{"id":1286,"date":"2022-04-19T14:06:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T14:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/?page_id=1286"},"modified":"2023-05-03T14:36:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T14:36:38","slug":"duntons","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/pittville-lives\/duntons\/","title":{"rendered":"Duntons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joseph and Elizabeth Dunton: archery in Pittville Gardens<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What fun was in prospect for the residents of Pittville in the late summer of 1849. \u00a0A series of novel entertainments were advertised to take place in Pittville Gardens on Monday 24 September.\u00a0 \u2018Among the most ludicrous of which [the Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em> informed its readers] will be \u201ca team of real geese<\/em> towing a washing tub\u201d, in which Mr. Dunton himself purposes to embark on \u201cthe surface of the silvery waters!\u201d\u2019.\u00a0 Mr. Dunton had throughout the summer \u2018afforded some pleasant pastime\u2019 to visitors to Pittville Gardens \u2018by a succession of feats of Archery on the lawn in front of the Pump Room\u2019.1<\/a><\/sup>

Joseph Dunton himself was a novelty in Cheltenham that year.\u00a0 Born in Bedford in 1810, he began his career in archery and other forms of entertainment in London.\u00a0 His first recorded appearance in the West Country was as part of a troupe performing in Gloucester in 1848 and he may have used the occasion to gauge the opportunities for archery in Cheltenham.2<\/a><\/sup>

Dunton began his archery business in the Montpellier Gardens, but by the height of summer 1849 he had removed \u2018to the beautiful Gardens of Pittville\u2019.3<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 An advertisement in September indicated that both Mr. and Mrs. Dunton were \u2018constantly in attendance\u2019 to instruct would-be archers.\u00a0 Elizabeth Dunton is something of a mystery.\u00a0 She was born in Gloucestershire about 1809, but as no record of the marriage can be traced, her maiden name and family background cannot be determined.4<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 What is clear, though, is that Elizabeth had a real talent for archery, and she and Joseph formed a very effective partnership in the promotion of archery in Cheltenham.

\"\"
Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 18 September 1849<\/figcaption><\/center>As the advertisement emphasised, archery was a \u2018healthful recreation \u2026 of the first order, whilst expanding the chest it strengthens the nerve, and imparts vigour to the whole frame\u2019.\u00a0 With its spas and pleasant setting, Cheltenham \u2013 and especially Pittville \u2013 was a draw card for well-to-do residents, both seasonal and long-term, in search of health and amusement.\u00a0 This provided an ever-changing pool from which Joseph and Elizabeth Dunton sought to derive customers.

Joseph Dunton\u2019s aquatic excursion on Pittville lake was to be a fitting conclusion to the 1849 season, perhaps a talking point that would help to draw customers for the next season in spring 1850.\u00a0 The weather intervened, causing the event to be postponed to the following Monday, 1 October, \u2013 or the first fine day after.5<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 Whether Dunton\u2019s geese were ultimately put to the test has not been discovered.

But the Duntons continued to demonstrate and teach archery in successive years, moving between the gardens of the different spas \u2013 Royal Old Wells, Montpellier and Pittville.\u00a0 In 1851 they returned to Pittville Gardens.\u00a0 At least that is the implication of the 1851 census, which records Joseph and Elizabeth Dunton living in Essex Lodge<\/a>, Pittville. <\/a>

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The Little Spa, also known as Essex Lodge, near one of the entrances to Pittville,
where the Duntons lived at the time of the 1851 census
(from Rowe\u2019s Illustrated Cheltenham Guide<\/em>, 1845)<\/figcaption><\/center>Essex Lodge, or the Little Spa, (now demolished) was a preliminary facility for dispensing spa water before the Pittville Pump Room was opened in 1830.\u00a0 Presumably, by 1851 it had long since ceased to be an active spa and had been converted as a modest residence, very convenient to Dunton\u2019s archery business in Pittville Gardens.\u00a0 The 1851 census describes Dunton as an archery manufacturer, but how much he was engaged in the manufacture of bows and arrows and other appurtenances of the sport or whether the archery equipment he sold or hired was produced by a commercial manufacturer elsewhere has not been determined.\u00a0 Essex Lodge would seem too modest a structure to allow much space for the tools and materials of archery manufacture.\u00a0 Perhaps Dunton rented workshop and storage space nearby.

For the next several years, Montpellier Gardens were the focus of the Duntons\u2019 activities.\u00a0 But in 1855 we find them dividing their time \u2013 Montpellier in the day and Pittville in the evening.6<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 Perhaps this reflected an expanding interest in archery in Cheltenham.\u00a0 About that time, Horace Alfred Ford settled in Cheltenham.\u00a0 A retired mine manager, Ford was already national archery champion.7<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 A National Archery Meeting had been held annually since 1844 and Cheltenham was chosen to host the meeting in 1856.\u00a0 However much Joseph Dunton had helped to lay the foundations of archery in Cheltenham, he seems to have played no part in the organisation of the national meeting \u2013 though it did provide a focus for advertising his services in the lead-up to the event.\u00a0 For Elizabeth Dunton, though, the meeting showed she could compete with distinction on the national stage.\u00a0 She took the third place in the Ladies\u2019 Prizes.8<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 Overall, the meeting was such a success that Cheltenham was chosen to host it again in 1857.

