Active 1861-1881
Henrietta Ryle was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel W L Clowes, of Broughton Old Hall, Lancashire.She was the third wife of Revd. J C Ryle, marrying him on 24th October 1861, the year that he accepted the living at Stradbroke.
She took care of the five children and the management of the busy vicarage and assisted her husband in the Sunday School. She was a good organist as well as being a superb amateur photographer. It was her rare talent as a photographer that we remember her for, and through her we have been able to see something of what Stradbroke was like between the years 1861 and 1881.
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Extracts from her work - The opening day at Stradbroke School in 1864
The Rev. J C Ryle was the driving force behind the building of a new school for Stradbroke and within a few years of his arrival in the village a new school was being opened. Henrietta was the "official photographer" and recorded the event for posterity.
The extract shows some of the villagers watching the opening ceremony and no doubt their own children, on the first day of the school.
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Extracts from her work - The Village Police Station c 1865
Church Street was the site of the first formal Police Station in the village and the building still exists as a private house although the painted sign on the wall has long gone. The buildings on the right were probably demolished in the late 1800s and the site is the garden of Church House, now beautifully restored and gazing across Queen Street to All Saints Church.
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