Reg Morgan 1887-1965 who I guess lived in Pepper Street all his life, was a prolific photographer and very much a village celebrity, especially when running the Morgan Family Shop (Supermarket) in Pepper Street. His early photographs taken as a late teenager, enable us to see the village as it was between 1903-1925. He worked on his own as far as I can tell, developing and printing his own photographs at the shop, or at his house in Windmill Lane. Many of his photographs have a primitive description of their content, handwritten by himself, and several of them were published as postcards by Ernest Butler of Christleton Mill, who also ran the shop, which is now the Village Stores in Village Road. Luckily for us, many of the postcards were sent to Christleton people living in other parts of the country, some of which give a snapshot of life in Christleton at the end of WWI. Many were returned to the village when members of the family passed away, or came back to live in the village in retirement.

Reg worked with his brother Eric in the stores which was as I described earlier a supermarket before shops were given that name, and you could purchase anything for the house from; Finest Groceries & provisions, Home made bread and Confectionary, Medicines, foods and Sundries, Toilet Requisites, Books and Toys. Tobacco, Cigarettes and Stationary.

English & Foreign fruits, Seeds, Plants, & Garden Tools. Cattle, Dog, Cat and Poultry Foods, Cat & Dog medicines.

Ensign Cameras, Films and Photographic materials. Snapshot Service, Developing, Printing and Enlarging. Electric Sweepers, Fires, Irons, Kettles etc. Electric Lamps, Switches, Flex and Sundries.

Torches, Cycle Lamps, Batteries & Bulbs. Wireless H. T. Batteries and Accumulators.

Paints & Distempers- Hardware, China and Glass

Agents for The Royal Insurance Company Ltd, and Incorporated Members of the Institute of Travel Agents.

Wow, this must have been a treasure trove for the villagers, but for me, its Reg’s photography which is so important today, giving a vital glimpse of village life in the period between about 1903 to the mid 1920’s. He was married to a delightful French lady, according to my old friend Cliff Boddy, and I have in recent years been exchanging letters and cards with their daughter Susan. She had no idea her father was her photographer and that we had such a good collection of his work. At some stage he and his wife and daughter parted, and he lies alone buried in the churchyard. Reg was secretary of the Christleton Cricket Club at some time in his youth, when they played matches on “The Park”, now the High School grounds, and got changed for matches in the Institute. Many of you will have seen some of these pictures in previous writings, but I’ve not published them all as a collection before. They give an insight into the village of the late Victorian and then Edwardian periods, covering the period of the later life of Canon Lionel Garnett, and the service of Rev. G.M.V. Hickey who left the Parish in 1924. He played a very important role of guiding the village and its families through the severe years of WWI, dealing sympathetically with the injured and bereaved, but is sadly remembered more for falling out with the ladies of the village as they tried to set up the Women’s Institute.

I hope you enjoy seeing Reg’s work. It is a unique view of the village, and we are so lucky to have it as part of our village archives.