Alexander Sutherland

The Thornbury Industrial Exhibition of 1885

This photograph shows the Industrial Exhibition that took place in Thornbury in April 1885.  It was held at the Tennis Court which seems to have been an underground building in grounds of Thornbury Castle.  The Exhibition showed a very wide range of trades and crafts in Thornbury.  As explained on another page,  Alexander Sutherland was the only professional photographer in Thornbury at this time and he had a stand at this event.  A close examination of this photograph shows that the man in the centre is standing next to a display of photographs and frames.  We believe it is very likely that the man is Alexander Sutherland himself.  He would have had two children, James and Emma, at this time and it is possible that they are the children in the photograph.

The parish magazine of June 1885 reported that the exhibition was very popular; "The Exhibition remained open for the week and many hundreds of visitors daily came to see it, the Tennis Court and large Annexe being in the evenings almost inconveniently crowded.  Notwithstanding the pressure however and the difficulties of locomotion, the utmost order and good humour prevailed.  The space at command was literally overflowing with objects of great interest.  The Trade specialities of Thornbury were splendidly represented, and the Art productions by local amateurs were of great excellence.  Indeed the promoters of the Exhibition have every reason to be gratified with the opinions expressed very generally by the visitors, which tended to show that there is no ordinary household want which cannot be admirably supplied by the  tradesmen of the Town and that the Exhibition would have been well worth holding if only for the fact that it had brought to light an amount of artistic talent, the existence of which had been hither to unsuspected in the neighbourhood."

This page was last updated: 20/05/2008