Bognor seen from different perspectives

They comprise three different formats from the 1850s to the 1890s '“ a painting, an architectural drawing and photograph.

The other year, I was shown a portfolio of paintings by William Collis. Following research contained in the album, we knew he came on painting holidays to Bognor on at least three occasions between 1856 and 1876.

Interestingly, he not only gave a title to each painting but dated each and on some he even provided a time of painting.

So often today we forget to put even limited information on our digital photographs.

William Collis stayed with his family at East View in the High Street, which was the house his grandfather had built around 1815.

The family remained there and were shown in the 1881 census returns. William Snr died in 1860 and is buried in South Bersted churchyard.

William died in 1925 at the age of 98, but not before he had completed a considerable number of interesting sketches.

One album contained many images of Bognor and the surrounding villages, which in the 1880s seemed quite a distance from Bognor, Felpham being predominant.

He shows a very interesting artistic view of the area; with a lack of buildings and views to the beach from the High Street.

Where is East View? It is situated immediately opposite the entrance to Sudley Gardens and adjacent to the tax office '“ it is the building that juts into the road as you enter town. Today the house is known as West View, the first reference to this I have is in the 1952 Kelly's Directory.

The portfolio contained paintings from surrounding villages, Felpham being most dominant beside the various aspects of Bognor.

There were several views of East View and other interesting views including one from the parlour window, looking towards the sea.

In fact all his paintings give the town a very country feel, with views showing the High Street and open areas across fields or to the beach.

The second format concerned this week is a photograph.Recently I was contacted regarding an album on the work of AR Dresser from 1892 and subsequently I was lent this interesting album.

Mr Dresser was an eminent photographer but not a name that comes readily to mind today. He worked with a hand-held camera, that he had helped design in 1885 from his own drawings.

This camera had a new kind of shutter which he called the Dresser shutter which worked from 1/250th if used to two secs, and it also had a wide angle Voitlander working at F8.

The album contained photographs of Bognor, Arundel, Goodwood, Chichester and the neighbourhood.

During his lifetime he became president of camera clubs and is recorded as a 'gentleman with time and money to devote to his hobby'.

He was apparently employed in the advancement of photography and was an acknowledged well known instantaneous amateur.

The internet provides us with more information on this man who became famous for his work, which includes a set of 175 photographs taken in 1892.

The subject of these photos was various aspects of a Wild West show during a performance at Earls Court in London.

That particular album chronicles a three-month stay of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and one of the images shows Annie Oakley.

While looking through a number of websites about this man I was unable to find any reference to his stay in this area, so I was very privileged to view the contents and understand about his work world wide.

The third view is an architectural drawing that has recently come into my possession of the Queen Mary Convalescent Home, the very large imposing building near Nyewood Lane, and Aldwick Road.

The original print was included in a publication called 'The Building News' and was issued on February 10, 1899. The information contains the name of C Heaston & Perkin who were the architects of this building, complete with a small ground plan for the Princess Mary Convalescent Home, Bognor, for the East London Hospital for Children.

This sketch is a single page plate measuring 13in x 8 in.

This makes you wonder how many others of this type of architectural drawings are hidden in old dusty files, long forgotten!

Finally, there was also Bognor's very own WP Marsh, well known for his photographs of high seas.

He moved to Bognor around 1875 with his wife and child. His first studio was in Somerset Terrace, in Lyon Street but by 1878 he had moved into his main studio in Waterloo Square.

During the 1870s he was producing 'Views of the Neighbourhood' with the introduction of instantaneous photography in the 1880s. Much of his work was shown on the postcards that were sold around the town.

He was responsible for helping to make Bognor known further afield when he was exhibited at the annual exhibitions of the Photographic Society of Great Britain held between 1880 and 1891 in London, showing his photographs and advertising that his studio was here in Bognor.

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