Saturday 20th September 2025
Mystery photograph.
Danny Howell writes:
As well as taking photographs myself of Warminster and the surrounding area, I also purchase old photos from a variety of sources including online and flea markets. I’m fortunate too that many kind people give me old photographs and documents. Identifying scenes and people in old photographs isn’t always easy but sometimes there are clues.
The photograph shared here is 142 years old. It is an original photograph, measures six inches by four inches and is mounted on card. It came in a frame but the frame is more modern. It shows a house with two men standing outside. The man on the left is wearing what looks like a bowler hat; he is wearing a waistcoat under his jacket, and his watch chain is visible. The other man is also wearing a hat, is dressed in shirt and tie, and has a dog with him. On the back was handwritten: “Holly Lodge, Warminster. 18.8.83. Dog Toby. George, he was the horseman.” The 83 date refers to 1883.
The question is: where is this house? We know there is a Holly Lodge at Boreham Road, Warminster, but that’s an old toll house with a distinctive style. The Holly Lodge in this photograph is somewhere else. Behind the house can be seen a large field stretching away to a distant hedgerow. Of course, Warminster, in 1883 wasn’t very built up, there were plenty of fields around the town centre. The reference to a horseman suggests that George’s employer was maybe a gentleman with a horse and carriage. The address Holly Lodge, Warminster, could mean it was actually in Warminster, maybe on the outskirts or a rural part, or perhaps it means it is near Warminster.
I have yet to solve the location of the house in this photograph. Do you recognise it? Where is it?