• Reference
    Z49/760
  • Title
    Black and white photograph of Charlotte Norris (1816 - 1906) Born and Lived at Woodside, Caddington. She was a strawplaiter and the village midwife and also worked at Stockwood House for the Crawley family. The original photograph was taken by Fredk. Thurston, It shows the elderly lady sitting by the fireplace which is fitted with a range type grate. She is busy with her strawplait and there is the usual Victorian bric a brac on the matlepiece and around the room. The family bible rests on the chair opposite her. A flat iron rests against the bars of the grate. [Charlotte looks very much like the woman depicted in the painting by Carlton Smith in the Luton Museum "Making straw hats in a cottage near Luton" - see C.R.O. slide number 1630]
  • Date free text
    c.1890
  • Production date
    From: 1816 To: 1906
  • Gift from Mr Harold Clement, Dunstable, Beds.
  • Level of description
    item