By Margaret Crosby

Last updated 15:51, Wednesday, 23 April 2008

A NOSTALGIC 130-year-old photo of a little girl, discovered under old floorboards, has set Kelly Doran on a personal quest for the child’s story.

A late 19th century studio study (taken by Reay & Dyson photographers of Cleator Moor and St Bees), the once-cherished, velvet-framed picture appeared to have been swept under the boards with other bits of “old rubbish’’ during long-past alteration work.

Kelly and her partner Andrew Gribbin made the discovery while embarking on their own renovations on the top floor of their Whitehaven home at Albert Terrace, Sunnyhill.

“We ripped up the floorboards and there was this pile of stuff underneath,’’ said Kelly, who had carefully picked among it to find the photo of a young girl.

“I think it must have been a child’s room at the top of the house, at one time.’’

The faded, purple velvet frame containing the photo was found where it had lain amongst the dust for many a year, alongside a collection of other discarded items. These included buttons, the remains of an old doll, bits of paper, a magazine, Christmas card, pages from the Whitehaven Herald 1882, a shopping list, toffee wrapper, a clay pipe (inscribed with a love heart), French matchbox and ladies’ Victorian cuff.

Wigan-born Kelly, 37, who has an interest in history and was intrigued by the find, has checked out old census records for Albert Terrace to discover that her home was once occupied by the Dickinson family: Isaac Dickinson, his Guernsey-born wife Anna (nee Milward) and their four children. Isaac was an accountant at an iron mine and hailed from a Corney farming family.

“If any of the family’s descendants are still around locally, I would be happy to make contact with them and show them these items,’’ said Kelly. They may be particularly interested in the photograph of the girl, who, it is assumed, is of eldest daughter, Lucy Agnes Dickinson.

She was born in 1871 in Whitehaven and had two sisters, Anna Maria, Emma and brother William. By 1901 Lucy was aged 30, unmarried, still living at home and employed as manageress of the Cocoa Rooms in Whitehaven Market Place (see picture).

The Dickinsons must have been amongst the earliest occupants of Albert Terrace, which was built around 1870. Lucy’s mother, Anna, and aunt, Lucy Milward were both from St Peter’s Port, Guernsey in the Channel Islands. This may explain the presence of the decorative French matchbox that was found.

Lucy Milward was listed in the 1871 census as a “dress and mantle-maker’’.