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On this day in 1897 Thomas Forrest died at his home on Berw Road Pontypridd. He had been a photographer for almost 50 years. Born the son of a chainmaker near Birmingham in 1839 the family moved to work at the Brown Lenox Chainworks in the late 1850’s.
While Thomas worked with his father at the chainworks he got an interest in photography. This was highly unusual in the late 1850’s. Mr Lenox at the works heard about this and he paid for Thomas to be apprenticed at a photography studio in Hereford in 1860.
In 1861 Thomas sewed money into his clothes and took the train to Cardiff, a boat to Bristol, then a stage coach and train to London where he bought a lens for the camera he had made at home out of a match box. (I think it was a larger box than what we have now!)
Thomas then opened his first studio in 1861. This photograph, the earliest I have, dates from around 1863.
The business took off and by 1876 Thomas bought a site in Market Square Pontypridd and custom built his Cambrian Studio there. He took tens of thousands of photographs of the populace while he played his homemade harmonium at St Catherine’s Church on Sundays.
Thomas’ most famous subject was Dr Price of Llantrisant. Dr Price had been the Brown Lenox chainworks company doctor and stayed on as physician for the Forrest family. He posed at the Cambrian Studio for the source photograph of his most enduring image.
Thomas Forrest also took photographs of a mayor of London, the choirmaster Caradog and the bards Hwfa Mon and Morien. More importantly for me he imaged the inhabitants of Pontypridd and the valleys over four decades.
His sons Walter and Albert took over the business after his illness in 1895 and they ran the studio until at least 1927. I’m not sure when it closed down for good. The downstairs of The Cambrian Studio is now a barbers, the upstairs, where the photographs were taken, lies empty.
I should tag @PontyMuseum into this thread. When COVID is over I’d love to do an exhibition with them of his photographs as I know they hold lots of his work as well. I own about 130 of his studio photographs from 1863-1920.
Thomas returned to his old work place- where he had been given such an amazing life opportunity- in 1875 to take this photograph of the Brown Lenox works. The photograph is now in the @AmgueddfaCymru collection.
