This is a view that people will hopefully recognise, albeit this particular one is from around 150 years ago! It’s a carte de visite (a small photograph on card) of St John’s Church of course produced by Robert Appleby of Market Place Spalding and dates from sometime in the mid Victorian period, around 1875 perhaps. The scene looks a tad more serene than it does these days!
Robert Appleby was born in Stockton on Tees, Durham in 1841 and I don’t know how he came to settle in Spalding but he became a notable member of the Spalding community in the mid 1800s. In 1841 he was still living with his mother Margaret and siblings in Durham but by 1851 he was working as a printer and parish clerk in Spalding, lodging at 11 Double Street.
By 1861 he has established his own shop in the centre of Spalding Market Place as a bookseller and printer. The business was doing well and he employed several people. He married he wife, Jane Lowe of Spalding in 1860. They had 3 children, Mary, Ann and Robert Jnr born throughout the 1860s. Robert Appleby Snr. died in 1890 and is buried in Spalding Cemetary.
His son Robert Jnr became a bank clerk living and went top work in Boston then Louth. I am not sure what became of his daughters or the shop.
Whilst carte de visites of people are relatively common, cards of places are relatively rare so this is a very early view of the church.
source: John Wakefield
