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Mystery of Victorian wedding picture solved by family historian after 25 years

The bride was pale and nervous, the bridesmaids’ dresses got ripped, and the church wanted knocking down. Apart from that, it was a splendid wedding.

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By Toby Neal
Published

We first published this wedding picture as a mystery photo 25 years ago in the hope that somebody could identify it.

The wedding party for the marriage on October 21, 1863, of Lewis Richard Price and Eliza Turner. The wedding was at the old Llandysilio church (just south of Llanymynech) and the picture was taken afterwards at the Turner family home at Pentreheylin Hall nearby. The photographer was J Groom of Shrewsbury and the picture had a caption naming the people in the party as, from left: Mr Price Turner, Laura Short, John Cross Buchanan, the Rev John Hill, Elizabeth Kay, Prince de Squinzano, The Princess, bride and groom, Mrs Kay, Miss Pryce, Mary Turner, Captain James Turner, John J Turner Esq, Eleonora Turner, Miss Krey, Miss Emily Russell, Richard Turner, Ellen Griffiths, Frank Kay, and the Rev John Turner
The wedding party for the marriage on October 21, 1863, of Lewis Richard Price and Eliza Turner. The wedding was at the old Llandysilio church (just south of Llanymynech) and the picture was taken afterwards at the Turner family home at Pentreheylin Hall nearby. The photographer was J Groom of Shrewsbury and the picture had a caption naming the people in the party as, from left: Mr Price Turner, Laura Short, John Cross Buchanan, the Rev John Hill, Elizabeth Kay, Prince de Squinzano, The Princess, bride and groom, Mrs Kay, Miss Pryce, Mary Turner, Captain James Turner, John J Turner Esq, Eleonora Turner, Miss Krey, Miss Emily Russell, Richard Turner, Ellen Griffiths, Frank Kay, and the Rev John Turner

It’s never too late to get feedback, and family historian Andrew Sampson has now got in touch to identify it as a marriage on the Wales-Shropshire border which took place on October 21, 1863.

There was a story behind the discovery of the photo. Mrs Mary Bates, of Castlefields, Shrewsbury, used to clean for a Mrs Hall, of Castle Street, and in the mid-1960s Mrs Hall gave her a picture as a present. Years later, when that picture was taken out of its frame, the wedding photo was found behind it.

The Bates family had no information about it, but there was a clue in that the photographer was J Groom of Shrewsbury, and there was also a caption naming the people in the wedding party, including one Prince de Squinzano, and “The Princess,” although the bride and groom were not named.