For over forty years Barratt’s Photo Press Ltd was one of the most influential photo agencies in the country. In 1926 the founder and owner of the firm, Alfred Barratt, moved to Nazeing, where he became a parish and district councillor. By coincidence, David Pracy (our chairman) has an interest in both these aspects of his life. He had read about him while researching the history of the village for Nazeing History Workshop’s The Story of Nazeing books. And as Hon. Curator of the Essex Cricket Museum, he came across photos of Essex cricketers that his agency had taken. He has largely been forgotten and the newspaper which reported his work in Nazeing is a good place to remember him.  This article first appeared in the Epping Forest Guardian.

Alfred Barratt was born on 10 May 1877 in Poplar. He was the son of Charles James Barratt, a wharf checker (clerk) at the London docks, and Tamar Pycock, a cook who in the 1860s moved from Spalding to London. In 1908 at Harlow Alfred married Adeline Bolton, whose father was a farm bailiff. By 1911 Alfred and Adeline were living in Hornsey with their 5-month-old daughter Nellie and Adeline’s father, brother and sister. Alfred and Adeline later had Olive in 1914 and Joan in 1917. In 1921 the family were living in Tottenham but by 1926 had moved to Dobbs Weir. Nellie died in 1930 aged 19 and Adeline in 1933 aged 45. They were buried at All Saints’ Nazeing, and their funerals were conducted by the Reverend William Pollock-Hill, father of Malcolm who later owned Nazeing Glass.

In 1935 Barratt was the first person from the newly developed Riverside area of Nazeing to be elected to the parish council, on which he served until 1948, briefly as chairman. In 1937 he was elected a district councillor and had to defend some of the council’s decisions at contentious meetings where residents attacked its new Town Plan, which proposed extensive development of gravel extraction and the glasshouse industry. He was a recent arrival in Nazeing and some older residents felt disdain for the relatively new development at Riverside, so there may also have been a personal element in the attacks.

Alfred Barratt died on 29 December 1956 aged 79, and was buried at All Saints’ with his wife and eldest daughter.

Barratt’s Photo Press Ltd

In 1891 Alfred was, like his father, a clerk in the docks and in March 1901 a bookseller’s manager but soon afterwards he settled on the career of press photographer. In 1909 he established his own agency, Barratt’s Photo Press Ltd., which became one of the most influential in the country. The firm was always based in Fleet Street, initially at no.89 and after the Second World War at no.107-110. No archive of the firm has survived but their photos can be found in various places. During the First World War, Barratt’s were involved with the official supply of war photos and publication of classified photos. The Imperial War Museum has three images from the Second World War but they aren’t available online. Six articles published between 1921 and 1924 show up on the British Newspaper Archive with photos credited to Barratt’s Photo Press Ltd, but it is curious that there are none after 1924.

In 1939 Barratt’s daughters were working for him, Olive as an editorial assistant and Joan as a photographer. In 2000 Joan donated to the National Maritime Museum a very special piece of chocolate which had been given to her father. She recalled its being in her house for the whole of her life and was pleased to be giving it ‘a good home, as we have for 83 years’. Exhibition curator Sian Flynn explained: ‘As the head of a major London picture agency, Mr Barratt mixed with politicians and other notable members of society and it is likely that a member of Shackleton’s expedition team gave him the chocolate during that time.’

After Barratt’s death, the firm was taken over by John Rodgers’ London News Agency, better known as Fleet Street News Agency, which itself closed in 1996.

Westfleet

In 1930 Alfred bought a plot at Riverside Avenue in Nazeing and built a new house called Westfleet. Nazeing History Workshop was fortunate in acquiring a collection of 36 photographs taken while Westfleet was being built. These are just 4 of them.

You can read more stories about the history of Nazeing in our three Publications, follow this link to read more about them.

David Pracy Spring 2026