View source for Collier, Walter Percy

== Walter Percy Collier 1875-1937 ==

Walter Percy Collier seems to have developed his interest in photography some time after Harry Ord Thompson (1871-1950), who was an established photographer on Tyneside, married his eldest sister, Beatrice, on 24th December 1898.  By 1910, he could call himself a master photographer and worked with his brother-in-law for a couple of years.

After a short time with his brother-in-law, W. P. Collier came to Bellingham and set up his business in the old butcher’s shop in Lock-Up Lane. Between 1917 and 1919, he was an aerial photographer in the Royal Flying Corps. In this portrait, he is proudly wearing his “maternity jacket” designed to keep out the draughts in flimsy aeroplanes.

== The Business of W. P. Collier ==

Walter Percy Collier set up his business in Bellingham after gaining experience as a photographer and postcard publisher in Great Crosby and Formby in Lancashire and then working with Harry Ord Thompson, his brother-in-law, in Newcastle-upon Tyne. A postcard and a stamp each cost a halfpenny. People used the cards of Walter Collier not only for communication but also to record their travels in private cars or charabancs. Many of the surviving cards of W. P. Collier are unused and marks in the corners show that they were carefully inserted into postcard albums to be shown around to family and friends. Photography, whether for family portraits or postcards, was a real novelty.

== The Early Life of W. P. Collier ==

Details about the early life of W. P. Collier are patchy. He was born on 20th July 1875, the third child of Walter and Isabella Collier. In 1898, his eldest sister Beatrice married Harry Ord Thompson, a Tyneside industrial photographer. Walter married Catherine Poynor in 1905. They had three children Muriel, Edith and Jack but Catherine died on 20th December 1910, aged just 28. He came to Bellingham a couple of years later, served as a photographer in the Royal Flying Corps between 1917 and 1919, and died on 7th September 1937, aged 62. From 1912-1937, he was the main postcard publisher for a 40-mile radius of Bellingham.

== The Shop of W. P. Collier ==

Edie Lyons, Edie Collier and Norman Armstrong worked in the shop and all remember the Valor paraffin stove that stood by the door. The shop was rather cold and dark with dark red shelves. The developing and printing done in the corridor that led to the washing area at the back. Walter Collier sold sweets and tobacco to tide him over the winter. Much to the annoyance of her father, his daughter Edie became a keen motorcyclist but she could help to deliver postcards to outlying areas and bring picture framing materials from Newcastle. Edie Collier would ride the motorcycle and Edie Lyons would ride pillion, hanging on to the materials.

== The Words of Norman Armstrong (1923 - 2003) ==

Norman Armstrong worked for W. P. Collier for a few months after he left school in 1937. ''“Mr. Collier took his photography very seriously but the shop was not very big and there was not much room for display. He kept most of the postcards in cardboard boxes, though there were a few postcards on display in the shop window. People would come in for sweets and tobacco rather than postcards  but his postcards went all over Northumberland. His daughter Edith ran the business for a few months after her father died but she eventually decided to close the shop. She could not get out and about to take new pictures as her father had done.”''

== W. P. Collier in the darkroom ==

The heart of any photographic business was the darkroom. Working under the glow of a red safelight, W. P. Collier would use two chemicals to turn a negative on a glass plate into a postcard that he could sell in his shop or from local outlets.  Porcelain dishes held the chemicals to develop and print the postcards before they were thoroughly washed.

== Collier Country ==

The heart of any photographic business was the darkroom. Working under the glow of a red safelight, W. P. Collier would use two chemicals to turn a negative on a glass plate into a postcard that he could sell in his shop or from local outlets.  Porcelain dishes held the chemicals to develop and print the postcards before they were thoroughly washed.

== Memories of Muriel Collier  (1906 - 1998) ==

“I would often find my father sitting in the Rose and Crown with the old boys of Bellingham but he was at his happiest on his motorbike taking pictures of the countryside. He was very interested in the Roman Wall and liked taking pictures of places in the wilds rather than pictures of people. He had lovely handwriting but a wicked sense of humour. I knew if he was going to tell us something outrageous because all of a sudden his eyes seemed to glaze over and go a different colour. One day, I was riding with him on the motorbike side-saddle and fell off. He stopped but just sat there until I got up! He was a real character, no doubt about that!” 

== Upper Coquetdale, the Postcard Paradise of W. P. Collier ==

Lovers of solitude will revel in the Cheviot Hills. They are crossed only by the main road between Newcastle and Jedburgh and are inhabited by a few shepherds and thousands of sheep. From the heart of these wild hills steal glens, burns and waterfalls. The scenery of Coquetdale is remarkably beautiful and varied. The town of Rothbury is graced by the lovely hillside woods of Cragside, the estate of Lord Armstrong. New bridges have been built in Upper Coquetdale and the motorist can now take a car as far as Carlcroft. The cyclist can penetrate far into the hills and use sheep-tracks to pass over the watershed into Scotland. 

== Characteristics of the Postcards of W. P. Collier: Events ==

Real black and white photographs contact printed on glossy paper from half-plate glass plates, 6½ x 4¾, and cropped to postcard size, 5½ x 3½. Each postcard had a characteristic number and title, the smaller the lettering, the later the postcard: the landing of the aeroplane of Captain Dawes at Otterburn Hall on 25th October 1913, the departure of the troops from Bellingham on 5th August 1914, the Peace Day Celebrations in Bellingham on 19th July 1919, the arrival of the Government Instructional Centres in 1933, the opening of Askew Hall in Upper Coquetdale on 5th September 1935 and the new Co-op in Allendale Town on 13th June 1936.

== Memories of Edith Lyons (1908 - 1996) ==

Edith Lyons née Hardie worked for W. P. Collier from 1923 until her marriage to Frederick Lyons in 1930. ''“He liked to go off on his own and take pictures. He would take one glass plate of a view and, if it were not to his satisfaction, he would go off again and take another. His camera was a large, old-fashioned one and he used to strap it on his back, tripod and all, and ride off on his motorbike. He was a fit man and would walk for miles to get the picture that he wanted. Everyone knew Mr. Collier and Mr. Collier knew every bit of Northumberland. Given half the chance, he would spend nearly every day taking his pictures!”''

== Memories of Edith Collier   1907 - 1993) ==

Edith Collier worked for her father from 1923 until her marriage to George Heppell in 1930. ''“I helped with the delivery and rode the motorbike. People talked about me because I rode the motorbike and my father was not keen on the idea. He liked to take very open views of the countryside, without a lot of people on them. Even now, I can look at a view and think, ‘Dad would like that.’ His pictures are real beauties, though it is typical of him to take a picture of an open area and not get closer to a building to get the detail.”''  Edith ran the shop after the death of her father on 7th September 1937 but moved to Newcastle in January 1939. 

== W. P. Collier and H. O. Thompson ==

Harry Ord Thompson married Beatrice Isabel Dudley Collier on 24th December 1898.  Having a photographer in the family would prompt a career change in W. P. Collier.  After working as a photographer from 1905, the two brothers-in-law had teamed up by 1910. W. P. Collier was stunned by the death of his wife, Catherine, at the age of 28, on 20th December 1910. A couple of years later, he decided to set up on his own in Bellingham. The following photographs are a few of the hundreds that were probably taken by W. P. Collier to be processed by H. O. Thompson and sold as postcards. Postcards of rural Northumberland were possibly not as profitable as H. O. Thompson expected.