Fred Ash, Blackpool, Lancashire, England
- Fred Ash South Beach Blackpool and Orchard Road St Annes on the Sea
Frederic Joseph Ash (1861 to 1 January 1929) was the son of Nottinghamshire photographer Edwin Ash (1834 to1892). Between at least 1901 and 1911 he was living at 22 Raikes Parade, Blackpool.
At one stage Ash had studios at South Beach, Regent Square opposite New Promenade at North Shore, Blackpool, Larkhill House, 160 St George’s Road, Bolton and 40 King Street, Manchester also George Street, St Helen’s.
Early in the 20th Century he moved into the stickybacks (qv) and postcards fields may have been good for business.
Ash employed doormen at his studios in 1903 – one of them, William Jennings Cookson, was dismissed for drunkenness and in court for assault. In 1906 Ash advertised to take over other premises for his photographic business in Blackburn, Derby and Leigh. In 1907 he advertised for staff at a studio at 20 Long Row, Nottingham and by 1912 had a studio at Greyhound Street, Nottingham (which may have been the same premises).
At the time of his death Ash was living at Kumara, Lytham Road, South Shore, Blackpool. His second wife, Beatrice Greenwood Hamer (1889 to 1964) may have run the business briefly after his death in 1929. But by 1939 she had remarried and no longer seemed to be connected to the business.
Gillian Jones in her “Lancashire Professional Photographers 1840-1940” lists Fred Ash at the addresses and on the dates shown below:
1887-1892 16 George Street, St Helens
1889 South Beach Blackpool
1890-1932 6 Wellington Terrace Promenade, Blackpool
1895 3 Orchard Rd St Annes
1898-1901 91B Fishergate Preston
1899-1907 Larkhill House, 160 St Georges Rd, Bolton
1899-1915 40 King Street, Manchester
1901- 1907 2/4 Regent Square, Blackpool
1904 Central Beach, Blackpool
1904 20 Raikes Parade, Blackpool
1905-1909 41 Church Street, Blackpool
1913-1914 70A Market Street, Manchester
1915-1940 92 Bold Street, Liverpool (directories 1917-1940, but there is an earlier newspaper advert with this address in Oct 1915)
1923-1924 5/7 Wellington Terrace, Blackpool
1924 York Street, Blackpool
1928-1939 10 Corporation Street Manchester
1929 Fieldman’s Arcade, Blackpool
1932-1933 Mrs Fred Ash 10 Corporation Street, Manchester.
Further searches of newspapers shows that Fred Ash Studios at 92 Bold Street Liverpool and 10 Commercial Street Manchester continued in operation until the 1960s. Like many other studios they struggled to find staff during the war years. Their advertising during this period suggests specialising in wedding and child photography, rather than cheap portraiture. In 1970 Fred Ash at 10 Corporation Street Manchester had become a general photographic dealer. Ownership of the firm in its latter years is not known. The General Manager of the firm in 1946 was Gordon Frederick Catlin of Greengates Blackburn Drive, Liverpool, a Liverpool City Councillor, who was a witness in a court case concerning the sale of black market photographic materials for more than the regulated price.
Source: https://www.stickybacks.uk/regionsNW.asp
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