Another Edwardian wedding
photographed in their wedding clothes, c.1908
The Winter Newsletter featured the wedding of Bridget White, a member of a well-to-do Tickhill family, to an even more prosperous Alfred Wright of Bessingby Hall. This Newsletter looks at the wedding of a couple who were perhaps more representative of the general population in that era. Kate Price was the daughter of the coachman at Wadworth Hall, Robert Price, and from the age of 14 had been in service, most of it at Warmsworth Hall.
On 21 April 1908, aged 29, she married Alfred Thompson, aged 27, at St John's Church, Wadworth, just across the road from her parents' home where, in all likelihood, the wedding reception was held. Alfred was born in Wadworth but moved to Warmsworth with his family. He worked since leaving school as a painter and decorator.
The marriage service was conducted by the Rev Edward Keane Blumhardt, Vicar of Wadworth. Kate's sister Edith was a bridesmaid and it is likely that at least one of Alfred's sisters was also a bridesmaid. Kate and Alfred signed the Marriage Register in the presence of Edith, Robert Price and William Thompson, the couple's respective fathers.
No photographs were taken at the wedding but the couple subsequently went to a photographer's studio (Bagshaw & Son in Doncaster) to have their picture taken in their wedding clothes, as shown. There was no lengthy account of the wedding in the local press, but, apart from the Marriage Register, one document has survived, a list of the wedding gifts received by the couple. The gifts are a great contrast to the expensive and numerous gifts received by Bridget and Alfred Wright, but no doubt they meant a great deal to Kate and Alfred Thompson.
Their gifts recognised the need to provide the couple with basics for their new home, a house in Balby. Their immediate family gave them dinner and tea services, jugs, wine glasses, a silver teapot, a looking glass, a wringing machine, coal pan, rake and poker, steps and door mats, for example. Kate's former employers at Warmsworth Hall (Kate resigned from her post shortly before her wedding), Colonel and Mrs Heydemann and family, gave household linen, blankets, a copper kettle, oak clock and cutlery. The Rev Ross and his family, who employed Kate's father at Wadworth Hall, gave an armchair, plant, vase, tumblers and wine glasses.
Gifts from friends included a wedding cake, curtains, a bamboo table, linen, antimacassars, brass fire irons, an ink stand, photo frames and four cruets. The list mentioned 75 people who had provided gifts. The bridegroom gave the bride a gold chain and coral pendant and gave the bridesmaids gold brooches while the bride gave the bridegroom a pearl and diamond scarf pin.
Eleven months after the wedding Kate and Alfred had their first child and three more children were born over the next five years. Kate, Alfred and all their children lived at least into their eighties.