A local man has helped solve a three-year mystery after he identified a man in a photo from the early 1900s which is currently part of the Westbury Museum’s latest exhibition – Westbury Life Through a Lens.
Jim Moody, originally from Westbury but now living in Warminster, says the man in the foreground of the photo is his great-grandfather William Albert Wyatt – a man who had a strong presence in the town through his involvement with several business throughout the years.
Jim says that he stumbled across the photograph when he visited the exhibition, and when he enquired how it got there, he was told that the volunteers at the Westbury Museum had put out a request for more information about the photo on Facebook three years ago, but no one had come back with answers.
“It was quite odd seeing my great-grandfather’s face in the exhibition – especially as I thought I was the only one with the copy”, said Jim. “William was actually born to a single mother in a workhouse and his story is a fascinating one as he had pulled himself up by his bootstraps to become a very successful man. When he died in 1922, he left an estate that would (in today’s money) be worth roughly £6million.”
Before William came to Westbury from Warminster his trade lay in painting and decorating and he has been described as a journeyman by Jim. William moved to Westbury in 1873 and he rented an ironmonger’s shop that his wife ran while he looked after his painting and decorating business.
Jim added, “He was a very smart man and was always looking at ways to make money. When indoor closets and lavatories started becoming more popular, he branched out and hired plumbers to help install the new systems which included his eldest son, Harry. William would have got into anything that could have made him more money and thereby his life easier, which is probably due to his harsh upbringing – you don’t get much of a harder start to life than living in a workhouse.
“The photo in the exhibition shows him standing where what was to become numbers four and six in Maristow Street which was built from 1904 to 1906, and it was rented by him to a butchers and shoe shop. The site, known as The Green on old maps of Westbury was purchased for the sum of £80 from the Lopes family who lived in the Manor House opposite, from which I think the photograph was taken.
“Apart from these houses William also built The Gables in Church Street; from the pavement looking under the eaves, you can still see ‘WAW 1900’. He also purchased a public house at the bottom of Church Street, the Kings Head/Arms from Frome United Breweries and converted it into a private house. He also owned many other properties in Westbury.
“Sadly, on his death in 1920, neither of his two sons followed their father in the business. His eldest daughter, Alice, ran the ironmongers shop until the 1940s after which it became a varied succession of things such as a cafe, bicycle shop, and a bookshop. It was also often used by local MPs who would campaign from the balcony.”
You can see the photo, alongside plenty of others, as part of the free Westbury Museum’s Life Through A Lens exhibition that is on show until the end of April. The museum is on the first floor of the library and is open on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday during library opening times.
