Recently the Somerset Cricket Museum was contacted by Mr. Pete Stacey, regarding a photograph of a ‘Somerset XI’. What follows is quite an intriguing story, which was related to the Walkers and Talkers who visited the Somerset Cricket Museum on Tuesday 10th March 2026.
In July 2024 Pete received a call from his sister saying that the police were all over the late Peter Staples ruined / fire damaged house, (she lives behind that house).
Peter Staples died November 2023 in Westonzoyland. His parents were Alfred Francis William Staples and Gertrude Harris. They married in September 1939 in Taunton and Peter was born in 1947.
The Staples were originally from Yorkshire. Alfred was born there in 1907 but by 1939 his father, Francis (Frank) Joseph Staples, a retired publican, had retired to live in Frogmore House, Westonzoyland.
After a few phone calls, Pete established that it was the urban explorer people, who were in the house taking photos and that they were putting the pictures on Facebook. After a good search on Facebook he noticed that the picture of house and gateway had indeed been photographed and posted on Facebook.
Pete then went to have a look at the burnt out shell of the house, and had a long chat about the late Peter Staples, with the new owners who, at the time, were clearing the house out. Discussion focused on the drawing and the owner kindly went into the house and came out and handed over the framed sketch to keep.
The frame and glass were black with smoke damage, taking the back off to clean the inside of the glass, and Pete was astonished to find the Somerset XI photo underneath and a second photo as well.
This photograph has been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers, please contactaction@gillmanandsoame.co.uk with any enquires
Back Row (L-R) SL Amor, KG Blaikie, TGO Cole, JJ Bridges
Middle JCW MacBryan, WT Greswell, J Daniell, MRHM Herbert, GF Earle.
Front AE Thompson, HW Saunders.
The Somerset XI photograph was autographed by T.G.O. Cole so a bit of a mystery was unravelling. There is no cricket connection between the Staples and SCCC or T.G.O. Cole.
T.G.O Cole was living at Stoke Court, Taunton in 1939 married to Audrey Mutter and died in December 1944 and left his estate to Audrey. They had no children. She died in January 1952, but by this time had moved to Dunkerswell, Honiton. Her sizeable estate went to an unrelated Honiton farmer who lived in the area until his death in the 1980s.
It is suggested that Cole’s photo most likely ended up with Alfred Staples during the late 1940s when the contents of Stoke Park were probably put up for sale. That would have most likely happened after Audrey’s move to Honiton which the newspapers have as shortly after April 1949. How the team photograph and university hall picture were placed in the frame is a matter of conjecture.
So what about the photographs?
We have established that the team photograph of the Somerset XI was from their 3 day match against Oxford University (May 31st – June 2nd) in 1922. The picture was also stamped by the photographers – Gillham Oxford.
A rare photograph? possibly. Gillham and Soame, as they are now, don’t have a copy in their archive, nor does the Museum, nor does Somerset cricket historian Barry Phillips. However it does feature as the team photograph of Somerset CCC on Cricket Archive.
Strange for a picture from a rather obscure match ?
The second one is of the Hall at Christchurch College Oxford, perhaps the players dined there after the match. Cole actually went to Trinity College Cambridge, so no known connection there.
So what do we know about T.G.O. Cole? Terence George Owen Cole (14 November 1877 – 15 December 1944) was a Welsh-born right-handed batter and slow left-arm bowler who played 20 first-class matches between 1898 and 1922. He was educated at and played for Harrow (1897). While his career included stints with Cambridge University (1898), MCC (1899), Lancashire (1904) and Derbyshire (1913), he made his one and only first-class appearance after the war, for Somerset in 1922.
Photograph courtesy David Griffin – Derbyshire CCC Archive
It is understood that Somerset at that time always had difficulty in resourcing teams for the University matches. In the 1922 fixture against Oxford only 4 established first team players were in included in the side – J. Daniell, W. Greswell, J. MacBryan and J. Bridges, with 304, 134, 206 and 216 appearances respectively. The remaining players perhaps amateurs looking to establish themselves or Second XI players hoping to get into the First XI.
Oh, the result? Oxford University won by 95 runs.
So, there we are from a burnt out / ruined house that contained a line drawing with a relatively rare photograph of a Somerset XI from 1922 stuffed into the frame.
LINKS.
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