One word we can't read

[mare]

Catching up with this one again, the k and h are very similar in Backhouse, just as well it's a familiar name you can pin down.

Had a good peruse of the photo  http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,641659.0.html  willing to read Chapman above door as well, not very clear though to be certain.

[sandra Bee]

Hi,
Just had a look  look at the photo on restoration and the words over the door look like
first word might be The  and the start of the second word Beerh or Beefh....
Sandra

[Whipby]

I also thought it might say The, and had wondered about The Sons Chapman, or The Messrs Chapman.

 

[Treetotal]

It might be a good idea to have the sign scanned at a higher resolution as it is so faded and pixelates on enlargement...I'm not convinced that it says Chapman.
Carol

[Whipby]

Perhaps we are just seeing what we want to see!  I'll ask my friend if  that part of the photo can be scanned at a higher resolution, and if so, I will re-post.

[sandra Bee]

Hi
I tilted my screen downwards to darken it and it is a little clearer.
Sandra

[Treetotal]

I think the first word is "The" like others but I think the second name is a trade not a surname...but believe it ends with "man"...something like The *****man"
Carol

[sami]

Would be great if you could get a higher resolution scan.

Even though I know it says Chapman on the back of the photo I think it looks like 'CHAS_AN' for the last word on the sign.

.....and I still think that word before Chapman on the back of the photo is 'Afrd' - an abbreviation for Alfred. Although also wonder if the first two letters are a very rough 'G' - as in Gnd or Grd - grandfather perhaps?

[LittleDotty]

Hi

I am also researching the Chapman family and grateful for the information below.  Do you have the information as to which wife mothered which children?

Thanks

Good point Carol.  I'd still like to know what it says! 

Yes, the other word looks like Piercebridge.  We wondered whether this was where the photo was taken, although we only know of the business being in Middlesbrough.

Bit of background might help, here, then:

George Chapman (c1799-1875) a master Joiner, was responsible for the first house built in Middlesbrough in 1830. 
His children by two wives were: John Richard 1830-1839; Henry 1832; George 1835; Mary Ann 1837-1839; Thomas Dockeray 1841-1842; William 1845; Thomas 1846; John Wilson 1847; Juliana 1849-1850; Ann E 1851; James Frederick 1854.

Henry was a Master Builder and a councillor in Middlesbrough in the 1880s.  They were a well-off family.

Their joinery business - as far as we know - was in Middlesbrough, on Stockton Street.  We don't know, as yet, of a Piercebridge connection but assume it's the village in Durham.  Unless it's another surname?

The words at the bottom are: Jonathan Backhouse married a Chapman.  There was a Jonathan Backhouse, banker, from Darlington, who had connections to Middlesbrough.  I believe he also had a son or a grandson with the same name.  Preliminary searches for a possible Backhouse/Chapman marriage haven't revealed anything significant as yet.

Does any of this help?

PS - thanks for the suggestions of Olive/Ollie/April.  I can see where you're coming from - but can't fit those names to any of our known information at the moment.  Will keep them in mind, though.