Victorian brickworks boss captured in image from down under

And as the boss Benjamin Bourne, the big bearded gentleman in the middle, was born in 1850, you can make an estimate of his apparent age – and also, therefore, the date of the picture – for yourself.

Thank you to Steve Bourne, from Waitati, Otago, New Zealand, for emailing it to us. He is Benjamin's great-grandson and is on a mission to find out more about his Shropshire roots.

He said: "When I was six, in 1952, I was sent to school with a tin photograph of my great-grandfather – judging by the 'tin' aspect and the age of the character portrayed, a photo expert would be able to pin a date more accurately and have a better idea of the number of 'greats' involved.

"Thankfully I returned home from school with the photo – I remember being threatened with consequences – and my brother, who is also here in New Zealand, keeps it safe.

"I believe the photo was taken at the brickworks in Pains Lane which was owned by Benjamin and who lived either, or both, at Lodge Bank or New Lodge. I believe the Lodge has gone."

Pains Lane is the old name for St Georges, now in modern-day Telford. Steve however has dug out information which strongly points to a family link to the Donnington Wood brick and tile works which opened in 1876 near the old Pains Lane brickworks.

Back in those days they didn't take photos willy-nilly as, apart from anything else, they were expensive, so you have to wonder the reason it was taken, and it is at least conceivable that it was to record the advent of the new Donnington Wood brickworks, which would make Benjamin around 26 in the photo – often in Victorian photos adults are a lot younger than they may look.

An alternative possibility, however, is that it shows the father, also called Benjamin Bourne. That would make the photo no later than March 26, 1880, because Benjamin Bourne senior died at the age of 59 on that date at the Station Hotel, Wellington.

The inquest report described him as a brickmaker, and said he had earlier been to Admaston Spa "to take the benefit of the baths there" before calling at the Station Hotel where he dined while waiting for the next train to take him home to Donnington.

After his meal he fell ill and died within two or three minutes. The inquest heard he had been unwell for a fortnight and the jury returned a verdict of death by natural causes.

His son Benjamin Bourne junior died on Boxing Day in 1933 at the Royal Exchange Hotel – now demolished – in Trench Road, Trench, where he lived with his daughter, a Mrs Townsend.

Included in Steve's parents' collection of memorabilia is an old aerial photograph of a works he did not recognise, but which we could – it shows the Lilleshall Company's Donnington Brickworks, giving another pointer to a family connection with that brickworks.

Steve said: "A memory of my father's was the fact that his father, John Henry Bourne, was the only son not to receive a public school education because of the brickworks' demise. "

Steve was in Shropshire last summer looking around Lilleshall for places connected to his family roots, and is returning in July when he has booked a small cottage at Bishop's Castle.

One aspect he has been researching is Benjamin's son Percy Bourne, who kept a pub in Wellington. The son's brother Jim died at the age of 26 following inoculation for entry to the Royal Navy in the Great War.