Wedding photo found in wall in shop in Helston

Tessa Collet, owner of Glazed Expression at 45 Meneage Street, where the picture was found, posted: "We found this recently buried in a wall cavity. Does anyone have any idea where it is? Who is it? Maybe someone who lived here once?"

Ceramicist Tessa and partner Ady Barker moved into the shop in August 2019 and are currently taking the opportunity of the lockdown to refurbish it from top to bottom.

Ceramicists Tessa Collett and Ady Barker

Tessa said she was overwhelmed by the response with many people recognising it as a picture of the 1936 wedding of the former owners of the shop John and Clara Lugg who ran Luggs Grocery at the site until it closed over 30 years ago

"What a great response from the photo," she told the Packet. "I woke up this morning to all those comments. Those people are related to those people in those photos.

"Because we are quite new we thought we wonder who they are? Let's put out it out there."

She said that she found the photo hidden in a gap between a lathe and plaster wall and the stairs while clearing out the back of a 'tiny' cupboard.

"I was sorting out an under-stair cupboard in the back of the shop," she said. "It was filthy cobwebs. I decided I needed it as a little store room for bits and bobs in the shop so I crawled in there. "It's absolutely tiny and I started grabbing bits of rubbish and bits and bobs, then I got down to finer detail and there is kind of like a gap between the stair and the lathe and plaster wall. I think I saw the corner of it and started pulling stuff out and in that pile of stuff was that photo.

"It could have been in a container and fallen out or put there on purpose. It was very concealed. You wouldn't have been able to see it unless you were me in the cupboard delving between the wall.

"It's a Sepia photo really goes with our colour scheme anyway, so don't know whether to keep it and put it in a nice old wooden frame and just display it in the wall."

The photo was immediately spotted by Esther Bosustow who replied: "So I know about this photo! My gran is the bridesmaid. 1936. They are all Cury people from a few decades back and the photo was taken in the garden of Skewes Farm. My great Aunt Emmie had a grocery shop at 45 Menage Street. (Mrs Lugg's grocery shop, now Glazed Expression.)"

She told the Packet: "I saw the photo on Facebook and I recognised it straight away because my mum has the photo as well. So I saw it and recognised the couple straight away. They are very obviously Luggs, John and Clara Lugg and she used to be a Boaden at Skewes Farm which was where the photo was taken.

"We are from the farm just up the road that's where other relatives are from. My gran is the bridesmaid on the right, she died in 1980, then her parents sitting down just in front of her which are my great grandparents.

"It was amazing because I recognised it straight away as my mum has got an album full of these sepia photos and they are so beautiful. The nice link was that she [Tessa] said 'I wonder how it ended up in the wall?' My mum had said to me that Aunt Emmy had a shop and she said it was 25 Meneage Street. I didn't know where this Glazed Expressions was but that's where they were so they'd obviously put it in the wall."

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Since Mrs Lugg sold up 30 years ago the shop has been tenanted with the last occupant being a tattoo parlour. Ady and Tess bought the former Hells Gates tattoo and piercing building in August 2019 with the intention of renovating it into a shop and studio downstairs and living in the flat above.

The A5 size picture currently takes pride of place on the landing of the building and Tessa is hoping to get it framed and put on display in the shop as it matches the decor. It has 'postcard' printed on the back and Tessa says it is a bit shabby having had the corner chewed.

The original shop front was revealed during renovations. Pictures Tessa Collett/Facebook

The original shop front was revealed during renovations. Pictures Tessa Collett/Facebook

It's not the first time they have come across reminders of the previous occupants, while they were stripping back the front of the store they came across all the old signage for Mrs Lugg's shop when it was a grocers, they phoned the museum to see if they wanted to preserve it, but were advised to cover it up.

However you can still see the original interior of the shop as it is on display as part of Flambard's Victorian village as Mrs Lugg's grocery shop.