Photograph
Category
Photographs
Date
Apr 1965
Materials
photograph
Measurements
90 x 122 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mr Straw's House, Nottinghamshire
NT 749658.1
Caption
William Straw Jr (1898–1990) tends his many colourful auricula plants in the greenhouse he had built together with his brother Walter Straw at the bottom of their garden at No. 7 Blyth Grove, Nottinghamshire. It was probably Walter who took this picture, ensuring his own cherished cacti are in shot in the foreground. An auricula theatre was used to display William’s plants on stepped shelves, enabling the flowers to be shown off to best effect. Walter’s cacti were purchased internationally, including from the cacti farm in Mexico founded by artist and cacti collector Ferdinand Schmoll (1879–1950). Walter had been a seed merchant for the grocer’s shop the brothers’ parents opened in Worksop in 1886, and which he kept running until his retirement in 1962. He therefore held strong horticultural connections. The garden at the 1920s semi-detached house also included an orchard. Their mother Florence (1864–1939) left a recipe book detailing the preserves and puddings she once made from the apples, pears and plums grown there. William’s diary recorded the brothers constructing the foundations for the greenhouse in March 1935, following the sudden death of their father, William Straw Sr (1864–1932). His pipes, tobacco, coats and hats remained in the house alongside the 1932 calendar, never removed as a show of mourning and respect. The colourful interior of the greenhouse was captured on Kodachrome transparency film and professionally printed. Sadly, a storm destroyed the greenhouse around the late 1970s. Its reconstruction began in 1995, 30 years after this photograph was taken.
Summary
Colour photograph of William Jnr. standing by a display of Auriculas and cacti. It is stamped on the back twice MADE BY KODAK LTD. OCT. 1965 and stamped once KODACHROME PRINT. Handwritten in pencil is William Straw & auriculas 7, Blyth Grove, Worksop April 1965