Among the evocative photographs preserved from Kingswood’s past, one stands out: a wedding party gathered outside the doorway of Reeves Cottage, also known as Woodsman Cottage. The image captures not only the union of a couple but also the strength and presence of the Pullen family, with Elias and Ann Pullen standing either side of the bride and groom.
Dating the Photograph
The photograph sits somewhere between census records and family memory. By 1891, Sarah Pullen – likely the bride in this picture – had already left the household. This suggests that the marriage must have taken place in the late 1880s or 1890s.
A closer look, however, helps narrow the date. The youngest boy in the foreground, whose features around the mouth and nose closely match those of his brothers, is almost certainly Arthur Pullen, born in 1889. In the photograph he appears to be about nine years old, which would place the occasion around 1898.
At that date, the Pullen children would have been:
• John (b. 1873) – 25 years old
• George (b. 1869) – 29 years old
• Charlotte (b. 1876) – 22 years old
• Sarah (the bride, b. 1871) – 27 years old
• Alice (b. 1885) – 13 years old
• Arthur (b. 1889) – 9 years old
Identifying the Bridesmaids
Further evidence comes from other family photographs. Charlotte is seen elsewhere with her two sons, making her likeness recognisable as the second bridesmaid from the left in the wedding image. That leaves Harriett and Ellen to be identified.
Comparisons with a later portrait of Harriet Pullen, then married as Harriet Brown, reveal a striking resemblance to the third bridesmaid from the left. By process of elimination, the fourth bridesmaid must therefore be Ellen.
Elias and Ann
If the photograph does indeed date to around 1898, the family patriarch Elias Pullen would have been 56 years old. His steady presence beside his wife Ann anchors the picture, reminding us that this was not just a wedding but a family gathering spanning generations, framed against the familiar doorway of Woodsman Cottage.
A Window into Village Life
More than just a wedding photograph, this image offers a glimpse into Kingswood’s social history. Weddings were among the few occasions when whole families gathered formally to be photographed, making them invaluable records of community life. For the Pullens, long rooted in the area, this picture preserves both their likenesses and their place in the village story.
