New exhibition captures life in Tyrone in the early 1900s

AN intriguing exhibition will feature the surviving photographs that a local governess captured of ordinary life in Clogher in the early 1900s.

Taking viewers on a journey back in time, the photography was captured by amateur photographer Rose Shaw (1859 – 1949) who, in her spare time, captured local people in every day activities.

Rose first came to the Clogher Valley as a governess to the Gledstanes who lived at Fardross, near Clogher.

Her employers were Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Ambrose Upton Gledstanes, 30th Lancers (Gordon’s Horse), an only son, and his wife, Isabella.

Lady with the lens

When not looking after the Gledstanes’ children, Rose spent much of her time walking in the Clogher Valley, photographing local people in the townland of Corleaghan (about four miles south of Clogher). She had a particular love of photographing members of the Holland, McElroy, McCaughey and Tierney families.

Rose developed her photos in a windowless room at Fardross, near the dining room where the Gledstanes kept their silver.

Rose later published ‘Carleton’s Country’ in 1930 – a book which included many of her own photographs, and featured an introduction by Sir Shane Leslie and included many of her own photographs.

Sadly, only about 30 of Rose’s photos have survived the test of time, and to-date, they have been exhibited at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, County Down. However, Clogher Community Village Forum have been granted permission by National Museums NI to print and exhibit the collection.

Among Rose’s surviving images are a girl with a creel for collecting turf, people gathering sheaves of oats, smoking pipes, playing fiddles and melodeons, children walking to school barefoot and women clad in the traditional dress.

Born Miss Rosoman (Rose) Lucy Maskelyne Shaw, the lady with the lens died in Bath in 1949.

The exhibition of Rose Shaw’s photographs will take place at Corick House on Thursday, February 27 at 7pm. Come along and view the collection – and if you’re local, perhaps help to identify the people in the photographs so that their individual stories can be told and shared in the future.