A bull's head

A pencilled inscription verso in a period hand reads: 'Photograph of the Master Bull in the wild herd at Chartley Castle which died during the winter of 1873 & 4.'

Destroyed by fire in 1781, the ruins of Chartley Castle lie to the north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire, between Stafford and Uttoxeter.

Photographed by Thomas Bacon Allport of Uttoxter in Staffordshire.

Allport's primary means of earning a living was as a shoemaker, and various census returns described him as either a 'shoe maker' or 'shoe manufacturer.' A post office directory of 1862 lists him as a 'photographer,' while Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire (1888) specifically lists him as a 'shoe maker & photographer.' He died, aged aged 72, in 1891.