(Edwin) Avison and Co

Edwin Avison was born in Scarborough in 1868. His father was David a cattle dealer. In 1891 he was recorded on the census as being a general printer. At some point in early 1890s he opened a photographic studio in Scarborough, the Valley Bridge Studio. On 14 January 1893 Edwin married Minnie Boxell (1869-1951), a dressmaker and the daughter of the photographer Thomas Boxell. In about 1895 they moved to York and then before the 1901 census to York Road, Haxby where he was recorded as a photographer. However the studio was still advertising in Fishergate, York in 1905, when Cabinet Cards cost 8s 6d per dozen and Midgets (mounted and finished) 1s per dozen. By 1911 the family had moved to Whitby and Edwin was the landlord of the White Horse Hotel in Church Street.

Edwin and Minnie had at least four children, Constance Ann (b.1894, Scarborough, d.1979), Helen Gladys (1895, York, d.1988), Reginald Edwin (1898-1898, York), Dorothy Minnie (1898, York, d.1919) and Albert Eric (1906, Haxby, d.1949). When Thomas Boxell died in 1939 he left his entire estate (£120) to Edwin Avison.

In 1896 Avison & Co were advertising in the Yorkshire Evening Post for a General Servant at their Fishergate premises. They were advertising twice in 1898 for firstly an Apprentice and then an Errand Boy.