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Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>. 25 April 1857<\/figcaption><\/center>The national meeting again aided the Duntons\u2019 advertising.\u00a0 And they again divided their time, initially between Montpellier and Pittville Gardens, then Royal Old Wells and Pittville Gardens.9<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 At some time prior to the 1857 national meeting a Cheltenham Archery Club was formed.10<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 So local archers had a formal banner under which they competed with members of other clubs at the national meeting in July.\u00a0 Elizabeth Dunton was again a competitor, attired in the uniform green and white dress of the ladies of the Cheltenham Club.\u00a0 She again won a prize, but only a lesser one.11<\/a><\/sup>

This was the high-water mark of archery in Cheltenham.\u00a0 Archery alone was insufficient to sustain the Duntons.\u00a0 Indeed, the Cheltenham Archery Club was dissolved in 1861.\u00a0 For the following 20 years Joseph Dunton took his archery enterprise to charity fetes across southern England.\u00a0 But he engaged in several other commercial enterprises.\u00a0 As the advertisement above shows, his address in 1857 was styled the Photographic Institution.\u00a0 For about a decade he operated a photographic studio known as Dunton\u2019s Portrait Rooms.\u00a0 He also worked for some time as a hairdresser and in his later years was a maker, vendor and showman of fireworks.\u00a0 Elizabeth Dunton died in 1867 and some years later Joseph married (perhaps for the first time?) Charlotte Newby.\u00a0 Joseph Dunton died in 1886.\u00a0 His active connection with Pittville \u2013 such as it can be traced \u2013 was limited to his early years in Cheltenham, but by bringing archery to the town \u2013 and to Pittville Gardens \u2013 he enriched the lives of many residents there.\u00a0 Some of those Joseph and Elizabeth Dunton introduced to archery may have been among the members of the Pittville Archery Club which operated in the 1870s and about which little is known.

Julian Holland, March 2016<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note (2018)<\/strong>

A fuller account of the life and work of Joseph Dunton has been published in the Cheltenham Local History Society Journal<\/em><\/a>:

 Julian Holland, \u2018Joseph Dunton (1810-1886) \u2013 Part 1, Archery Entrepreneur\u2019, CLHS Journal<\/em> No. 33 (2017), pp. 3-11
 Julian Holland, \u2018Joseph Dunton (1810-1886) \u2013 Part 2, Photography and Fireworks\u2019, CLHS Journal<\/em> No. 34 (2018), pp. 24-31.

The author remains interested to hear<\/a> from anyone who can inform him of other Dunton photographs, particularly those in other formats or taken out of doors.


\"\"
Studio portrait, Dunton\u2019s Portrait Rooms, unidentified father and daughter
Courtesy Ron Cosens, Photographers of Great Britain & Ireland 1840\u20131940
(www.cartedevisite.co.uk<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/center><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Notes and References<\/strong>

1<\/a><\/sup> Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 22 September 1849, p. 601.
2<\/a><\/sup> Gloucester Journal<\/em>, 24 June 1848.  As part of a \u2018Grand Gala\u2019, Dunton, of Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea, in London, was directing \u2018A Grand Archery Fete!\u2019
3<\/a><\/sup> Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 18 September 1849.   Dunton was giving archery performances in Pittville Gardens by the time the Fourth Floral Exhibition was held there in late July; Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 28 July 1849, p. 470.
4<\/a><\/sup> The census records indicate that Elizabeth Dunton was born in south-west Gloucestershire, on the west bank of the Severn, but differ in the exact location: Newnham (1851), Rodley (1861).  Civil registration was established in England and Wales in 1837 so it is curious that the marriage can\u2019t be traced.
5<\/a><\/sup> Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 29 September 1849, p. 614.
6<\/a><\/sup> Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 15 September 1855.
7<\/a><\/sup> Horace Ford first practised archery in 1844 and competed at the grand national meetings from 1848.  He was the national champion every year from 1850 to 1859: Hugh D. Hewitt Soar, \u2018Ford, Horace Alfred (1821\/2-1880)\u2019, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<\/em> online.
8<\/a><\/sup> Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 5 July 1856, p. 635.
9<\/a><\/sup> Cheltenham Looker-On<\/em>, 2 May 1857.
10<\/a><\/sup> The establishment of the Archery Club may account for Dunton\u2019s shift to the Royal Old Wells, with the Montpellier archery ground becoming the field of the club\u2019s activities, although the club is recorded as officially beginning in June.
11<\/a><\/sup> Cheltenham Chronicle<\/em>, 7 July 1857.  Mrs Dunton tied with Mrs West for the \u00a35 prize for the greatest number of golds at 50 yards.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For information about other Pittville archers see Alice Blanche Legh<\/strong> (1856-1948) and Sybil Fenton (‘Queenie’) Newall<\/strong> (1854-1929) on the Pittville Lives<\/a><\/strong> page of this website.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph and Elizabeth Dunton: archery in Pittville Gardens What fun was in prospect for the residents of Pittville in the late summer of 1849. \u00a0A series of novel entertainments were advertised to take place in Pittville Gardens on Monday 24 September.\u00a0 \u2018Among the most ludicrous of which [the Cheltenham Looker-On informed its readers] will beContinue reading “Duntons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":80,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1286","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3333,"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1286\/revisions\/3333"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittvillehistory.org.uk\/wpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}