell. Walter and Maria were first cousins, their mothers being sisters, Betsy born in 1817 and Jane Betzer, Maria’s mother, born in 1819. Betsy and Jane’s parents were John Bezer and Hannah Chappel.

They lived in Alton after their marriage, where Walter became a publican at The Crown Hotel in the High Street, Alton. He is also described as a millwright, engineer, and iron founder.

Walter definitely followed in his father’s footsteps in more ways than one, as William Henry Blake, at the time of his eldest son, John Bezer Blake’s baptism in 1838, was an Engineer.

Then, later in the 1840’s, he went on to open his own Foundry, The Victoria Foundry. By this time, 1851, William was also the ‘Victualler’ of the Butcher’s Arms in the Market Place in Alton, now known as the Market Hotel. (Changed to “Market Hotel” by the late 1880s)

Now, the interesting thing about this information is that when I traced the family history of Betsy Bezer, her parents were also running a pub. John Bezer was the Publican of the Butchers Arms, Market Place, Alton, in the 1841 census and also in 1849, in the directories records. John Bezer died later in 1849, so I think what happened was that William took over the Butcher’s Arms as the Landlord in addition to his other work running his foundry, after his father-in-law’s death.

By 1851, Hannah, John’s widow, was living in Normandy Street, Alton and by 1861, she and her daughter, Hannah, were living in the High Street in Alton and Hannah, her 30-year-old, widowed daughter, was running a Baker’s and Grocer’s shop. They were certainly an entrepreneurial family. 

In 1861, William, Walter’s father, is described as an Innkeeper. Engineer and Founder, employing men and boys. Walter, at age 15, was an Engineer and so was his elder brother John.

Walter and Maria had no known children. Maria died in 1893.

On 30 August 1894, Walter married Agnes Lydia Wilson at St Lawrence, Alton.

Walter Frederick Blake served as an Inspector of Nuisances in Alton, Hampshire, a role concerned with protecting public health at a time when disease and poor sanitation were constant threats. His work took him through streets, yards, and cottages, inspecting drains, privies, water supplies, and housing conditions. He investigated complaints, reported unsafe or unhealthy conditions, and required landlords and businesses to put matters right.

Inspectors like this helped prevent illness and improve everyday living conditions for families in towns and villages. In carrying out this work, Walter played a quiet but important part in the gradual improvement of public health in Alton.

He continued working in Alton, later serving as a ‘Sanitary Inspector’, a name change from ‘Inspector of Nuisances’, and also still working with the Victoria Foundry. He helped out at the Church and was also a Freemason at the ‘Shalden’ Lodge 2016. He was also a Millwright (1885-1901+)

Did he take over as ‘Inspector of Nuisances from his father-in-law after 1849, too? I think so.

His mother, Betsy, died in Alton on 10 January 1904.

Walter died on 16 April 1914, aged 68, in Alton, where he was buried. Probate was granted in July 1914, leaving an estate of £5,557 16s 2d to his widow Agnes.

” He was widely respected for his courteous manner and kindness of heart“

Both of these newspaper reports above tell us so much more about Walter as a man, a real person. I’m just wondering, how he found the time to do everything he did, he must have been a workaholic!

The Victoria Foundry.

This was an established Alton business by 1846. A local town history says: The Victoria Foundry was established by Mr William Henry Blake in 1846 and has since been managed by his family as an agricultural and engineering works.

Walter Frederick Blake was the named principal of the business in the early 20th century (at least by 1903), and the works were supplying both farm equipment and general engineering/ironwork (including equipment for the hop industry).

By 1903, an Alton advertisements page names “WALTER F. BLAKE, Victoria Foundry, Alton, Hants. ESTABLISHED 1846.” and describes the firm as Engineers and Iron Founders, also listing products/services such as ploughs, jib cranes, agricultural implement making/agency work, and Hetherington’s winding hop kiln floors (hop-drying equipment), plus wagon/cart/van building.

The Victoria Foundry went to a new owner in November 1915.

Agnes Lydia Wilson.

Agnes Lydia Wilson was born on 15 March 1870 in the market town of Alton, Hampshire. Her parents were Harry Wilson and Elizabeth Ann Councer. Just a few weeks later, on 8 April 1870, Agnes was baptised at St Lawrence Church in Alton, a place that would mark many of the most important moments of her life.

Agnes grew up in unusual surroundings. Throughout her childhood and early adulthood, her parents served as the Master and Matron of the Alton Workhouse. Census records from 1871, 1881, and 1891 show Agnes living with them there, listed simply as “daughter,” but her daily life would have been shaped by the constant presence of the poor and vulnerable people under her parents’ care. The workhouse would have been a place of discipline and routine, and Agnes grew up witnessing both hardship and responsibility at close quarters.

By 1891, at the age of 21, Agnes was still living with her parents in Alton. Three years later, her life changed direction. On 30 August 1894, she married Walter Frederick Blake at St Lawrence Church in her hometown. Agnes was 24 years old; Walter, born in 1846, was considerably older, actually twice her age. The couple settled into married life in Alton, and by 1901, they were living together at 46 Normandy Street, where Agnes was recorded as Walter’s wife.

I was also fortunate to purchase a bonus photo of Lily that the seller had for sale. This photo was taken around 1900, I think.

Agnes’s later thirties and early forties were marked by a series of family losses. Her father, Harry Wilson, died on 7 December 1907 at the age of 80. In July 1909, her brother Harry Councer Wilson died, followed by the death of her mother, Elizabeth Ann, in October 1911, when she was 84. Despite these losses, Agnes was still living with her husband at 46 Normandy Street, Alton, in 1911.

Tragedy struck again just a few years later. On 16 April 1914, Agnes’s husband, Walter Frederick Blake, died in Alton at the age of 68, ending a 19-year marriage. The same year also saw the death of her sister Jane Elizabeth Wilson. Widowed at 44 and with no known children, Agnes faced the rest of her life largely on her own.

After Walter’s death and before 1921, Agnes had moved to Anstey Cottage on Mill Lane in Alton. A quieter place to live. Census records show her as widowed and recorded as the head of the household. She had a young lady, Florence Emily Brambley, aged 15 and 9 months, living with her as a Domestic Servant. Florence was the daughter of a local Farm Labourer and married Stanley Rampton in 1928. He was a Carter working on a local farm. The couple had a son, David, in 1932. Florence died in 2000 at the age of 95.

Anstey cottage became her permanent home, and she would live there for the rest of her life. In the 1939 Register, Agnes was still living in Hampshire, described as widowed and “independent,” a quiet but telling description of a woman who had endured many losses yet maintained her self-sufficiency.

Alton Workhouse.

Harry Wilson and his wife, who were the Master and Matron of the Alton Workhouse, Alton, Hampshire.

ALTON UNION WORKHOUSE is at Anstey, in Alton parish, and has room for 220 inmates, but it had only 125 in 1841, and 109 in 1851, when the census was taken. It was built in 1792, at a cost of about £4000. The expenditure of the Union in 1856 was £9344, and in 1872, it was £7904. The Board of Guardians meets every Friday. Mr Matthew Heath Moss is the Union Clerk and Superintendent Registrar; Mr Harry and Mrs Eliza Wilson are master and matron of the Workhouse; the Rev. Charles Allen Garrett, B.A., chaplain; and James Bone, porter. Mr Frederick Holdaway is the registrar of marriages; and the relieving officers and registrars of births and deaths are Mr Charles Biddle for Alton District, and Mr Wm. Harbor for Binsted District. The pauper children are sent to the District School at Crondall.

You can contact me either by commenting here or via email at lynnswaffles@gmail.com. 

Till next time then………