Hornsey Horse Drawn Haymaking, c1900

The photographer, Albert Alexander Newman was born in 1882 in Langford Bedfordshire. By the time he was 10, his father had taken a job as a labourer for Hornsey Council and moved the family to Fortis Green. By 1901, the family had moved to 88 Park Road in Crouch End. Albert was working as a photographer's assistant.

His mother is recorded as having died in 1908, but there is no record of his father's death.

By 1911 Albert had apparently moved moved back to Bedfordshire. We might speculate that this was related to the death of one or both of his parents.

He joined the County of London Artists Rifles Battalion in the first World War and died in action, aged 37 on 15th June 1917.

This photo is stamped on the rear A Newman, Photographer, Park Road 88 Park Road, Crouch End. So it it likely to have been taken around the turn of the century. There is no information as to where the photo was taken. But there were certainly fields just beyond Crouch End that might've been cut for hay. So we might speculate that this could have been taken relatively locally.

I bought the photo because I thought it's a nice reminder of a different way of life and it was taken by a sometime local lad, trying to improve his lot in, what turned out be his rather short life.