A snapshot of how we e used to live; Emma Pinch peers into the lens of times long gone to see life as it used to be for one Edwardian family.

Byline: Emma Pinch

CAPTURING the highs of a family day out now is as simple as a click on your mobile phone.

A hundred years ago doting mums and dads were just getting to grips with photography - but with no less evocative results.

A stunning new exhibition at the Lady Lever Art Gallery displays 40 images which chronicle in exquisite detail an Edwardian Bebington family at play.

The snaps were taken by engineer and keen amateur photographer Jack Urton.

Many of the hundreds of photos he took capture daughters Mary and Lois, paddling on the New Brighton shore, fishing in the Peak District, playing in the garden and picnicking in the sandhills of Wallasey.

Wife Biddy, a black-clad grandmother and a housemaid are also often roped in.

The carefree times he captures are a world away from the stiffly posed pictures associated with the turn of the last century.

The collection was unearthed in a cupboard under the stairs at a house in Mill Brow, Bebington.

"We found about 500 glass negatives measuring about three inches by four in a wooden box," says Heather Price, who now lives in Mold. "We could see what they were immediately."

Her husband, David, who passed away last year, was a keen photographer and a North West Photographers Association judge.

He owned a large lightbox to perfectly display the detail of the pictures, and passed a selection to the Lady Lever.

The couple undertook some detective work, putting adverts for information in the local paper and contacting a local genealogist.

The 1908 Kelly's Register lists Chesterford-born John as a draughtsman at Grange Vale, New Chester Road, Rock Ferry.

Sisters Mary and Lois, born in 1903 and 1906 respectively, lived in Birkenhead with their family then moved to Mill Brow in 1937. Neither of the sisters married. It is believed Lois developed mental health difficulties and Mary looked after her. Lois died in 1968, her elder sister Mary in 1979.

Despite the rigours of later life, their childhood seemed idyllic.

In 1910 Jack Urton wasn't alone in trying to capture the world around him on camera.

Amateur photography was catching on as a hobby in 1910, according to Jane Duffy, curator of an Edwardian Family Album.

The late 19th century had seen the advent of portable cameras, and it's thought Jack's was a Lizar camera, which cost between pounds 2 and pounds 10. A similar camera is on display with the exhibition.

"People had more spare time by the Edwardian times, since things like Bank Holidays were introduced in the 19th century, " says Ms Duffy, "and just like nowadays people would hop on the train or the ferry for a day out.

"At resorts like New Brighton, commercial photographers plied their trade on the sands.

"But lots of people, mainly in the middle classes, were buying their own cameras and photography became a popular hobby.

A number of photography clubs sprang up on the Wirral and there are lots of quotes from the Edwardian period of seeing even 'barrow boys and nursemaids' with cameras."

It's the carefree pleasure captured in Jack's pictures that makes the exhibition so appealing.

SAYS Ms Duffy: "The kids are smiling and relaxed and the pictures don't have that formality to them you often see, because it's just their dad behind the camera and they're enjoying themselves.

"You can see they're a close family with a hands-on dad. It changes the way you imagine the Edwardians."

* A book called An Edwardian Family Album by Heather Price, in memory of her husband, is on sale at the Lady Lever and The Bookshop in Mold, priced pounds 9.99. * An Edwardian Family Album is at the Lady Lever Art Gallery until May 3, 2010.

CAPTION(S):

Pictures of the Urton family from an Edwardian album showing a simpler and slower pace of life