Cuckfield Museum reopens on 16th February with a new display – ‘The Light of Day: treasures old and new from our storeroom’.

The Museum has been closed since mid December for annual cleaning.

Among the exhibits will be these intriguing photos (right) which have recently been given to the museum.

The curators are in the process of trying to unravel the stories behind the photographs and are asking villagers for their help.

“We wondered whether any of your readers might be able to shed light on them?” said curator Phillipa Malins.

“They were given to the present owners of the house in Church St which used to be Askews cabinet makers and later undertakers, and were taken coming out of Cuckfield Church and in the garden of the house.”

She added that the photographs were given to the present owners by the previous owners and a costume expert has identified them as being around 1905, when the Askews would have been well established on the premises.

“The business continued on until the 1950s. People remember the family but so far no one can identify the bride or groom,” she said. “The photos are unusual for the time in that they are so informal. The clothes denote a very prosperous background for the couple – more than one would expect for the family of a cabinet maker.”

Philippa and her team will be carrrying out some research into Church records for summer weddings around 1905 to see if that reveals anything but would welcome any input from residents.

Further information about the museum can be found on the website www.cuckfieldmuseum.org