Anyone recognise these hats?

[Lesanne]

Well done, Merched.  Great photo.
 I love trying to match the faces to relatives.
     All the legs crossed daintily at the ankles too!!

[Gadget]

Sadly, they're all dead now. The last to die was my cousin, the page boy, who died last autumn. The two women on the left are my Mum's older sisters, then her niece. The woman on the extreme right was called 'Aunty Mary Ann' (I've still not found her  ). Next to her is my Nain, Dad's mother who was a volunteer nurse in the First World War. She died when I was 4 in 1949 - a lovely woman.
Sorry, I deviate from the initial request. My photo is definitely younger, so the original must be the 1920s.
Merched

[lizdb]

Hi

Of course it is possible that ALf and Nell are not rellies but just some friends, maybe an old school friend or neighbour or work colleague, that your gran happened to keep in touch with for a bit and sent  a wedding present to. Perhaps she kept the family phots separate, which she showed you, and then other photos of friwnds etc were separate and she never bothered to show them to family, thinking they wouldnt mean anything as you never knew them.
I must have lots of wedding photos in my old albums of that kind, many of which I have now completely lost touch with. I would hate my descendants to spend time trying to work out who they are and how related!

Just a thought!

[JAP]

The bride and the younger lady in the front row both have mid-calf (or lower) skirt lengths so perhaps the first half of the 20s?  1926 was supposed to be the year when hems rose to knee length so I'd go for earlier than that - the first half of the 20s.  Also, the bridesmaids' hats have fairly large brims whereas I think that hats tended to the brimless cloche as the 20s proceeded.  Older ladies probably kept wearing long dresses for quite a while but would they have done so right into the second half of the 20s?  Perhaps the two 'Grans' might have but surely not the one who might  be the bride's mother.

JAP

[Elizabeth Revel]

Is the man on the right front wearing spats?

Beth

[AngelaR]

Hi Lizdb, JAP and Beth

Thanks VERY much for your contributions - They really help 

Lizdb

I had thought about Alf and Nellie being friends rather than relatives - I think it's actually Nellie who's the contact as there's another photo in this collection with a 'love from Nellie' on it (could be a different Nellie of course  ) However, most of the photos in the album are identifiable as relatives, so I think the question is an open one. Doesn't make things easy though and I must admit that most of the photos I have of my own generation are friends as I have almost no relatives  on this side of the world.

JAP

Your comments about the clothes help a lot. I think I must be a poor pattern matcher with visual things (although pretty good on concepts ) because I can't really fit the historical costume examples I've looked at on the web into any kind of structure in my mind that I can use for comparison (not sure that makes sense, but still....) So it's really helpful to have someone else's reasoning to look at!

My grandmother was, herself, married in 1916 aged 20, so if Alf and Nellie were friends/contemporaries  (following Lizdb's possibility), this would also match with it being an earlier rather than later date.

Beth

The spats are an interesting idea  I had assumed that the chap was wearing light socks. That would have been considered as poor taste when I had anything to do with weddings, but perhaps it was normal at that period..... Wouldn't spats have covered a bit more of the shoe? I've never seen them so I don't really know...

If we think possibly early 1920's it gives me a reasonable window to look at. I think I might have to get to the Somerset record office soon and look through the North Perrott weddings in case they actually married there. Wish work didn't keep getting in the way!

Thanks again

Angela

[AngelaR]

Hi Folks

Just in case anyone would like to know the conclusion to this story - I've identified the wedding and several of the people in the photo (you've no idea how excited I am about this  )

The wedding took place in 1924, so your (combined) dating analysis was spot on 

It all fell into place yesterday when a book I won on ebay arrived. It was a memoir of North Perrott and had a few pictures in it, including one containing the very distinctive looking chap next to the end on the right in the front row. The book names him as Percy Willmott. He's in my tree and had a sister Ellen. Later in the book it says that Ellen Willmott married Alfred Mabey. Looking in GRO, I found it - 1924!!! So there we are - Alf and Nell.....

They do turn out to be relatives of my Gran but it's a pretty remote connection, so it looks like they were really more friends than relations.

Moral of the story - never give up on tracing obscure family photos!!!!

Thanks to everyone for their help

Angela