You got it wall wrong, says historian Ken
In trying to pinpoint the location of one of our Pictures From The Past, Ken Lewis, who is archivist of Ketley History Group, came up against a solid brick wall.
Which, as it happens, turned out to be very helpful.
The picture of Victorian schoolgirls and their teachers which we used the other day came from Dave Barnett, of Arleston, who reckoned it was taken at the old school at Dawley Bank or Lawley Bank.
But eagle-eyed Ken recognised the brick wall background as being exactly the same as in a different school picture carried in a local history book, and thinks the evidence points to that photo being taken at Malinslee School.
The reason is that one of the young schoolboys captured on camera is Samuel Parkes Cadman. Born in Ketley Brook in 1864, Cadman was a pit boy who hauled himself up to become the foremost churchman in America, a preacher known to millions and a pioneer radio minister who commanded a huge audience. A park in Brooklyn is named after him.
"He is in the 1871 census living at Forge Row, Malinslee, a matter of yards from Malinslee School, and will presumably have gone there," said Ken.
"Malinslee School was not very far from Spout Mound, and stood perhaps where the present Telford police station is, or in that area.
"It is fairly obvious to me as an amateur photographer that the two pictures are taken at exactly the same location. In fact the camera has not moved, although the pupils have changed. You can see the leg of a chair in the same place. The photographer has taken both photographs at the same time, to my reckoning."
To check out his theory, he has in the past visited the school building at Dawley Bank to see if there is any similarity to the background in the pictures.
"I was with Dawley History Group at that time. The school was still standing, and I think it still does. I had a look at all the brickwork, and the brickwork and the structure of it doesn't anywhere near resemble the photograph."
Ken says Malinslee School was demolished long ago, long before the changes wrought by Telford Development Corporation.
"I have asked around for pictures of the old Malinslee School. I asked somebody 60 or now perhaps 70 who used to go to that school when they were little, and they couldn't come up with any photograph of it. I have never found a photograph of it."
Ken says the late historian Ken Jones had said Malinslee School was the same school as a school called the Timber Yard School, although Ken does not know why it might have had that name.
And before we run away with the idea that we have cracked this case, we have to throw in more mystery and doubt, because as it happens Dave Barnett also has a copy of the picture showing Samuel Parkes Cadman at what Ken believes is Malinslee School, but once more Dave's information was that it was taken at Dawley Bank or Lawley Bank.
And while Ken, and the local history book, identify Cadman as the lad standing on the far left, Dave identifies Cadman as the lad seated on the far left.
What probably can be agreed though is that as Cadman was born in 1864, the photo, and indeed both photos, date roughly from the mid-1870s.
