Spondon Wedding Party

Paul Walpole's research into this photograph shows that this was the wedding was of Mr Arthur Bolt and Miss Nellie Wareing on 25 April 1914 (as detailed on the back). He believes the photo was taken in the back garden of Nellie's parents home at 3 Oxford Street Spondon (source 1911 census). The building with the two strange chimneys is the rear extension to the White Swan PH which is still there but no longer sports those chimneys. Their position is discernible today with different style ridge tiles. He wonders what it was used for in 1914 - a brew house maybe? The tall telegraph pole in rear with multiple cross bars is present in many old photos of the Swan taken from Sitwell Street. The 1939 register records the married couple living at 9 Chapel Street and records their dates of birth as 29 September 1888 (Arthur) and 4 May 1894 (Nellie). There was a newspaper advertisement in the late 19th century for the sale of ‘timber from a dismantled malt house, to be sold on the premises' at the White Swan. This could have been replaced by a more substantial brick building, and could well be the extension that have identified. Maybe the ‘dismantled timbers’ were just the internals, or indeed this was a brick built replacement. Anyway, it almost certainly explains the strange design of chimneys used on the building if it was a Malt House.