The
iconic photo of The Wiltshire Thatcher discovered by Brian Edwards has just finished being on exhibition at The Wiltshire Museum.
Detective work by Brian identified the Thatcher was most likely to be Lot Long from Mere.
Looking carefully at the embiggened scan of the photo at the Museum I realised the hedge was quite distinctive. The hedge isn’t straight and the difference in focus of the trees emphasises it.
From the left it comes out towards the camera and then curves round to go away at about 90 degrees.
Whitsun 1892 – June 5-6th – is the date in the album and so we can assume the photograph was taken around this time. The trees and hedge are in full leaf which would be expected. The Thatcher’s shadows show the sun is quite high and in front of him, to the right of the photo. The sun is lower than it would be at noon so probably early afternoon. The photo is taken facing in an easterly direction.
The Ordnance Survey map of 1890 shows such a hedge with trees visible to the east from the Shaftesbury Road on which Lot Long lived and the photographer, who was based in Shaftesbury, probably travelled.
The field and hedge are still unaltered and Google Earth shows the view from the gate into the field and the direction of the sun in the early afternoon.
No other similar view of a hedge was found in a search of the areas covered by the photographic album.
From the Public Right of Way I was able to take my own photographs and superimpose the Thatcher photograph.
That such a matching location is exactly where Lot Long would be expected to be photographed adds considerable weight to his plausible identification as the thatcher.
(Click pictures to enlarge them)
