Dakin

Joseph Dakin

On the 'People of 117' page of this website The following information about Joseph Dakin is given: -
Joseph Dakin Lived at Beaufort House, Upper Bridge Road, Redhill. In 1883 a Mr J.Dakin of Upper Bridge Road had two landscape paintings accepted by the Royal Academy but they were not hung due to lack of space.

Mr Sean Hawkins kindly provided this additional information: - 'This artist did have pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy and many other important galleries. He was a landscape artist and two pictures I have found listed are entitled 'Old Sandpit' and 'On Reigate Heath'. A Miss Sylvia Dakin, also a landscape artist in London in 1893: possibly a daughter'.

This had been on the webpage for some time when Mr Bruce Banham sent in the following (edited) email: -
I lived with my parents at Highlands, Blackstones, Redhill Common, Redhill from around 1958 to 1967. During this time my parents bought a J Dakin oil picture depicting a river scene with a weeping willow on the right of the picture and ducks in the foreground. Three weeks ago I moved to France and during all this time the Dakin picture has miraculously survived and is at present hung on the wall in the utility room of my new home in France. I am interested in your comments with regard to the above.

An image of the picture concerned was attached and appears below.

At first glance this looked to be what is now the lower of the two Earlswood lakes, painted before the upper lake was created. The roofs in the distance would be those on the cottages in the 'Rounabout', a group of homes on the common that are no longer there.
In order to get a little more information I put an article into the 'Yesteryear' section of the local newspaper, the Surrey Mirror, asking for information. This produced a result. A painting entitled 'Wray Common Evening' by Joseph Dakin turned out to be in the possession of Mr John Childs of Kingswood.and is shown here below.

The following week this article appeared in the Surrey Mirror.

The 1879 'Pond at Earlswood' picture referred to would seem to be the one in the possession of Mr Banham.

And the 'Reigate Hills from Wray Common' painting could be the one owned by mr Childs, even though the title has changed slightly.

Then, the Surrey Mirror of 24th January 2008 published the article shown on the right.

So what is there left to discover? Well, plenty, probably. Such as what happened to Joseph Dakin? Did he have a family? Did he become wealthy? Is he buried locally? What other lanscapes did he paint? These and other questions may be answered in time.
(See email from Kathryn Lewin at bottom of the page)

Note
It would seem that the part of Bridge Road between the bridge and Grovehill Road has alternated between being a part of Lower Bridge Road and a part of Upper Bridge Road. Early street directories show Lower Bridge Road extending from Redhill High Street (which it no longer does) to Grovehill Road at a time when the houses had names but not numbers.
Early in the 20th century the numbering system included all of the road as far as Grovehill Road with Lower Bridge Road. After Grovehill Road numbers started again for Upper Bridge Road.
Then in the 1990s Mr Bachelor of the first house after the bridge queried the numbering system with the result that it was adjusted to finish numbers for Lower Bridge Road at the bridge and to start numbering Upper Bridge Road immediately after the bridge.
This meant that No.4 Upper Bridge Road (where I used to live as a child) became no.10 and all the other houses were similarly altered, and that the part of the road below Grovehill Road became 'Lower' once more.
AJM.

Many thanks to the Surrey Mirror and all those who have contributed information about Redhill artist Joseph Dakin.

If you have any information to add to this article please
CONTACT AUTHOR


Since the above was written the names of five more pictures by Joseph Dakin, who seems to have died in 1900, have come to light.

A Rest by the Wayside (1871)		A Day Fishing 1874


A Shepherd with a Flock on a Wooded Path 1869		Summer (date unknown)

The fifth painting is entitled 'Sheep in an Extensive Landscape' but no picture of it is available

And two photos of Dakin watercolours have been sent by Lisa who unfortunately has no idea of their titles. Both date from 1895.

Many thanks to Lisa for the above photographs of paintings in her possesion.

	This lovely photo is of a painting by Joseph Dakin owned by John.. It is entitled 'Asking The Way' and John says it is a view across the beach at Thurlestone in Devon. A man dressed in a red hunting jacket is sitting on a horse talking to a young peasant woman who looks like she's collecting shellfish. John's family are from Devon and at one time in the 1950's an aunt of his lived right on the beach at Thurlestone. He inherited the picture from his mother but doesn't recall how long it had been in the home in Torquay where he grew up. Many thanks to John for the photo. The picture is behind glass and quite rightly John didn't want to disturb it, so the slight streaking in the photo is due to light refection. AJM September 2009

Email from Christine Hawken:- For several years we have had in our possession a picture which was given to my husband by his aunt. She cannot remember where or when she acquired it but it would have been many years ago, (she is 90), and most probably bought at an auction in the area around Wadebridge in Cornwall. I doubt it cost her very much as she only bought items she liked and which were inexpensive. In spite of having had the picture here and removing it from the wall several times, I have cleaned it but never really taken much notice of it until I removed it to paint the hall recently and noticed the label on the back. I decided to see if I could find out anything about the artist and eventually ended up on your site. I enclose a photograph of the picture which has labels on the back. The labels read:-

Top label
(Top line unreadable but may be a title)
Joseph Dakin Beaufort Cott, Red Hill.

Bottom label
C. Hollingsworth Fine Art Gallery 7 Cranbourne Street Leicester Square London WC

I would be interested to know if anyone has any further information on the title of the picture or the location of the houses and I hope this has added a little more to your very interesting story of his life.

The painting by Joseph Dakin belonging to Christine Hawken's husband; title unknown (photo courtesy Christine Hawken)

Many thanks to Christine Hawken for sending in the painting above, it's lovely and certainly adds to the information about Joseph Dakin. I wish I could identify the scene it as being of a local scene, especially as the label on the reverse bears Joseph Dakin's Redhill Address. The hills at a little like those at Reigate but are bare of trees and the large houses are unfamiliar. Could it be at the South Downs? If anyone can identify the scene please CONTACT AUTHOR AJM

...The following email received from Kathryn Lewin: - Joseph Dakin comes from a branch of my family. The 1901 census RG13 508 p26 shows him living with his brother George William Dakin in Camberwell. He is shown as artist and landscape painter aged 68 and single.
He was born 28-11-1832 chr.15-2-1833 Christened Lady Huntingdon's Chapel, Blackfriars Road, Southwark. He lived in Camberwell with his parents, then his brother. His parents were Henry (b.1803) and Mary Dakin (nee Overton) m.1830 Southwark
Brothers Henry John 8-1-1831 chr.23-2-1831 and Edward Russell 29-10-1834 chr.22-5-1835 both Lady H. Chapel .There were more but I don't have their dates. Also a cousin George William Dakin b.1825.
Grandparents were Sarah & Joseph Dakin - grocer and cheesemonger of 172 High St Southwark, quite wealthy. Not related as far as I can find to the Thomas Dakin who was Lord Mayor and started London Necropolis Company. These Dakins were all in Commerce and grocery trade, dealing in tea, sugar, flour, cheese, and wines, with colonial interests (and slave trade).
I don't know how an artist would have been received! I think Sylvia Dakin (mentioned by Sean Hawkins above) was a granddaughter of Henry John and Laura Alida Foulgoux; am still looking . They had at least fourteen children, Edward Russell and Jane Punnet had at least seven children. According to ancestry.co.uk Joseph looks likely to have died Oct 1915 in Bridge, Kent. I will keep an eye open and pass on any more information I find.
.......Thank you very much for this information, Kathryn
(Kathryn is descended from Joseph the grocer's brother, James, a sack merchant of Horsleydown)

JOSEPH DAKIN
A Redhill Artist