View of Holdsworth House
Holdsworth House, Holdsworth, Calderdale 1935-45 Mary Theodora Pollit © Historic England Archive AA45/01322
Holdsworth House, Holdsworth, Calderdale 1935-45 Mary Theodora Pollit © Historic England Archive AA45/01322

Mary Theodora Pollit, née Bell (1871-1947)

Mary was born in Duckinfield, Cheshire in 1871, the daughter of a vicar. She is not recorded as having a profession until 1911, when she's listed as a teacher alongside her sister, Amy. Mary married Edward Pollit, an engineer, in 1916.

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Mary’s photographs were published in the Chester Chronicle and other local publications. They accompanied articles written about excursions to local towns and villages. During the Second World War, Mary worked with the National Buildings Record to record historic buildings in Cheshire.

The Historic England Archive holds only fourteen of Mary’s negatives. This makes her collection the smallest we have worked on so far.

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