The Ghost Bride of Chislehurst

 On one side
stood the bride's cousins
and a great aunt.

Next to them
were her father and grandmother 

and two sisters for support.

The other side was less populated
with just the groom's two sisters
and his best man.  

And in the center stood the dashing groom
in his posh tailcoat and top hat. 

And holding his arm,
was his bride,
freakishly concealed
beneath a veil of white gauze.  

It was her special day in 1903,

the mysterious ghost bride of Chislehurst.

This large 8" x 6" photo of a wedding party was taken in 1903 by Mr. G. Cooling of Chislehurst, a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the Borough of Bromley. The photo is neatly annotated by, I believe, a child of the woman to the right of the bride who is labeled "Mother". The bride is "Aunt Hadie" and the groom "Uncle Albert" adding another line of kinship. At the groom's side on the left are his two sisters, "Aunt Edie and Aunt Alice". The other young man is unnamed but he is likely either Albert's best man, or maybe a beau of Edie. 

On the bride's side are her sisters "Mother" and "Aunt Mag." along with "Grandad" in a top hat and "Gran" in a dark, maybe black, dress. However I think there is a large age difference between this couple since the man rests his hand on her shoulder in a symbolic gesture of relationship, so I believe he is her son. Of course as child of the bride's sister the writer would know the bride's father as "grandad" and his mother as "gran." The other six women on the bride's side could be friends and neighbors but they look more like family members to me. The older woman on the far right wearing a fur stole bears a blurry resemblance to "gran" so I think she is a grand aunt to Hadie. Sadly the writer left out any surnames so all family bonds are left to our imagination. 

Mr. Cooling had a good camera to judge by the crisp focus of this group shot but somehow he misunderstood the effect of sunlight on the bride's veil. Her  ghostly quality is also odd as there is a hard edge on the veil's shape that looks artificial, as if the photographer deliberately altered the contrast to bleach her features. It's the reason I purchased this photo because the ghost bride of Chislehurst offers a lot of potential for a story. 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where time never ge               

                                             ts in the way.