IN 1881, the headmaster of Old Cleeve School, Clement Kille, wrote a column for the West Somerset Free Press entitled ‘Notes by the Way’.

The ‘notes’ then appeared in every edition thereafter and Clement went on to become the newspaper’s chief reporter.

His sons also went on to write regularly for the Free Press and his son Clement Ernest went on to become a prolific and successful photographer.

More than 100 years ago Ernest (as he was known) ran a thriving Minehead business, the Gift and Art shop, in Friday Street, with his brother Alan.

He was a quiet, thoughtful family man, a keen artist painting in oils and watercolour, and also a skilled craftsman working in silver and pewter.

However, it was Ernest’s passion for photography which demonstrated his true artistry and, having been forgotten for many decades, an extraordinary collection of his recently discovered photographs goes on show in Minehead this week.

Back in the 1920s, cameras were being developed for a mass market.

Families were now buying their first camera – these amateur photographers were dubbed ‘snap shooters’.

Professional photographers were, of course, providing studio portrait services and some of the more enterprising were travelling around the country capturing images for the huge market in postcards.

In the Westcountry, Alfred Vowles, James Date, and H H Hole faithfully recorded local scenes and events.

Ernest Kille and H H Hole shared a studio for a number of years and yet, while Hole is remembered, Kille is largely forgotten.

Ernest was no simple ‘snap shooter’.

From his shop in Friday Street, working with glass plate negatives, he learned how to compose and arrange his subjects, working with different light conditions to achieve stunning results.

As an Associate Member of the Photographic Society, he also wrote articles for photographic journals on his technical discoveries and creative ideas as well as providing advice on earning an income in this field.

Improvements in print technology at the time meant that national newspapers were desperate for photographs to brighten their news coverage and to illustrate advertisements.

As encouragement, they regularly ran readers’ competitions for the best photographs submitted and they paid good money.

So, Ernest started a lucrative sideline, submitting his photographs and earning a regular income from his beautiful family portraits and scenes of West Somerset.

Periodicals and advertisers especially loved Kille’s portraits of his daughter Atha and her cousins. Each one seemed to tell a story, there was always a sense of fun, or sadness, or mischief.

Big national companies such as Cow and Gate paid handsomely for these engaging images to advertise the children’s food and medicines they marketed.

Throughout the late 20s and 30s, Kille’s photographs of West Somerset scenes regularly appeared across a range of national newspapers – in the Daily Telegraph, the Manchester Guardian, the News Chronicle, the Daily Express, as well as in regional dailies.

When the business was forced to close, most of his glass plates from a lifetime of photography were thought lost, left in the shop basement and later thrown into a skip in the 1960s by builders.

All these years later his granddaughter Atha, clearing boxes in a house move, found a treasure trove of some 400 fragile glass plates, each carefully preserved in brown paper sleeves.

This tantalisingly small selection of his body of work is full of charming and engaging pictures of all the children in his life, his daughter, niece, and nephews – relaxed candid shots, and many of them posed for newspapers, competitions, and advertisements.

Many more photographs depict the local area – the long-since demolished Minehead Lido, the last launch of the town’s wooden sailing lifeboat, old farming methods, ships and their sailors, local characters.

And, of course, they offer a window into the 20s and 30s with the clothes, vehicles, and agricultural technology of the day – horses!

This year, for the first time, these images will be on show in his home town of Minehead, not 500 yards from where he had his darkroom.

This ‘forgotten photographer’ will be back in the heart of the community which once knew and loved him, his work, and his family.

Minehead, Exmoor, and the Westcountry can once again take him back as their own.

Part of town’s history

Granddaughter Atha said: “I had always owned an album of grandad's photos which he made for a family friend, but it was only in 2019 that I started to really research all the materials I had, got out the dusty boxes of glass plates, and had a proper look.

“I uncovered some lovely images and also his cuttings book and diary of work published, and began to realise that he had been a prolific and talented man.

“If you pick up pretty much any guidebook of the area published in the 20s and 30s you will almost certainly find some of his work.

“As a child when we visited Minehead, where my mother was born, everybody knew the family.

“Not that they were dignitaries, just that they were involved, the West Somerset Free Press, of course, also their gift shop, furniture making, charity work with Toc H, and more.

“But now this is all in the past and Ernest and his photographs were all but forgotten.

“My main purpose in putting on an exhibition is to raise his profile in the Minehead area, let the people of Minehead make him part of their history, and share these lovely images with as many people as possible.”

Exhibition opens Saturday

The free ‘Forgotten Photographer’ exhibition is being staged in Minehead’s oldest house, Townsend House, and opens on Saturday (July 26) and runs for two weeks until August 9.

It is open daily from 10 am to 4 pm, and until 6 pm on Thursdays.

Win a framed print

Visitors can also win a framed print of their choice of one of Ernest’s photographs from the show.

Just visit the exhibition with a copy of the Free Press containing this feature article to be entered into a draw for the prize.