Enhancing photo in order to read sign on Workshop Door

[Jool]

I thought mason at the end, but there seems so be an extra letter mas?on.

I keep putting my glasses on and standing back from the screen, it does make it a bit clearer, but as yet I am up and down like a yo yo and getting nowhere 

[Jool]

Could it be waggon at the end?

[Whipby]

Firstly, thank you everyone who has replied, enhanced the pic and tried to help! Much appreciated.

I may well have posted this pic before, a few years ago (it's part of a larger photo and I may have posted the whole thing at the time).  So some people might have seen it before.

It's a photo from the family of a lady whose family tree I was helping to research.  She was told it was a workshop - it may not be.  She didn't know for certain who the people are, but was hoping that the man in the doorway was one of her ancestors. And yes, that's a carriage, or a waggon of some sort, at the side, not hitched up.

The ancestor was called George Chapman, and his son Henry Chapman.  George was a joiner and Henry a builder and we know they had a business in Middlesbrough.  They were pretty well to do.  George was the man who built the first house in Middlesbrough, and Henry was a town councillor.

So I was hoping that the sign might contain the name Chapman!  I'm afraid I can't remember what was decided in the previous posting of the pic, and I can't find it, if indeed I did post it here 😳.

[Gadget]

George was the man who built the first house in Middlesbrough

Surely there were houses in Middlesbrough before the advent of photgraphy   

[JenB]

I feel like I have seen this one before?

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=641659.msg4885321#msg4885321

[Whipby]

The first house was built in 1830, Gadget.  But - forgive me - I don't understand your point?

[Whipby]

I feel like I have seen this one before?

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=641659.msg4885321#msg4885321

Thank you JenB!

[Gadget]

There were settlements there before 1830.

I think the photo might be dated circa 1900 +/- 10  and the man in the photo would surely not be around in 1830.

[Whipby]

You're right, there was a farmhouse there and the odd workers's cottage. But the first house of the new town of Middlesbrough was built in 1830. 

I was hoping the photo was from the 1870s, when George was still around, or from the 1880s/90s, when Henry was still around.  However, we have a copy of a portrait of George, and a copy of a photo of Henry, and it's difficult to discern any resemblance between either of them and the older man standing in the doorway.

I don't know when Henry died, however.  If the photo was much later, in the 1920s, say, it's still remotely possible to be him, although I'd doubt it.

It may be someone else from the family of course, or someone else entirely!

Thanks for your thoughts! 😊